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Much of the coverage of Donald Trump has focused on his plans to shutter the Department of Education. But with his choice of former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) CEO Linda McMahon as his Secretary of Education, Trump can not only keep the Education Department open, but also make it the best it’s ever been, defying the critics, by extending the private voucher system to higher education, solving two crises at once. Here’s how they can do it.

Most of the focus on education concerning Trump has been about support for vouchers for K-12 private schools. There’s a place that needs that voucher program badly: higher education

I’ve written about the Biden Administration’s overlooked successes at taming inflation since 2022 and lowering unemployment. But the biggest disaster of the current administration has been the Education Department, which struggled so badly with FAFSA changes that it frustrated students, parents, and those in colleges and universities so much this past year. By building a working FAFSA system, McMahon could be a hero to all four groups.

There’s another way in which the nominee for Secretary of Education could improve this department. Under the Biden Administration, once strong private colleges closed across the country, an American tragedy, including Birmingham Southern in Alabama. These were great schools that had no business closing, except that they had to compete with “free” (public schools) and “easy” (online colleges that promise degrees in record time), continuing a disturbing ongoing trend. Many of these schools have a religious affiliation, making it a worse decision by Republicans to abandon these institutions by trying to kill the Department of Education, which would require a supermajority the GOP doesn’t have, according to Fox News.

Closing the Department of Education would close so many more schools, especially hurting those voters who helped Trump win in 2024. Making it harder for these families to get a college degree would put Trump’s approval ratings in the 30%-40% range, and he doesn’t want that.

A private college voucher would help students at public colleges, many of which are overcrowded. Many students at these large state universities can’t find dorm space, parking space, or spots in classes to take these days, making them stay in college longer (see this article from The Auburn Plainsman student newspaper for an account of this crisis). By touting public over private colleges, Biden and his policies made things worse, as private colleges closed, and the ranks of public college students swelled to unsustainable levels.

I know it’s hard to pass anything new in Washington DC, but there’s already a built-in system: boost Pell Grants and Federal Work Study, so college students can work hard to earn their education. There’s bipartisan support for both Pell Grants and Federal Work Study Programs. Targeting them toward private colleges (not the ones wealthy with huge endowments, but the non-profits which serve high-needs populations) would help keep their doors open. Small private colleges can give personal attention that just isn’t possible in public colleges with hundreds in the auditorium or thousands online. Many Gen-Z college students appreciate Pell Grants and Work Study programs, and are more open to voting GOP than pundits think, so saving private higher education would likely boost the Republican Party as well. And by keeping these religious schools open, it would slow, and even reverse, the decline of religion in America, when such colleges were more plentiful.

By keeping the Department of Education open, Trump and McMahon have the ability to reshape higher education with private vouchers, which will solve a multitude of problems. Or they could try to close the Education Department, hurt their own base, and lose public support, and not have enough votes to succeed. That’s something Trump and McMahon don’t want to wrestle with.