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U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon took an unpublicized tour of a New York City charter school last Friday, her first official visit to a K-12 school since taking office.
McMahon visited Vertex Partnership Academies in the Soundview section of the Bronx, according to a Thursday press release issued nearly a week after her visit.
Vertex was founded in 2022 by Ian Rowe, who is well known in New York City charter school circles, and is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. Vertex touts itself as “virtues-based” high school that instills courage, justice, temperance and wisdom. Students recite the U.S. Constitution’s preamble each day, Rowe previously wrote.
McMahon said she used the visit to highlight her commitment to ensuring families have a wide array of education options, a key piece of the Trump education agenda.
“School choice is crucial for students and parents to access learning environments that best fit their needs,” McMahon said in a statement. “Touring Vertex Partnership Academies as my first K-12 visit was such a special experience – it is a perfect example of how a community can come together to build an education program that serves the unique needs of its students and families.”
The decision to visit a New York City school so early in her tenure is notable, as the city is a Democratic stronghold and the charter movement has fallen out of favor among many local elected officials.
Charter schools are publicly funded but independently run schools that once enjoyed broad bipartisan support as a middle ground between district-run schools and private school vouchers. In more recent years, support for charters has declined among some Democrats, though not among parents of color, while Republicans have focused more on expanding access to vouchers.
Even so, the Trump administration has pitched itself as a friend to the charter sector and rolled back some regulations imposed under former President Joe Biden.
“Out of 100,000 public schools across the country, we are honored Secretary McMahon chose Vertex Partnership Academies as her first school visit,” Rowe said in a statement.
Starlee Coleman, the President and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, helped arrange McMahon’s visit. She said it lasted about 75 minutes and featured a tour, a meeting with the school’s leadership, and a Q&A session with seven students.
Coleman’s organization suggested McMahon visit Vertex because Rowe is well known in conservative circles, and because of the school’s strong offerings, including an International Baccalaureate program that has both college prep and career-related tracks.
She said McMahon peppered students with questions about why they chose Vertex and their experience. Students also posed some “hard questions” for McMahon about the Trump administration’s policies. “The secretary was straightforward, and the kids were brave,” Coleman said. “It was really great.”
The visit, Coleman added, was “significant and symbolizes her continued commitment to the charter school community.”
A spokesperson for McMahon did not respond to questions about why she chose to visit Vertex or if she visited any other schools. She did not visit any of the city’s traditional public schools in the nation’s largest school system, according to a city Education Department spokesperson. Roughly 912,000 students enrolled in New York City’s traditional public schools last year, while about 146,000 attended charter schools.
Many local parents have pushed back against President Donald Trump’s education agenda, including efforts to dismantle the federal Education Department and target diversity initiatives along with protections for transgender people.
Meanwhile, Mayor Eric Adams has forged an alliance with the Trump administration and has urged city officials, including the schools chancellor, to refrain from criticizing its policies.
Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who served during Trump’s first term, also visited New York City, though she prioritized visits to religious private schools rather than public ones.
News of the visit stirred mixed reactions among members of the local charter school community.
Stacey Gauthier, who oversees two Queens charter schools, said she was glad to see the nation’s top education official visiting individual schools. “You can make better decisions if you can see what’s going on,” she said.
At the same time, Gauthier is wary of certain elements of the GOP’s school agenda, pointing to proposals to roll back universal school meals. She also worries that cuts to the Education Department could cause chaos as her students file federal financial aid applications for college.
She said there is a possibility for political “blowback if we’re seen as being friendly” with Trump and McMahon, but at the same time, “We have to work with every administration.”
Vertex has drawn ire from the city’s teachers union, which sued to block the school from opening. The union argued that the school had effectively violated a state cap on charter schools by opening as a partnership between two existing charter operators rather than as a separate entity. A judge ultimately ruled against the union, allowing the school to stay open.
Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.
