Who benefits from Trump’s dismantling of the Department of Education? Part II: From DC to LA

This is the second in a two-part series from researchers at the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy

In the first post of this series, we outlined the four main factions standing to benefit from Trump’s assault on the Department of Education. Those groups may appear to be part of a distant federal fight in D.C., but their influence is hardly abstract or far-removed. Many of the characters and organizations shaping Trump’s education agenda at the national level are also active in California politics and Los Angeles itself. They have treated Los Angeles as both a testing ground and a staging area for policies that defund and destabilize public education.¹ Their influence can be seen in our city’s schools, neighborhoods, and policy battles.

Charter school backers in LA

In the first post of this series, we highlighted Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and the Walton family, heirs to the Walmart fortune, as leading national champions of the charter school agenda. Both have ties that extend into California and Los Angeles, where their money and influence have shaped local politics.

McMahon and her husband are major shareholders in TKO Group Holdings,² the owner of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE),³ which the McMahons used to run,⁴ and which recently signed a $5 billion deal with Netflix,⁵ headquartered in Los Angeles. Another top shareholder in TKO is Endeavor Group Holdings, the parent company of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (WME)⁶ – one of Los Angeles’ premier talent agencies. Many of the TV, movie, music, and social media stars represented by WME have been vocal about their opposition to Trump’s agenda, and might be horrified that their agent fees are invested in a company profiting key figures behind Trump’s destructive education agenda.

The Waltons have long been involved in California school politics. Over the past decade, Alice and Jim have donated more than $5 million to the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA), the state’s leading charter advocacy group,⁷ and, in 2020, the two Arkansas billionaires gave $500,000 to support Marilyn Koziatek, a pro-charter candidate for the LAUSD board.⁸ CCSA has received major donations from many other ultrarich California-based charter backers, including Reed Hastings, the Chairman of Netflix, who has donated at least $20 million directly to CCSA since 2012.⁹

Education profiteers in LA

Previously, we described how Trump’s deregulation of the Department of Education has given for-profit colleges and K-12 companies fresh license to expand their influence. In Los Angeles, many of the same profiteers stand ready to cash in as federal oversight is dismantled.

Among them is Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo Global Management and co-owner of for-profit college University of Phoenix,¹⁰ who gave at least $1 million dollars to Trump-aligned super PACs.¹¹ Apollo’s reach in the Los Angeles area goes beyond the classroom, with holdings that include the Braemar Country Club in Tarzana.¹² Another link to the University of Phoenix comes through Penny Schwinn, tapped for a senior leadership role in the DOE. Schwinn previously worked at the private equity group Vistria, which co-owns the University of Phoenix¹³ and holds stakes in several for-profit K-12 education services companies. One of its portfolio firms, Edmentum,¹⁴ has been particularly active in California, lobbying the State Board of Education on “issues related to charter schools” since 2022,¹⁵ perhaps in hopes of loosening regulations affecting a product that teachers have questioned.

At the same time, Trump’s embrace of “innovation” has opened the doors for profiteers to cash in on K-12 AI technology. In Los Angeles, school leaders have drunk the AI kool-aid, buying into the myth that this technology will improve outcomes for students and spending huge sums of school budget dollars on these unproven products. Just last year, under the leadership of Superintendent Carvalho, LAUSD spent $3 million on an AI chatbot from a company that ultimately went bankrupt and whose CEO was indicted for fraud. ¹⁶ Promoting the chatbot prior to the company’s meltdown, Carvalho appeared with the soon-to-be disgraced CEO at ASU+GSV,¹⁷ an annual educational technology conference attended by education company representatives, venture capitalists, and school officials.¹⁸ This is the same conference that Secretary McMahon spoke at in April 2025 where she defended the cuts to her department and praised the potential of AI in education, repeatedly referring to the technology as “A1.”¹⁹

Culture warriors in LA

The last blog post highlighted Kimberly Richey, Trump-nominee to lead the Office for Civil Rights, as a national example of how education cultural warriors have moved from attacking the Department to staffing it.²⁰ Richey previously consulted for Parents Defending Education,²¹ the right-wing group that filed a complaint against LAUSD’s Black Student Achievement Plan, which the district responded to by removing race as a factor in the program’s design.²²

Local copycat groups have since emerged, inspired by national outfits like Parents Defending Education, that are targeting similar equity initiatives in the area. One such group, the California for Equal Rights Foundation, recently sued Fresno Unified School District over its African American Academic Acceleration (A4) office.²³ Although a federal judge dismissed the case, organizations like this are likely emboldened to launch broader attacks on equity efforts across California schools as Richey is poised to take charge of civil rights enforcement at the Department.

Public Goods Underminers in LA

In Los Angeles, public-goods underminers are best represented by developer Geoffrey Palmer, whose wealth and political clout have reshaped tax and housing policy to the detriment of public schools and working-class families.

Palmer was a major financial force behind efforts to defeat Proposition 15 in 2020, contributing over $3 million to the California Business Roundtable Issues PAC.²⁴ Prop 15, often called the “Schools and Communities First” initiative, would have closed loopholes in California’s corporate property tax system created by Proposition 13. Had it passed, the measure was projected to generate between $8 to $12 billion annually for schools and local governments,²⁵ with estimates showing that LAUSD could have received over $350 million a year in new funds.²⁶

Palmer has also played a significant role in deepening Los Angeles’ housing unaffordability crisis. In 2007, Palmer successfully sued the City of Los Angeles to overturn a policy that required developers to reserve a percentage of units for affordable housing.²⁷ That decision not only exempted his own luxury projects from affordability requirements but also set a precedent that crippled LA’s ability to enforce such policy for years.²⁸ Beyond the courtroom, Palmer has funneled money into campaigns against tenant protections²⁹ and rent stabilization efforts,³⁰ helping to entrench Los Angeles as one of the least affordable housing markets in the nation.³¹ These efforts have had material consequences for LAUSD students and their families, especially those facing housing instability and homelessness.³²

The connections between the federal assault on public education and Los Angeles’ local politics are not coincidental. These groups are working in tandem across scales, leveraging money, influence, and ideology to weaken public schools while enriching themselves. A clear-eyed understanding of who these actors are – and what their priorities are – will help us protect our children and families’ right to a free, quality public education.

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