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

Department offices ordered shut down till Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to send plans for large-scale 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 staff, a possible precursor to closing entirely, as federal government companies scrambled to meet President Donald Trump’s due date to send strategies for a second round of mass layoffs.

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

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would cause the department’s taking apart, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated “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 location closed to staff from Tuesday evening 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 problems triggering the closures.

Similar closures functioned as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against unscrupulous loan providers.

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. DOGE has cut more than 100,000 tasks across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and agreements, in spite of lots of suits challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force method has actually frustrated a number of White House officials and Republican legislators, a few of whom have confronted mad constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first significant public relocate to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government companies have actually been ordered to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday, setting up the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several agencies have offered staff members payments to retire early to satisfy Trump’s demand.

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

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

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, turmoil, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this regime 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 252.

Trump and Musk have argued that the federal government is wasteful and puffed up. DOGE claims it has saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has only openly documented a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has been afflicted by errors.

The federal government reported an approximated $162 billion in inappropriate 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 expenses topped $6.75 trillion in that financial year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have actually offered lump-sum payments of approximately $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 Fda.

The buyout offers, combined with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to assist meet the Thursday deadline, human resources professionals at a number of federal agencies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been facing myriad suits after it fired countless probationary employees in a very first wave of mass layoffs and basically dismantled whole departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which manages the federal government’s residential or commercial property portfolio, is likewise seeking approval to offer the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be reached for remark outside of U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already offered bonuses of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance specialists stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal challenges. It likewise requires workers who have actually 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 how many workers they plan to cut in the second stage of layoffs. These consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming 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 offered lump-sum payments to some 650 of its staff members, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were provided till March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an e-mail to all 19,000 workers announcing 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 deal by including 2 months of complete pay in addition to the bonus offer, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS might not be grabbed comment beyond regular U.S. company hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, additional reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, writing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)