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

Department offices ordered shut down till Thursday

Agencies cut workers using lump-sum payments, early retirement

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

(Adds new 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 stated on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing entirely, as federal government companies scrambled to fulfill President Donald Trump’s deadline to send strategies for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department’s “last objective,” it stated in a press release, alluding to Trump’s vow to remove the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and supplies federal funding for clingy districts.

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

Before revealing the layoffs, the agency ordered workplaces in the Washington location near staff from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not right away react to questions about the nature of the security issues triggering 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 safeguards Americans versus deceitful loan providers.

The layoffs are the current action in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize the federal government, led by the world’s wealthiest person Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has actually cut more than 100,000 jobs throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and agreements, regardless of lots of suits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force technique has annoyed several White House authorities and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have actually faced angry constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first notable public transfer to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government companies have been purchased to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday, establishing the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several agencies have used staff members payments to retire early to meet Trump’s need.

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

The union representing more than 2,800 department workers stated it would battle the “severe cuts.”

“What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, chaos, and untreated unprofessionalism is that this regime has no regard for the thousands of employees who have dedicated their careers to serve their fellow Americans,” stated Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

Trump and Musk have argued that the government is inefficient and puffed up. it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually just publicly documented a portion of those savings, and its accounting has been pestered by errors.

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

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have used lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to workers who accept leave their tasks. Among these are the Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, including its Food and Drug Administration.

The buyout provides, integrated with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to assist satisfy the Thursday deadline, human resources experts at numerous federal agencies informed Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which manages the federal government’s home portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to use the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be grabbed remark outside of U.S. business hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently offered bonus offers of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance experts said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal challenges. It likewise needs workers who have actually accepted the deal to pay back the money if they take another government job within five years.

Only a number of agencies have telegraphed the number of staff members they plan to cut in the second stage of layoffs. These include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 personnel.

OPM itself has used lump-sum payments to some 650 of its workers, according to another individual with understanding of the matter. Employees were offered until March 12 to react.

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

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its previous offer by including two months of complete pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for remark beyond normal U.S. organization hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, extra reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, composing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)