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

Department workplaces ordered shut down up until Thursday

Agencies cut workers using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to send prepare for massive layoffs

(Adds new 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 nearly half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing entirely, as government firms rushed to meet President Donald Trump’s due date to submit prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s “last objective,” it said in a press release, pointing to Trump’s vow to remove the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, imposes civil liberties laws in schools and offers federal financing for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would lead to 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 employees, down from 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the firm purchased workplaces in the Washington area closed to personnel from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not instantly react to questions about the nature of the security concerns triggering the closures.

Similar closures served as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against unethical lending institutions.

The layoffs are the most recent action 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 actually cut more than 100,000 tasks across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign help and canceled countless programs and contracts, despite dozens of lawsuits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force technique has actually frustrated a number of White House officials and Republican lawmakers, a few of whom have actually challenged mad constituents at city center. Trump informed 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 companies have been bought to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday, setting up the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several companies have offered employees payments to retire early to fulfill Trump’s demand.

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

The union representing more than 2,800 department employees stated it would battle the “draconian cuts.”

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, turmoil, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this program has no respect for the countless employees who have committed their careers to serve their fellow Americans,” said Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local ۲۵۲.

Trump and Musk have argued that the government is wasteful and puffed up. DOGE declares it has conserved $105 billion in cuts, however it has just publicly recorded a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has been pestered by mistakes.

The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in incorrect payments in 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office annual report released on Tuesday. The huge majority were overpayments, the report said. Total federal expenses topped $6.75 trillion because , 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 firms have offered lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to workers who agree 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 offers, integrated with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to help fulfill the Thursday deadline, human resources specialists at several federal agencies told Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which manages the federal government’s property portfolio, is also seeking approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent out by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be grabbed comment outside of U.S. hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently offered perks of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance specialists stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal challenges. It likewise requires workers who have actually accepted the deal to repay the money if they take another federal government job within 5 years.

Only a number of agencies have actually telegraphed the number of workers they prepare to cut in the 2nd stage of layoffs. These include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 personnel.

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

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent out an email to all 19,000 staff members announcing a Friday, March 14, deadline for a buyout program. Those who accept would have to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its prior offer by adding two months of full pay in addition to the benefit, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for remark beyond regular U.S. service hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, extra reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, writing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)