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

Department offices bought shut down up until Thursday

Agencies cut employees using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to send 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 said on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its staff, a possible precursor to closing completely, as federal government firms scrambled to satisfy President Donald Trump’s deadline to submit prepare for a second 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 remove the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements 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, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said “yes,” adding that doing so “was the president’s required.” 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 ordered workplaces in the Washington area closed to staff from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not immediately react to questions about the nature of the security problems triggering the closures.

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

The layoffs are the most recent action in Trump’s sweeping effort to scale down 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 throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign help and canceled thousands of programs and contracts, regardless of lots of lawsuits challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force technique has irritated several White House authorities and Republican legislators, some of whom have confronted upset constituents at town halls. Trump told department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first notable public transfer to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government firms have actually been ordered to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, establishing the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several firms have actually offered employees payments to retire early to fulfill Trump’s need.

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 “severe cuts.”

“What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, turmoil, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this routine has no respect for the thousands of workers who have committed their professions to serve their fellow Americans,” said Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

Trump and Musk have argued that the federal government is wasteful and bloated. DOGE claims it has saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has just openly documented a portion of those cost savings, and its accounting has actually been plagued by errors.

The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in inappropriate payments in 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office yearly report launched on Tuesday. The vast majority were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal expenses topped $6.75 trillion in that , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other firms have offered 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 offers, combined with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction method to help fulfill the Thursday deadline, human resources professionals at numerous federal firms informed Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which handles the government’s home portfolio, is also seeking approval to provide the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent out by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be reached for comment beyond U.S. hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already provided perks of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance professionals stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal obstacles. It also needs workers who have accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another government task within 5 years.

Only a number of firms have actually telegraphed how many employees 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 offered lump-sum payments to some 650 of its staff members, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were given till 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, due date for a buyout program. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its prior offer by adding 2 months of full pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for comment beyond regular U.S. service hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, extra reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, writing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)