The US Department of Education intends to lay off nearly half of its workforce. The layoffs of 1,300 people were announced by the department on Tuesday and described by the education secretary, Linda McMahon, as a “significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system”.
In a post on X, McMahon said: “Today’s [reduction in force] reflects our commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.”
After the most recent round of layoffs, the department’s staff will number roughly half of its previous 4,100, the agency said in a statement. According to the department, another 572 employees had already accepted “voluntary resignation opportunities and retirement” over the last seven weeks. The newly laid-off employees will be placed on administrative leave at the end of next week.
The department is also terminating leases on buildings in cities including New York, Boston, Chicago and Cleveland, officials said. The agency will continue to oversee the distribution of federal aid to schools, student loan management and oversight of Pell grants, the statement released on Tuesday said.
Trump campaigned on a promise to close the department, claiming it had been overtaken by “radicals, zealots and Marxists”. At McMahon’s confirmation hearing, she acknowledged that only Congress has the power to abolish the agency but said it might be due for cuts and a reorganization.
The layoff announcement has been met with swift condemnation from Democratic and progressive officials. The Texas representative Greg Casar wrote in a post on X that those in charge were “stealing from our children to pay for tax cuts for billionaires”.
In a statement, Rosa DeLauro, the ranking member of the House appropriations committee, said: “Presidents Trump and Musk and their billionaire buddies are so detached from how Americans live that they cannot see how ending public education and canceling these contracts kills the American Dream … If kids from working class families do not have access to schools, how can they build a future?”
On Monday, McMahon wrote to 60 universities to warn them that they were under investigation for supposed violations of the Civil Rights Act because of protests against Israel’s war on Gaza that the Trump administration defined as “antisemitic harassment and discrimination” of Jewish students.
As the department pushes ahead with cuts, a federal judge in Boston blocked the Trump administration’s plan to cut hundreds of millions of dollars for teacher training, finding that cuts were already affecting training programs aimed at addressing a nationwide teacher shortage.
The US district judge Myong Joun sided with eight states that had requested a temporary restraining order. The states argued the cuts were likely driven by Trump’s drive to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which the president seems to believe are a form of racism against white Americans.
Affected education department employees will be placed on administrative leave starting on 21 March, the department said.
