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

Department offices bought shut down up until Thursday

Agencies cut workers using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to submit strategies for massive layoffs

(Adds brand-new 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 federal government firms scrambled to meet President Donald Trump’s deadline to submit prepare for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s «last mission,» it stated in a press release, pointing to Trump’s vow to eliminate the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, imposes civil rights laws in schools and supplies federal funding for clingy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would result in the department’s dismantling, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said «yes,» including that doing so «was the president’s required.» The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 employees, below 4,133 when Trump took office in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the firm purchased workplaces in the Washington area closed to personnel from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not immediately respond to questions about the nature of the security issues prompting the closures.

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

The layoffs are the current step in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize the federal 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 help and of programs and contracts, in spite of lots of lawsuits challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force method has actually annoyed numerous White House authorities and Republican lawmakers, a few of whom have actually confronted mad constituents at city center. Trump told department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his first significant public relocation to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government firms 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 firms have used staff members payments to retire early to meet Trump’s need.

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

The union representing more than 2,800 department employees said it would battle the «heavy-handed cuts.»

«What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, chaos, and untreated unprofessionalism is that this program has no respect for the thousands of employees who have 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 wasteful and bloated. DOGE declares it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, however it has just openly recorded a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has been plagued by errors.

The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in incorrect payments in 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office yearly report released on Tuesday. The huge majority were overpayments, the report said. Total federal investments topped $6.75 trillion in that financial year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other firms have actually used lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to workers who agree 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 offers, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to help meet the Thursday deadline, human resources specialists at a number of federal companies informed Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which manages the federal 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 personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be grabbed comment outside of U.S. business hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently offered benefits of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance professionals said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal difficulties. It also needs employees who have accepted the deal to pay back the money if they take another federal government job within five years.

Only a couple of agencies have actually telegraphed the number of employees they plan to cut in the 2nd stage of layoffs. These include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending 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 used lump-sum payments to some 650 of its workers, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were provided until March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent out an e-mail to all 19,000 workers revealing a Friday, March 14, due date for a buyout program. Those who accept would have to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its prior offer by adding 2 months of complete pay in addition to the perk, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be grabbed remark beyond regular 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)