During her confirmation hearing to become education secretary, Linda McMahon promised she would work to “send education back to the states.” Already, she is doing the opposite.

Last week, McMahon’s department issued an ultimatum to state education officials: Certify within 10 days that their school districts have eliminated all diversity, equity and inclusion programs or lose education funding from Washington. This is a straightforward assault on the federalist nature of the U.S. education system.

McMahon’s threat attempts to create an atmosphere of fear within local schools. Some state officials, including those in New York, have said they won’t comply. But many low-income schools that rely on Title I funding — and disproportionately educate students of color — might understandably go out of their way to avoid a collision with federal officials. The danger is that programs to recruit Black teachers for inner-city schools, for example, will be cut or that instruction on slavery or other complicated aspects of U.S. history will be considered too risky to continue.

The administration’s directive leans heavily on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which protects students from discrimination based on race, color or national origin, as well as on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which bars schools from using race as a criterion for admissions. The administration argues that, together, these benchmarks authorize the Education Department to police ” DEI practices “ that it believes privilege disadvantaged students.

This power apparently extends to micromanaging classroom activities. In a Dear Colleague letter in February, the Education Department accused schools of having “toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon ‘systemic and structural racism’ and advanced discriminatory policies and practices.” Separately, the department released an FAQ saying schools that “shame students of a particular race or ethnicity” or “deliberately assign them intrinsic guilt based on the actions of their presumed ancestors or relatives in other areas of the world” could face civil rights investigations.

The department also has vowed to go beyond the Supreme Court’s ruling on school admissions policies. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote that the court’s opinion against race-conscious policies should not be “construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise,” leading many schools to shift toward a more holistic evaluation process that takes an applicant’s background into account through personal essays. But Education Department officials have called such practices illegal, noting that “nebulous concepts like racial balancing and diversity are not compelling interests.”

These are not idle threats. Just one week after Inauguration Day, the Education Department targeted the Ithaca City School District in New York for hosting its annual Students of Color Summit, which seeks to “support and affirm” minority students, though all were welcome to attend.

McMahon is overextending her authority. Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights at Education, said in a statement to The Post that the administration is merely “actively holding states accountable” and making sure taxpayer dollars “do not sponsor discrimination.” But Congress has repeatedly passed laws limiting the federal government’s interference in local schools’ curriculums, instructional programs and administration — for good reason.

In the U.S., local and state governments have always controlled education. This system grants parents maximum influence over what their children are taught. The federal government has a responsibility to ensure minimum educational standards are met and to protect civil rights in schools, but members of both political parties have bristled at federal attempts to meddle with lesson plans. President Donald Trump’s allies chastised the Biden administration merely for recommending the use of anti-racism texts in U.S. history and civics courses.

The Education Department’s new threat to local schools also breaks the president’s manypromises to end “censorship” by the government.

Similar laws in some states that limit classroom discussions on race and gender issues have already had a chilling effect in free speech. A Rand survey conducted in 2023 found that two-thirds of K-12 teachers have opted to limit discussions of social and political issues in the classroom. The new federal anti-DEI directives stand to worsen this trend.

This will mean teaching children less and exposing them to fewer ideas and opportunities as they hone their critical-thinking skills. McMahon and her boss might want to eliminate the Education Department, but they clearly have no interest in ceding power to the states.

They should drop the flimsy pretense.