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

Department offices purchased shut down until Thursday

Agencies cut employees 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 personnel, a possible precursor to closing completely, as government agencies rushed to fulfill President Donald Trump’s deadline to send plans for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations are part of the department’s “final objective,” 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 provides federal financing for clingy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would lead to the department’s dismantling, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said “yes,” adding that doing so “was the president’s required.” 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 agency ordered workplaces in the Washington location near personnel from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not right away respond to about the nature of the security problems prompting the closures.

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

The layoffs are the latest step in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize the government, led by the world’s wealthiest person Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has cut more than 100,000 tasks across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and contracts, regardless of dozens of claims challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force method has irritated numerous White House officials and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have actually confronted angry constituents at town halls. Trump told department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last say on staffing, his first significant public transfer to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government agencies have been ordered to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, setting up the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several agencies have provided employees payments to retire early to satisfy Trump’s need.

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

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

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, chaos, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this routine 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 actually argued that the federal government is wasteful and bloated. DOGE declares it has conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has just openly recorded a fraction of those cost savings, and its accounting has actually been pestered by mistakes.

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

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have actually provided lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees who consent 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 Food and Drug Administration.

The buyout provides, combined with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to assist satisfy the Thursday due date, human resources specialists at several federal companies told Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which handles the federal government’s property portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to use 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 could not be reached for comment beyond U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently offered perks of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance specialists stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal challenges. It also requires workers who have actually accepted the deal to pay back the cash if they take another federal government job within five years.

Only a couple of firms have telegraphed how lots of workers they prepare to cut in the second stage of layoffs. These consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to cut more than 80,000 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 personnel.

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 e-mail to all 19,000 staff members 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 previous deal by adding two months of full pay in addition to the perk, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS could not be reached for 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, composing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)