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

Department offices purchased shut down up until Thursday

Agencies cut workers using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to submit prepare for massive layoffs

(Adds 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 nearly half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as government firms rushed to fulfill President Donald Trump’s deadline to submit prepare for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s “final mission,” it said in a news release, mentioning Trump’s vow to remove the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil liberties laws in schools and provides federal funding for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would lead to the department’s taking apart, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated “yes,” including 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 firm bought workplaces in the Washington location near to staff from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not instantly react to concerns 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 aid firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans against unethical loan providers.

The layoffs are the most recent step in Trump’s sweeping effort to scale down 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 across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and contracts, in spite of lots of lawsuits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force method has actually frustrated numerous White House officials and Republican legislators, some of whom have actually faced mad constituents at town halls. Trump told department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his first significant public relocate to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government firms have been ordered to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, establishing the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several agencies have provided staff members payments to retire early to meet Trump’s need.

Affected Education Department workers will be put on starting on March 21, the department stated.

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

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, turmoil, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this regime has no regard for the countless employees who have committed their careers to serve their fellow Americans,” stated Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

Trump and Musk have actually argued that the government is wasteful and puffed up. DOGE declares it has saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually only openly recorded a portion of those cost savings, and its accounting has actually been plagued 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 launched on Tuesday. The huge majority were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal expenses topped $6.75 trillion in that fiscal year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have actually provided 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 provides, combined with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to help fulfill the Thursday due date, human resources experts at several federal agencies 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 essentially took apart entire departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which manages the government’s property portfolio, is also looking for approval to use 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 might not be reached for remark outside of U.S. company hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently provided rewards of up to $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 employees who have actually accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another federal government task within 5 years.

Only a number of agencies have telegraphed the number of staff members they plan 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 used lump-sum payments to some 650 of its staff members, according to another individual with knowledge of the matter. Employees were offered until March 12 to respond.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent out an email 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 2 months of full pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS could not be reached for comment beyond typical U.S. business 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)