WASHINGTON (States Newsroom) — The U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday said it’s cutting a substantial number of the agency’s staff through a “reduction in force” process, bringing the department’s workforce to roughly half the number in place when President Donald Trump took office.
According to senior department officials speaking on background to reporters Tuesday evening, roughly 1,315 employees are subject to the initiative. The officials said the employees will get, starting Tuesday, 90 days full pay and benefits and will telework from Wednesday until March 21, when they are placed on administrative leave.
The sweeping cuts are part of a government-wide effort by Trump and billionaire White House adviser Elon Musk to reduce the federal workforce in an effort to slash government spending and reduce what they see as waste.
When Trump took office, the department had 4,133 employees. Following Tuesday’s announcement, the agency said it will have roughly 2,183 workers remaining. In the past several weeks, nearly 600 workers took voluntary resignation opportunities or retirement, according to a Tuesday evening press release.
The department also terminated 63 probationary employees in February, according to senior department officials.
The senior officials clarified that this staffing reduction will not impact the department’s ability to deliver on civil rights investigations, the rollout of the federal student aid application, Title I funding for low-income school districts and other statutorily mandated functions Congress has given the agency.
The senior officials confirmed earlier reporting that the department’s Washington-area office buildings would close Tuesday evening for safety reasons and would reopen Thursday.
“Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement Tuesday.
“I appreciate the work of the dedicated public servants and their contributions to the Department. This is a significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system.”
Layoffs gut department, Dems say
Congressional Democrats and labor union leaders blasted the cuts Tuesday.
“Today’s staff eliminations are illegal, and they are a slap in the face to the dedicated public servants who work to make sure American children have access to a quality education,” Connecticut U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said. “No president or member of the executive branch has the authority to end public education, violate the law, and unilaterally steal dollars promised to students.”
Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington state Democrat who is the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the cuts were meant to sidestep the legislative difficulty of eliminating the department itself.
“Donald Trump and Linda McMahon know they can’t abolish the Department of Education on their own but they understand that if you gut it to its very core and fire all the people who run programs that help students, families, and teachers, you might end up with a similar, ruinous result,” she said.
“Ultimately, what they want to do is clear: fire the people who help our kids and gut funding for our students, teachers, and schools. This is about breaking government for working families — and enriching billionaires like themselves in the process.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said “denuding an agency so it cannot function effectively is the most cowardly way of dismantling it.”
“The massive reduction in force at the Education Department is an attack on opportunity that will gut the agency and its ability to support students, throwing federal education programs into chaos across the country,” said Weingarten, who leads one of the largest teachers unions in the country.
Department overhaul
Trump has targeted the Education Department specifically in the spending cuts initiative, repeatedly pledging to shutter the 45-year-old agency in his quest to move education “back to the states.”
The department had already seen dramatic shifts in the weeks since Trump took office — from major contract cuts, to staff buyouts.
Other departments and agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, have also seen broad staffing decreases under Trump.
Last week, McMahon sent an email to department employees regarding the agency’s “final mission,” where she detailed her plans to “overhaul” the federal agency.
The former World Wrestling Entertainment executive told employees that the department’s “role in this new era of accountability is to restore the rightful role of state oversight in education and to end the overreach from Washington.”
McMahon said “this restoration will profoundly impact staff, budgets, and agency operations here at the Department.”
Congressional action would be tough
Even if Trump were to sign an executive order on dismantling the department, only Congress has the authority to shut it down. Any bill to close down the agency would face extreme difficulties getting through the narrowly GOP-controlled Senate, with at least 60 senators needed to advance past the filibuster.
In her statement, DeLauro dared Republican lawmakers to try to eliminate the department through legislation.
“To my Republican colleagues: if you want to eliminate the Department of Education, then put your name on a bill to do that,” she said. “Let your constituents see it. Let us debate it. Let us and the American people deliberate. Do not yield our authority, and the rule of law, to unchecked billionaires.”
Trump’s push to move education “back to the states” also comes as much of the funding and oversight of schools already occurs at the state and local levels. Legally, the department cannot control the curriculum of schools across the country.
