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

Department workplaces ordered shut down till Thursday

Agencies cut employees utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to submit plans 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 personnel, a possible precursor to closing completely, as government firms scrambled to fulfill President Donald Trump’s deadline to send prepare for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s “final objective,” it said in a news release, alluding to Trump’s vow to eliminate the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and offers federal funding for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would cause the department’s dismantling, 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, down from 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the firm bought offices in the Washington location near staff from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not immediately react to questions about the nature of the security concerns prompting the closures.

Similar closures acted as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans against deceitful lenders.

The layoffs are the most recent action in Trump’s sweeping effort to scale down the federal government, led by the world’s richest individual Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has 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 lots of claims challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force method has actually annoyed several White House authorities and Republican legislators, some of whom have confronted mad constituents at town halls. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first noteworthy public relocation to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government firms have been purchased to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, setting up the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several firms have actually used workers payments to retire early to satisfy Trump’s need.

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

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

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, turmoil, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this regime has no regard for the thousands of employees 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 conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has only openly documented a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has been afflicted by errors.

The federal government reported an approximated $162 billion in incorrect payments in financial year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office annual report released on Tuesday. The vast bulk were overpayments, the report said. Total federal expenses topped $6.75 trillion because , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The total incorrect payments figure was down dramatically 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 workers 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 Food and Drug Administration.

The buyout uses, combined with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to assist meet the Thursday deadline, human resources professionals at a number of federal firms informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been grappling with myriad lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and essentially took apart entire departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which handles the federal government’s home portfolio, is also seeking approval to use the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent by its to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be grabbed remark outside of U.S. business hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already used bonuses of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance experts said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal obstacles. It also needs workers who have actually accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another government task within five years.

Only a number of agencies have telegraphed the number of employees they plan to cut in the second stage of layoffs. These consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending 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 given up until March 12 to respond.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent 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 prior deal by including 2 months of full pay in addition to the benefit, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for comment beyond typical U.S. service hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, extra reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, writing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)