U.S. Education Department to sack 50% workers

The U.S. Department of Education, on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, announced that it would lay off nearly half of its staff.

The department announced this in a statement on Tuesday.

The terminations are part of the department’s “final mission,” it said, alluding to United States President Donald 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, 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, 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, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters.

An Education Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about the nature of the security issues prompting the closures.

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Similar closures served as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. 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 (DOGE).

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.

DOGE’s blunt-force approach has frustrated several White House officials and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have confronted angry constituents at town halls.

Trump told department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing, his first notable public move to restrain the Tesla CEO.

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

Affected Education Department employees will be placed on administrative leave starting on March 21, the department said.

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

The Star