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The Education Department is preparing to lay off a significant portion of its workforce, with cuts expected to take place Tuesday evening.
The layoffs, or reductions in force, will impact roughly 1,300 employees, around 31% of Education’s 4,200 employees, according to two sources briefed on the matter. President Trump has vowed to eliminate the department altogether, with certain statutory functions likely transferring to other agencies. Trump was expected to sign an executive order to help facilitate that effort, though he has yet to do so.
The RIFs are expected to align with the wholesale elimination of offices throughout the department. Education’s Grant Policy Office and Performance Improvement Office are expected to be among those cut.
All Education employees are expected to receive an email Tuesday evening that will notify them of whether they will be retained or laid off, the sources said.
Education has the smallest workforce of any cabinet-level federal department. It is currently led by Secretary Linda McMahon, who told lawmakers in her confirmation hearing she would seek to implement Trump’s vision to close the department.
Prior to the RIFs, Education offered buyouts of up to $25,000 to most of its employees. They had to accept the offer by March 3 and the department warned it may not deem eligible all those who accept the offer. About 300 employees accepted the buyout, according to an employee briefed on the initiative.
The layoffs followed Education sending an email to all employees Tuesday at 2 p.m. telling them they must vacate all offices in the Washington region by 6 p.m. and they would remain closed through Wednesday “for security reasons.” Employees with telework agreements will be permitted to work on Wednesday.
Education has been in the crosshairs of numerous politicians since its creation in 1980. President Reagan pledged to eliminate it, as have Republican lawmakers ever since in numerous failed bills. Trump’s Education secretary in his first term, Betsy DeVos, said after her tenure the agency she led “should not exist.”
The president has called on all federal agencies to come up with plans to downsize their workforces through RIFs, with those blueprints due later this week. Education joins the Office of Personnel Management, General Services Administration and U.S. Agency for International Development in issuing widespread layoffs to date. Agencies could ultimately lay off hundreds of thousands of employees if they follow through on Trump’s directives.
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