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

Department workplaces purchased shut down till Thursday

Agencies cut employees utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to send prepare for massive layoffs

(Adds new federal government report on incorrect 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 almost half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as government companies rushed to satisfy President Donald Trump’s due date to submit prepare for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations are part of the department’s “final objective,” it stated in a news release, mentioning Trump’s vow to get rid of the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil liberties laws in schools and offers federal financing for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings 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 employees, below 4,133 when Trump took office in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the agency bought workplaces in the Washington location near staff 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 triggering the closures.

Similar closures worked as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans versus unethical lending institutions.

The layoffs are the most recent step in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize the government, led by the world’s richest person 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 countless programs and contracts, regardless of dozens of suits challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force method has actually frustrated several White House officials and Republican lawmakers, a few of whom have challenged angry constituents at town halls. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing, his first noteworthy public move to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government agencies have been bought to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday, setting up the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several companies have used employees payments to retire early to fulfill Trump’s demand.

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 stated it would fight the “drastic cuts.”

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, mayhem, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this regime has no respect for the countless employees who have dedicated 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 claims it has conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually only openly recorded a portion of those savings, and its accounting has been afflicted by mistakes.

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 bulk were overpayments, the report said. Total federal expenses topped $6.75 trillion in that , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other companies have offered lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees 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 uses, integrated with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to assist meet the Thursday due date, human resources professionals at numerous federal firms told Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been coming to grips with myriad suits after it fired countless probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and basically took apart entire departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which handles the government’s property portfolio, is also looking for approval to use the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be grabbed remark outside of U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently provided perks of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance professionals stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal obstacles. It likewise requires employees who have actually accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another federal government task within five years.

Only a couple of companies have telegraphed how numerous staff members they plan to cut in the second stage 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 to cut 1,029 personnel.

OPM itself has actually offered lump-sum payments to some 650 of its staff members, according to another individual with knowledge of the matter. Employees were given until March 12 to respond.

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 offer by adding two months of complete pay in addition to the bonus offer, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS could not be grabbed comment beyond regular U.S. service 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)