US Education Department to cut half its staff
WASHINGTON—The US Department of Education said 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 are part of the department’s “final mission,” it said in a press release, alluding to Trump’s vow to eliminate the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and provides federal funding for needy districts.
Asked on Fox News whether the firings would lead to the department’s dismantling, Education Sec. Linda McMahon said “yes,” adding that doing so “was the president’s mandate.”
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 offices in the Washington area closed to staff from Tuesday evening through Wednesday.
Downsizing gov’t
Similar closures served as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the US Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against unscrupulous lenders.
The layoffs are the latest step in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize the government, led by the world’s richest person Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency.
The 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, despite dozens of lawsuits challenging the legality of those moves.
