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

Department offices purchased shut down up until Thursday

Agencies cut workers using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to send prepare 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 stated on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its staff, a possible precursor to closing entirely, as government agencies rushed to fulfill President Donald Trump’s deadline to send prepare for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s “last mission,” it stated in a press release, mentioning Trump’s vow to remove the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil rights laws in schools and offers federal financing for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would lead to 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 workers, down from 4,133 when Trump took office in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the firm ordered workplaces in the Washington area near to staff from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not right away react to concerns about the nature of the security issues prompting the closures.

Similar closures served as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans versus deceitful lending institutions.

The layoffs are the most recent action in Trump’s sweeping effort to scale down the federal government, led by the world’s richest person Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has cut more than 100,000 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and contracts, in spite of lots of claims challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force technique has annoyed numerous White House officials and Republican legislators, some of whom have actually confronted mad constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing, his very first noteworthy public move to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government agencies have been bought to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday, setting up the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several agencies have provided staff members payments to retire early to satisfy Trump’s demand.

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

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

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, mayhem, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this routine has no respect for the thousands of workers who have actually devoted their careers 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 puffed up. DOGE claims it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, however it has actually only openly recorded a fraction of those cost savings, and its accounting has been pestered by mistakes.

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

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other companies have actually used lump-sum payments of as much as $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 Food and Drug Administration.

The buyout uses, combined with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to help satisfy the Thursday due date, human resources specialists at numerous federal companies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been coming to grips with myriad claims after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a very first wave of mass layoffs and basically dismantled entire departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which handles the government’s home portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be reached for comment outside of U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently offered benefits of as much as $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 likewise requires workers who have actually accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another federal government task within five years.

Only a couple of firms have telegraphed the number of staff members they prepare to cut in the second phase of layoffs. These consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 staff.

OPM itself has provided to some 650 of its staff members, according to another individual with understanding of the matter. Employees were provided till March 12 to respond.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an e-mail to all 19,000 workers announcing a Friday, March 14, due date 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 perk, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS could not be grabbed comment beyond normal 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)