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

Department workplaces ordered closed down until Thursday

Agencies cut employees using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to send strategies 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 personnel, a possible precursor to closing completely, as government agencies scrambled to fulfill President Donald Trump’s deadline to submit strategies for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s “final mission,” it stated in a press release, pointing to Trump’s vow to eliminate the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, imposes civil rights laws in schools and supplies federal funding 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 workers, below 4,133 when Trump took office in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the agency purchased workplaces in the Washington location closed to personnel 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 problems prompting the closures.

Similar closures served as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans versus dishonest loan providers.

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 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and contracts, despite dozens of claims challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force technique has frustrated several White House officials and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have actually confronted mad constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first significant public relocate to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government firms have actually been purchased to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday, establishing the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several agencies have actually offered staff members payments to retire early to meet Trump’s need.

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

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

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, mayhem, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this program has no regard for the countless employees who have devoted their careers to serve their fellow Americans,” stated Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

Trump and Musk have argued that the federal government is wasteful and bloated. DOGE declares it has conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually just openly recorded a portion of those savings, and its accounting has been afflicted by mistakes.

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

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have provided lump-sum payments of as much as $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 provides, combined with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to assist meet the Thursday due date, human resources specialists at a number of federal firms informed Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which handles the government’s home portfolio, is also looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be grabbed comment outside of U.S. company hours. The and Exchange Commission has actually currently offered rewards 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 difficulties. It also requires workers who have accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another federal government job within 5 years.

Only a couple of companies have actually telegraphed the number of workers they plan to cut in the 2nd stage of layoffs. These include 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 actually provided lump-sum payments to some 650 of its employees, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were offered till March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an email to all 19,000 workers announcing 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 offer by including two months of full pay in addition to the perk, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS might not be grabbed comment outside of regular U.S. company 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)