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

Department offices bought shut down up until Thursday

Agencies cut employees utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to send strategies 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 stated on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as government firms scrambled to fulfill President Donald Trump’s due date to send plans for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations are part of the department’s « final mission, » it said in a news release, pointing to Trump’s vow to remove the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and offers federal financing for clingy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings 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 workers, below 4,133 when Trump took office in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the company purchased offices in the Washington area near personnel from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not right away react to concerns about the nature of the security issues triggering the closures.

Similar closures acted as a precursor to shuttering the head office 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 newest step in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize the government, led by the world’s wealthiest individual Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has actually cut more than 100,000 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign aid and canceled countless programs and contracts, in spite of lots of suits challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force approach has irritated a number of White House authorities and Republican legislators, a few of whom have confronted mad constituents at city center. Trump told department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his first significant public relocation to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government agencies have actually been ordered to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday, establishing the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several firms have actually offered workers payments to retire early to meet Trump’s demand.

Affected Education Department staff members 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 « exorbitant cuts. »

« What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, mayhem, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this program has no respect for the countless workers who have devoted 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 saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually only publicly documented a portion of those savings, and its accounting has actually been plagued by errors.

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

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other firms have actually provided lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to workers who agree to 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 Food and Drug Administration.

The buyout provides, combined with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction way to assist satisfy the Thursday deadline, human resources experts at several federal firms informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been coming to grips with myriad claims after it fired countless 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 government’s property portfolio, is also seeking approval to use the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by . The GSA might not be grabbed remark beyond U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already used rewards of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance professionals stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal obstacles. It also requires workers who have actually accepted the deal to repay the cash if they take another government job within five years.

Only a number of firms have telegraphed the number of staff members they plan to cut in the 2nd stage of layoffs. These consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 personnel.

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

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent out an e-mail to all 19,000 staff members 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 previous offer by adding 2 months of complete pay in addition to the benefit, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS could not be grabbed comment beyond typical U.S. organization 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)