By Isabella Torregiani
3:29am PDT, Jun 5, 2025
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During a Senate budget hearing, President
Donald Trump's Education Secretary
Linda McMahon flubbed a softball question about the United States' global education rankings.
On Tuesday, June 3, Republican Senator
Markwayne Mullin questioned McMahon on how American students stack up in reading and math compared to students from other countries.
Keep reading to find out what she got wrong …MORE:
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Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin opened the exchange with a pointed question, asking, "What's the definition of insanity?"
"Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome," Linda McMahon answered.
Mullin then shifted to education statistics, asking where the U.S. ranked in reading and math comprehension back in 1979.
McMahon replied, "We were very, very low on the totem pole."
But that wasn't true.
Mullin quickly corrected her, saying, "We were No. 1 in 1979."
McMahon acknowledged the mistake and apologized.
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Clarified Markwayne Mullin, "In 1979, we were ranked No. 1. Today, in reading, we are ranked 36th. In mathematics, we're ranked 28th."
He then referenced his earlier quote and argued that continuing the same strategies in education over the past several decades hasn't worked.
The senator gave credit to Linda McMahon's Education Department for taking a fresh approach and exploring new changes.
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This isn't Linda McMahon's first embarrassing flub.
At a conference earlier this year, she mistakenly referred to Artificial Intelligence (AI) as "A-1" while discussing its role in the classroom.
At first, the Secretary of Education referred to AI by its correct name, but as she continued her speech, she began calling it something else: "A school system that's going to start making sure that first graders — or even pre-Ks — have A1 teaching in every year, that's a wonderful thing!" she said.
Social media users quickly jumped in to comment on the slip-up — even A.1. Sauce joined in, posting an
Instagram photo with the caption, "You heard her. Every school should have access to A.1."
