Linda McMahon once said she had an education degree. She doesn’t.

WASHINGTON – On Jan. 9, 2009, Linda McMahon filled out a vetting questionnaire to serve on the state board of education in Connecticut.
On it, she indicated she earned a bachelor’s degree in education, according to a copy of the original form the governor’s office provided to USA TODAY.
She did not. 
McMahon, a billionaire and wrestling executive who graduated from East Carolina University in 1969, actually has a bachelor’s degree in French, the school confirmed to USA TODAY Wednesday. Although her academic program at the time was designed to prepare teachers for instruction, the school said, McMahon does not have a degree in education.
In a 2010 interview with the Hartford Courant, which first reported on the discrepancy more than a decade ago, McMahon said she eventually wrote to Jodi Rell, the governor who appointed her at the time, to correct the error.
The false statement from 2009 is facing fresh scrutiny since President-elect Trump announced Tuesday night he would nominate McMahon to serve as secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. She has been at the helm of his transition team since he won reelection.  
In a statement Tuesday night, Trump said McMahon, who also served in his cabinet during his first term and has been a staunch ally of his, would be a “fierce advocate” for parental rights and fight “tirelessly” to expand the school choice movement. 
“Linda will use her decades of Leadership experience, and deep understanding of both Education and Business, to empower the next Generation of American Students and Workers, and make America Number One in Education in the World,” Trump wrote in a social media post. 
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The Trump transition team did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday, but spokesperson Brian Hughes told The Washington Post, which first revived old news reports on the matter, that the “clarification was addressed many, many years ago.”
“These types of politically motivated attacks are the new normal for nominees ready to enact President Trump’s mandate for common sense that an overwhelming majority of Americans supported two weeks ago,” Hughes said.
In 2009, McMahon faced what local news reports described as a “contentious” confirmation process in the Connecticut legislature to serve on the state board of education. 
“Now, some of you might be wondering why the CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment would be interested in serving on the state board of education,” she told members of a legislative committee that February. “Please allow me to explain.” 
She initially attended East Carolina University in hopes of becoming a teacher but told the panel that getting married in college to Vince McMahon changed the course of her life and professional career. She instead went on to help him start their wrestling entertainment company, which eventually grew into a multibillion-dollar enterprise. 
McMahon’s connections to WWE reportedly became a source of controversy at the time due to its violent and crass programming. Though she was ultimately confirmed for the post, she resigned after about a year following a decision to impose new restrictions on the political activities of education board members, the Courant reported.  
The billionaire’s WWE ties could once again cause her problems amid looming potential Senate confirmation hearings. She is named in a recent lawsuit that accuses her and her husband of failing to stop decades of sexual assault of underage children by a former WWE employee.
Jessica Rosenberg, an attorney for Vince McMahon, said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports in October that the claims in the lawsuit are “absurd, defamatory and utterly meritless.” 
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On Tuesday, Trump lauded McMahon’s tenure on the board of trustees at Sacred Heart University, a private institution in Fairfield, Connecticut. He also commended her for pushing school choice policies as head of the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned think tank. 
As with Betsy DeVos, Trump’s first education secretary who resigned over disagreements with him over the Jan. 6 insurrection, McMahon has significantly less experience in the field than a typical education secretary. Miguel Cardona, President Joe Biden’s pick for the job, worked as a teacher and school administrator for more than two decades before becoming the commissioner of the Connecticut State Department of Education in 2019. President Barack Obama’s education secretary, Arne Duncan, previously oversaw public schools in Chicago. 
Read more:Betsy DeVos says Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 were ‘line in the sand’ that led to resignation
Trump appointed McMahon in 2016 to lead the Small Business Administration, an agency she ran until 2019. Since his election win this month, she has been one of several Trump allies steering his broader efforts to assemble a new government. 
Following Trump’s announcement Tuesday, Washington insiders have been poring over McMahon’s past statements in search of indications of where she stands on key policy issues she could influence as head of the Education Department (an agency Trump has said he wants to abolish). 
Read more:Trump wants to close the Education Department. It’s far easier said than done.
She’s a big supporter of apprenticeships and has touted their importance in recent days on her social media platforms. She attended a regional public university, which could be welcome news for those types of schools.
She also supports a bill working its way through Congress that would expand Pell Grant funding, which provides free federal money for low-income college students, to smaller educational programs. Though that legislation is bipartisan, critics say it could ultimately hand money over to short professional training programs that sometimes take advantage of students. Supporters say it would make college alternatives more affordable.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican who will lead the Senate’s main committee overseeing schools in the next Congress, said in a statement Wednesday that he looks forward to meeting with McMahon about the job. 
“I agree with President Trump’s statement that we need someone who is going to focus on parental choice in children’s education,” he said. “Linda McMahon’s experience running the Small Business Administration can obviously help in running another agency.”
Congressional Democrats were more wary about the appointment. Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat and ranking member on the education panel in the House of Representatives, said he would wait to pass judgment on McMahon’s nomination until she is fully vetted by the Senate. 
“I am staunchly opposed to President-elect Trump’s education agenda,” he said. “If Ms. McMahon is indeed in support of this agenda and will work to actively dismantle the progress of the Biden-Harris Administration, I will not support her nomination.”
Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele.