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 plans for massive layoffs

(Adds brand-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 stated on Tuesday it would lay off nearly half its staff, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as government agencies scrambled to meet President Donald Trump’s deadline to submit plans for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department’s “final objective,” it stated in a press release, mentioning Trump’s vow to eliminate the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil liberties laws in schools and supplies federal financing for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would lead to the department’s dismantling, Secretary of Education Linda 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 office in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the agency ordered workplaces in the Washington location near to personnel from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not instantly react to questions about the nature of the security concerns prompting the closures.

Similar closures functioned as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against unscrupulous lenders.

The layoffs are the most recent step in Trump’s sweeping effort to scale down the federal 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 throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign help and canceled countless programs and contracts, in spite of dozens of suits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force method has irritated numerous White House authorities and Republican legislators, a few of whom have faced angry constituents at city center. Trump told department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his first noteworthy public relocate to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government firms have actually been bought to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday, establishing the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several agencies have actually used employees payments to retire early to fulfill Trump’s demand.

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

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

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, chaos, and untreated unprofessionalism is that this regime has no regard for the thousands of workers who have actually devoted 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 government is inefficient and puffed up. DOGE declares it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually only publicly documented a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has actually been afflicted by errors.

The federal government reported an approximated $162 billion in incorrect payments in 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office yearly report released on Tuesday. The vast bulk were overpayments, the report said. Total federal outlays topped $6.75 trillion because , 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 companies have used lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees 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 uses, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction method to help fulfill the Thursday deadline, personnels experts at numerous federal companies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been coming to grips with myriad claims after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a very first wave of mass layoffs and essentially dismantled entire departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which handles the government’s residential or commercial property portfolio, is also seeking approval to provide 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 outside of U.S. business hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently provided benefits of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance experts said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal challenges. It likewise needs workers who have accepted the deal to pay back the cash if they take another government job within 5 years.

Only a couple of firms have actually telegraphed how numerous workers they plan to cut in the 2nd phase of layoffs. These include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to cut more than 80,000 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 personnel.

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

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an e-mail to all 19,000 workers revealing 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 previous offer by including two months of complete pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS could not be reached for remark outside of typical U.S. business 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)