US Education Department to Cut Half its Staff As Trump Eyes Its

Department offices ordered shut down up until Thursday

Agencies cut workers using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to submit plans for large-scale layoffs

(Adds brand-new federal government report on inappropriate payments, paragraphs 12-14)

By Timothy Gardner, Tim Reid, Alexandra Alper and Marisa Taylor

WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Education said on Tuesday it would lay off nearly half its staff, a possible precursor to closing completely, as government firms rushed to satisfy President Donald Trump’s due date to submit prepare for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s “final objective,” it stated in a news release, pointing to Trump’s vow to get rid of the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil liberties laws in schools and offers federal funding for clingy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would cause the department’s taking apart, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said “yes,” including that doing so “was the president’s mandate.” The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 workers, below 4,133 when Trump took office in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the agency bought workplaces in the Washington area closed to staff from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not right away respond to questions about the nature of the security issues prompting the closures.

Similar closures functioned as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans versus unscrupulous lenders.

The layoffs are the newest step in Trump’s sweeping effort to scale down the government, led by the world’s richest person Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has cut more than 100,000 tasks throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign help and canceled thousands of programs and contracts, regardless of dozens of claims challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force approach has irritated several White House authorities and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have actually challenged upset constituents at town halls. Trump told department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his first noteworthy public relocation to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government firms have been bought to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday, setting up the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several companies have provided workers payments to retire early to meet Trump’s need.

Affected Education Department employees will be put on administrative leave beginning on March 21, the department stated.

The union representing more than 2,800 department workers said it would fight the “draconian cuts.”

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, turmoil, and untreated unprofessionalism is that this regime has no regard for the countless employees who have committed their professions to serve their fellow Americans,” said Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

Trump and Musk have actually argued that the federal government is inefficient and bloated. DOGE claims it has actually saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has only publicly documented a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has actually been plagued by errors.

The federal government reported an approximated $162 billion in inappropriate payments in fiscal year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office annual report released on Tuesday. The huge majority were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal outlays topped $6.75 trillion because , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The total improper payments figure was down greatly from 2023’s $236 billion, the GAO stated.

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other companies have offered lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to employees who accept leave their jobs. Among these are the Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, including its Fda.

The buyout uses, combined with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to assist meet the Thursday due date, personnels specialists at several federal companies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been facing myriad suits after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a very first wave of mass layoffs and basically took apart whole departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which handles the federal government’s property portfolio, is also seeking approval to offer the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be reached for remark beyond U.S. company hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently used perks of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance specialists stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal obstacles. It also needs workers who have accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another federal government job within 5 years.

Only a couple of companies have telegraphed how many employees they prepare to cut in the 2nd stage of layoffs. These include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to cut more than 80,000 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 staff.

OPM itself has actually used lump-sum payments to some 650 of its workers, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were provided up until March 12 to respond.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and sent out an email to all 19,000 employees announcing a Friday, March 14, deadline for a buyout program. Those who accept would have to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its prior deal by adding two months of complete pay in addition to the perk, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS could not be reached for comment beyond regular U.S. company hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, additional reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, writing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)