Education Secretary Linda McMahon would have received a failing grade for her answers to questions posed on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
The cringeworthy moments came while she was being questioned by senators about the GOP spending bill.
In one bizarre exchange, close Trump ally Senator Markwayne Mullin asked McMahon about previous U.S. reading and math rankings, but the numbers didn’t add up.
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“What was we ranked in reading and math in 1979?” the senator asked.
“I’m sorry what?” McMahon responded.
“What was we ranked national in math and reading in 1979?” he repeated.
“We were very very low on the totem pole,” the education secretary declared.
“We were number one in 1979,” Mullin corrected her.
“Oh, 1979, I’m sorry,” McMahon said, trying to recover, despite having had the question repeated twice.
“In 1979 we were ranked number one around the world. Today in reading, we’re ranked 36 and mathematics we’re ranked 28,” the senator claimed. “It’s not working. What we’re doing is not working.”
While her answer was confusing, it’s not clear where the senator’s number came from. There have been studies of where the U.S. has ranked in recent years, but there is no indication the U.S. was first in 1979.
The top Trump official was put on the spot while testifying about the president’s budget request for the department.
While Trump and his allies have called for closing the Education Department, his budget request for the fiscal year is just over $66 billion. It includes a 15 percent reduction in spending, or a $12 billion cut, from the previous year.
While Mullin’s question was a flunking moment for the education secretary, he was actually using the information to thank her for pushing changes.
His argument was that the current situation was not working and throwing money at the problem hasn’t fixed it.
“We deserve better. Our kids deserve better. Our taxpayers deserve better, and we have to make changes,” Mullin said.
The exchange came as Democrats largely blasted McMahon for the Trump administration’s education budget on Tuesday and raised concerns over cutting staff without analysis of the impact and other school resources, such as counselors in schools.
Another awkward moment in the hearing came when Democratic Senator Jack Reed also schooled McMahon on some math when it came to education spending.
The education secretary was discussing the TRIO grant program to help people with low income and underprivileged backgrounds, and other programs, when she made a substantial math error.
“We spend $1.58 billion a year on TRIO?” Senator John Kennedy asked. McMahon confirmed it.
“How long have we been spending one thousand five hundred and eighty million dollars a year on this program?” he followed up. McMahon said she was not sure of the length of the program but confirmed spending for more than ten years.
“So that’s over $1 trillion we spent on this program,” Kennedy said. That number was repeated multiple times as they went back and forth over how the money was used to help poor kids go to college.
However, when it then became Reed’s turn to grill McMahon, he took issue with the math.
“I’m not a great mathematician, but I think you were talking about $1 trillion? I believe $1.5 billion times ten is $15 billion. That’s a little bit off from $1 trillion.”
“I think the budget cut’s $1.2 billion for TRIO,” the education secretary responded.
“Well, 1.2 that would be $12 billion, not $1 trillion,” Reed pointed out.
“Ok,” McMahon responded.
