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

Department workplaces bought shut down till Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

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

(Adds brand-new government report on inappropriate 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 altogether, as federal government companies scrambled to satisfy President Donald Trump’s due date to send prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations are part of the department’s “final mission,” it stated in a news release, alluding to Trump’s vow to remove the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and offers federal funding for clingy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would result in the department’s dismantling, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated “yes,” including 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 announcing the layoffs, the agency purchased offices in the Washington location closed to personnel from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not instantly respond to concerns 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 safeguards Americans versus unethical lending institutions.

The layoffs are the newest action in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize 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 tasks across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and agreements, despite dozens of claims challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force method has annoyed a number of White House officials and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have actually confronted mad constituents at city center. Trump told department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing, his first noteworthy public transfer to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government firms have actually been purchased to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, setting up the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several companies have actually used workers payments to retire early to satisfy Trump’s demand.

Affected Education Department workers will be put on administrative leave beginning on March 21, the department stated.

The union representing more than 2,800 department workers stated it would fight the “severe cuts.”

“What is clear from the past weeks of mass shootings, chaos, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this regime has no respect for the thousands of workers who have actually dedicated 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 bloated. DOGE claims it has conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually only openly documented a portion of those savings, and its accounting has actually been plagued by errors.

The federal government reported an approximated $162 billion in inappropriate payments in financial year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office annual report launched 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 overall improper payments figure was down dramatically from 2023’s $236 billion, the GAO stated.

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other firms have used lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to workers who consent to 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 Food and Drug Administration.

The buyout provides, integrated with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to help satisfy the Thursday due date, personnels experts at a number of federal companies informed Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which handles the government’s home portfolio, is also seeking approval to offer the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be grabbed remark beyond U.S. service hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already offered perks of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance professionals said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal obstacles. It likewise requires workers who have accepted the deal to repay the cash if they take another federal government job within 5 years.

Only a number of firms have telegraphed the number of workers they prepare to cut in the 2nd 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 staff.

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

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent out an email to all 19,000 employees revealing a Friday, March 14, deadline for a buyout program. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, its prior deal by including two months of full pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS could not be reached for comment outside of normal U.S. organization hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, extra reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, composing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)