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

Department offices bought closed down till Thursday

Agencies cut employees utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to send plans for large-scale layoffs

(Adds new federal 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 scrambled to meet President Donald Trump’s deadline to submit plans for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

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

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

Before revealing the layoffs, the agency purchased workplaces in the Washington area closed to personnel from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not immediately react to concerns about the nature of the security problems prompting 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 protects Americans versus unethical lending institutions.

The layoffs are the newest step in Trump’s sweeping effort to scale down the federal government, led by the world’s wealthiest individual Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has actually cut more than 100,000 tasks throughout 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 technique has actually frustrated several White House officials and Republican lawmakers, a few of whom have confronted angry constituents at city center. Trump told department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his first notable public move to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government firms have actually been bought to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday, setting up the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several companies have provided employees payments to retire early to satisfy Trump’s demand.

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

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

“What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, turmoil, and untreated unprofessionalism is that this program 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 argued that the federal government is inefficient and puffed up. DOGE declares it has saved $105 billion in cuts, however it has just publicly recorded a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has actually been pestered by mistakes.

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

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other firms have used lump-sum payments of up to $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 Fda.

The buyout offers, combined with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to assist fulfill the Thursday deadline, personnels specialists at numerous federal agencies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a very first wave of mass layoffs and essentially dismantled whole departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which handles the government’s property portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be for comment outside of U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already provided rewards of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance specialists said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal challenges. It also needs employees who have accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another federal government job within five years.

Only a couple of companies have actually telegraphed the number of workers they prepare to cut in the 2nd phase 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 individual with understanding of the matter. Employees were given 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 employees revealing 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 prior deal by adding 2 months of complete pay in addition to the perk, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be grabbed comment beyond regular U.S. company 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)