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

Department workplaces purchased closed down until Thursday

Agencies cut employees using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to submit prepare for large-scale 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 stated on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its staff, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as government companies rushed to meet President Donald Trump’s deadline to submit strategies for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s “final objective,” it stated in a press release, pointing to Trump’s vow to get rid of the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil rights laws in schools and provides federal financing for needy districts.

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

Before revealing the layoffs, the firm purchased offices in the Washington area near personnel from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not immediately react to concerns about the nature of the security issues prompting the closures.

Similar closures functioned as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans versus dishonest loan providers.

The layoffs are the current action in Trump’s sweeping effort to scale down the federal government, led by the world’s wealthiest individual 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 canceled thousands of programs and contracts, despite lots of claims challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force method has annoyed numerous White House authorities and Republican lawmakers, a few of whom have actually faced angry constituents at town halls. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing, his very first significant public relocate to limit the Tesla CEO.

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

Affected Education Department staff members will be positioned on administrative leave starting on March 21, the department stated.

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

“What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, chaos, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this program has no respect for the countless 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 wasteful and puffed up. DOGE claims it has saved $105 billion in cuts, however it has actually just publicly documented a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has actually been plagued by mistakes.

The federal government reported an approximated $162 billion in incorrect payments in 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office annual report launched on Tuesday. The large majority were overpayments, the report said. Total federal outlays topped $6.75 trillion because financial year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other companies have used lump-sum payments of up to $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 uses, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to help meet the Thursday due date, human resources experts at a number of federal companies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been facing myriad lawsuits after it fired countless probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and essentially took apart entire departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which handles the government’s residential or commercial property portfolio, is also looking for approval to offer the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be reached for comment beyond U.S. business hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already used bonuses of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance experts stated 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 number of firms have actually telegraphed the number of staff members they plan to cut in the second phase of layoffs. These consist of the of Veterans Affairs, which is intending 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 employees, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were offered up until March 12 to respond.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent out an e-mail to all 19,000 staff members 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 e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS could not be grabbed comment beyond regular U.S. organization hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, additional reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, composing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)