Updated on March 11 at 8:30 pm
According to four sources within the agency, the Ministry of Education placed “nearly 50%” of its more than four employees within the agency, who were informed of the program and agency news releases.
Congressional Democrats quickly condemned the largest massive personnel cuts in the department’s history, while Republicans and conservative groups said they should have long since. The union representing department staff has pledged to reduce the crackdown.
It is not clear which specific departments or positions are affected. The department previously purchased from employees to reduce labor. (The goal of reducing employees by 50% includes a prior reduction.) The affected person will receive at least 90 days of severance payment and will have 10 days to transfer their job responsibilities to another staff member or politically appointed person.
The department announced that it would schedule administrative leave starting March 21, with core programs such as allocating student loans and Pell grants continuing.
“Today’s reduction in power reflects the Ministry of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensures that resources are directed to where they matter most: for students, parents and teachers,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “This is a great step towards a great restoration of the American education system.”
McMahon criticized the department for supporting President Trump’s plan to close the agency she now operates. Shortly after taking office last week, she told department staff to prepare for the “major ultimate task” to eliminate “bureaucratic inflation” and return education to the United States. Republicans have been seeking decades to get rid of 45-year-old institutions and see it as unconstitutional and an example of federal inflation and surplus.
Washington Post The report said that besides about 600 people who accepted the acquisition, 1,315 employees will be out of work. The reduction will reduce the total labor force to less than 2,200.
The department’s DC office will be closed on Wednesday for “safety reasons.” Internal Advanced ED. The email directed department staff to bring their laptop home on Tuesday for remote remote remote remote remote remote sales on Wednesday, saying “for any reason, they will allow them to allow them in any ED facility on Wednesday, March 12.”
Sheria Smith Local 252, president of the U.S. Government Employees Federation, representing more than 2,800 workers in the Department of Education, promised to fight the cuts in a statement released Tuesday night. Smith said the Trump administration “disrespects thousands of workers who are committed to serving fellow Americans.”
“We don’t stand by when this regime pulls the wool into the eyes of the American people,” Smith added. “We will state the facts. Every employee of the U.S. Department of Education lives in your community – we are your neighbors, your friends, your family. And, we have used your career to the services you rely on.”
The expected cuts are part of a government-wide strategy to reduce the federal workforce. Last month, all federal agency officials were told to start preparing for a “massive reduction of force reduction” and eliminate all “non-feminist mandatory functions.”
While the administration’s layoffs are far-reaching, Trump often makes in-depth layoffs in the education sector. But closing the agency as he wanted to do would require Congressional action – the steps many experts say are unlikely. Even if they don’t completely abolish it, Trump and McMahon can make in-depth layoffs on the agency.
Trump had planned to sign an executive order last week instructing McMahon to “take all necessary steps” to return the power of education to states and promote the Department of Education “legal permission to the maximum extent of the law and permitted” under the review of the draft Internal Advanced ED. While orders have not been signed yet, Tuesday’s reduction in staffing suggests that such a move may be just a form.
Higher education groups and advocates have warned that the department’s layoffs and plans will be disastrous for institutions and students. State higher education officials, university administrators, nonprofit advocacy groups and students rely on the education department to oversee federal student aid, manage student loan portfolios, investigate civil rights complaints and allocate billions of institutional aid, and more. The division has a discretionary budget of $80 billion, issuing approximately $100 billion in student loans each year and over $30 billion in Pell grants.
Sources say the cuts could affect most agencies and offices in the department, including the federal student aid office. In the FSA, cuts will be the worst among teams directly engaged in policy and higher education oversight, including the Ombudsman’s Office, which investigates complaints about student loan practices and financial assistance.
The education sector staff is expected to be effectively reduced in the past week. Department leaders met last Tuesday to discuss the upcoming layoffs, but were canceled at the last minute. Meanwhile, staff have been waiting for executive orders to close the department since last Wednesday.
An exhausted employee told Internal Advanced ED.
Other federal agencies have begun effectively laying off thousands of employees through plans to reduce. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Trump expects 65% of the workforce to go. Government Directora trade publication that tracks layoffs. Last week, the Department of Veterans Affairs said it was laying off 80,000 employees.
Reckless or necessary?
Former Education Secretary John King Jr.
“You have dedicated civil servants, many of them former teachers and principals who work in the department because they want to help contribute to the future of the country,” he told him. Internal Advanced ED. “Through this turbulent process, it can lead to the loss of truly talented people who want to serve the country. That’s shameful and painful.”
King said that while there are some “certain” plans to improve, strengthen and improve efficiency, it’s not what the Trump administration is trying to do.
“They didn’t propose thoughtful surgical measures to improve department activities. They performed with meat-cutters, or more accurately, just swing wildly on the axe,” he said.
U.S. Education Commission Chairman Ted Mitchell said in a statement that he was “deeply shocked” by the reduction in staff and called on the administration and Congress to reverse the decision.
“This move puts the effectiveness of these programs at risk and only causes confusion and confusion, and in the long run, the future of millions of students in these programs harms the future of these programs.”
Liberal think tanks and advocacy groups have also condemned the cuts along with Congress Democrats.
Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, a Democratic member of the Appropriations Committee, said in a statement that the cuts were to bring the sabotage ball to the education department.
“When you fire people who have predatory for-profit colleges who are responsible and help students get financial aid, it’s the price that students pay for in the coming years,” Murray said.
Amy Laitinen, senior director of the higher education of New Americas, pointed out that the Ministry of Education is already the smallest cabinet body.
“Who will handle FAFSA to help students afford college? … [And] Who will protect students from predatory schools that happily obtain loans from students and provide them with worthless qualifications? ” she asked in an email Internal Advanced ED. “It’s wild and reckless and takes our education system (the core of normal democracy) to risk.”
But conservative advocacy groups and congressional Republicans say the cuts are an encouraging and necessary step, repeatedly pointing out that allocating funds to K-12 schools and college students will continue. (Other experts also question whether reducing staffing can achieve this.)
“This action aims to achieve the administrator’s goal of addressing the federal government’s redundancy and inefficiency,” said Dr. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the highest Republican in the Senate Education Committee, posted on social media.
Lindsey Burke, director of the Center for Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and Jonathan Butcher, senior researcher, said in a joint statement that the reduction in staff is “long overdue” and will provide more decision-making power for state and local education officials.
“Federal officials say the reduction will not interfere with federal student aid or K-12 spending for children in low-income areas or students with special needs,” Burke and Butcher said. “Ultimately, Americans will see that the Department of Education is not a necessary condition for student success and that the entire institution should be eliminated.”
