Education Department cuts half its staff as Trump vows to wind the
agency down
[March 12, 2025]
By COLLIN BINKLEY and MORIAH BALINGIT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Education Department plans to lay off more than
1,300 of its employees as part of an effort to halve the organization’s
staff -- a prelude to President Donald Trump’s plan to dismantle the
agency.
Department officials announced the cuts Tuesday, raising questions about
the agency’s ability to continue usual operations.
The Trump administration had already been whittling the agency’s staff,
though buyout offers and the termination of probationary employees.
After Tuesday’s layoffs, the Education Department’s staff will sit at
roughly half of its previous 4,100, the agency said.
The layoffs are part of a dramatic downsizing directed by Trump as he
moves to reduce the footprint of the federal government. Thousands of
jobs are expected to be cut across the Department of Veterans Affairs,
the Social Security Administration and other agencies.
The department is also terminating leases on buildings in cities
including New York, Boston, Chicago and Cleveland, officials said.
Department officials said it would continue to deliver on its key
functions such as the distribution of federal aid to schools, student
loan management and oversight of Pell Grants.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said when she got to the department,
she wanted to reduce bloat to be able to send more money to local
education authorities.
“So many of the programs are really excellent, so we need to make sure
the money goes to the states," McMahon said in an interview Tuesday on
Fox News.
McMahon told employees to brace for profound cuts in a memo issued March
3, the day she was confirmed by the Senate. She said it was the
department’s “final mission” to eliminate bureaucratic bloat and turn
over the agency’s authority to states.
The department sent an email to employees Tuesday telling them its
Washington headquarters and regional offices would be closed Wednesday,
with access forbidden, before reopening Thursday. The only reason given
for the closures was unspecified “security reasons.”
Trump campaigned on a promise to close the department, saying it had
been overtaken by “radicals, zealots and Marxists.” At McMahon’s
confirmation hearing, she acknowledged only Congress has the power to
abolish the agency but said it might be due for cuts and a
reorganization.
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Whether the cuts will be felt by America’s students — as Democrats
and advocates fear — is yet to be seen. Already there are concerns
the administration’s agenda has pushed aside some of the agency’s
most fundamental work, including the enforcement of civil rights for
students with disabilities and the management of $1.6 trillion in
federal student loans.
McMahon told lawmakers at her hearing that her aim is not to defund
core programs, but to make them more efficient.
Even before the layoffs, the Education Department was among the
smallest Cabinet-level agencies. Its workforce included 3,100 people
in Washington and an additional 1,100 at regional offices across the
country, according to a department website.
The department’s workers had faced increasing pressure to quit their
jobs since Trump took office, first through a deferred resignation
program and then through a $25,000 buyout offer that expired March
3.
Jeanne Allen of the Center for Education Reform, which advocates for
charter school expansion, said the cuts were important and
necessary.
“Ending incessant federal interference will free up state and local
leaders to foster more opportunities to give schools and educators
true flexibility and innovation to address the needs of students,
wherever they are educated,” Allen said.
Some advocates were skeptical of the department’s claim that its
functions would not be affected by the layoffs.
“I don’t see at all how that can be true,” said Roxanne Garza, who
was chief of staff in the Office of Postsecondary Education under
President Joe Biden.
Much of what the department does, like investigating civil rights
complaints and helping families apply for financial aid, is labor
intensive, said Garza, who is now director of higher education
policy at Education Trust, a research and advocacy organization.
“How those things will not be impacted with far fewer staff ... I
just don’t see it.”
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