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

Department offices purchased shut down up until Thursday

Agencies cut employees using lump-sum payments, early retirement

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

(Adds brand-new government report on improper 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 altogether, as government firms rushed to fulfill President Donald Trump’s due date to send prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations are part of the department’s “final mission,” it said in a news release, mentioning Trump’s vow to get rid of the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil liberties laws in schools and offers federal financing for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would result in the department’s dismantling, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated “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 announcing the layoffs, the company ordered offices in the Washington area near personnel from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not immediately react to concerns about the nature of the security problems prompting the closures.

Similar closures worked as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian help firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans versus unscrupulous lenders.

The layoffs are the most recent step in effort to scale down the government, led by the world’s wealthiest person Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has actually cut more than 100,000 tasks across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and contracts, regardless of dozens of suits 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 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 move to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government companies have been purchased to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, establishing the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several companies have offered employees payments to retire early to fulfill Trump’s demand.

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

The union representing more than 2,800 department employees stated it would fight the “drastic cuts.”

“What is clear from the past weeks of mass shootings, turmoil, and unattended unprofessionalism is that this routine has no respect for the countless employees who have actually dedicated their careers to serve their fellow Americans,” said Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

Trump and Musk have argued that the federal government is inefficient and puffed up. DOGE declares it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually just publicly recorded a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has actually been plagued by mistakes.

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

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other companies have provided lump-sum payments of approximately $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 offers, integrated with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to help fulfill the Thursday due date, personnels experts at a number of federal companies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been facing myriad lawsuits after it fired countless probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and basically dismantled whole departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which manages the government’s residential or commercial property portfolio, is likewise looking for 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 could not be grabbed comment outside of U.S. company hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already provided bonus offers of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance experts stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal obstacles. It likewise needs workers who have actually accepted the deal to repay the cash if they take another government task within 5 years.

Only a couple of companies have telegraphed how many staff members they plan to cut in the 2nd phase of layoffs. These consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to cut more than 80,000 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 staff.

OPM itself has offered lump-sum payments to some 650 of its staff members, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were provided up until March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent out an e-mail to all 19,000 workers announcing a Friday, March 14, due date for a buyout program. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its prior offer by including 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 outside of 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)