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

Department offices purchased closed down up until Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to send plans for large-scale layoffs

(Adds 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 entirely, as government companies scrambled to meet President Donald Trump’s due date to submit plans for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s “final mission,” it said in a news release, mentioning Trump’s vow to get rid of the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil liberties laws in schools and supplies federal funding for clingy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings 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, down from 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the company purchased offices in the Washington area closed to staff from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not immediately respond to concerns about the nature of the security concerns prompting the closures.

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

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 jobs throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and agreements, regardless of lots of lawsuits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force technique has actually frustrated a number of White House authorities and Republican legislators, some of whom have confronted upset constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his first significant public transfer to limit the Tesla CEO.

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

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

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

“What is clear from the past weeks of mass shootings, turmoil, and unattended unprofessionalism is that this regime has no regard for the countless employees who have dedicated their professions 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 government is wasteful and bloated. DOGE claims it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually just openly recorded a fraction of those cost savings, and its accounting has actually been afflicted by errors.

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

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other companies have provided lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to workers who concur 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 Fda.

The buyout offers, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction way to assist satisfy the Thursday deadline, personnels professionals at a number of federal firms told Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which manages the federal government’s property portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to use the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be grabbed comment outside of U.S. business hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already offered bonuses of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance specialists said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal difficulties. It likewise needs workers who have actually accepted the deal to repay the money if they take another government job within 5 years.

Only a number of firms have telegraphed the number of employees they prepare to cut in the second 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 planning to cut 1,029 staff.

OPM itself has provided lump-sum payments to some 650 of its workers, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were provided until March 12 to respond.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an email to all 19,000 employees revealing 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 full pay in addition to the perk, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be grabbed remark outside of typical U.S. business hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, additional reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, composing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)