The Education Department said Tuesday it will slim down to fewer than 2,200 employees, a nearly 50% reduction from what it looked like when President Trump took office.
The department said nearly 600 employees took buyouts and nearly 1,400 others will be notified they are on administrative leave.
“Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.
She said all of the department’s divisions will see reductions, with some getting what she called a “significant reorganization.”
In a later interview on Fox News, Ms. McMahon said the department is shuttering its office doors on Wednesday as a security precaution. She said employees were told to take their laptops and phones with them.
“Those that are coming back will know that they’ll be coming back on Thursday,” she said.
The Education Department is a relative newcomer to the Cabinet, having been created in 1980. It’s the third-youngest of the departments, older only than Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs.
But since that creation, conservatives have targeted the department and question the federal government’s role in schooling. They argue that it has become a way to foist ideological fads onto local schools, who have to accept federal mandates along with Uncle Sam’s cash.
Democrats said the cuts were Mr. Trump’s first attempt at achieving such an abolition.
“Ultimately, what they want to do is clear: fire the people who help our kids and gut funding for our students, teachers, and schools. This is about breaking government for working families — and enriching billionaires like themselves in the process,” said Sen. Patty Murray, the senior Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Ms. McMahon, though, said she’s not cutting any education. She characterized the moves as slashing bureaucracy and returning more decisions to local control and to parents themselves.
She said the department will continue to make payments on programs such as Pell Grants and student loans and on spending under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Those tasks, she said, are required by law.
Ms. McMahon was confirmed by the Senate last week and showed signs in her Fox interview of still getting up to speed. At one point she stumbled over what IDEA stood for.
“You know what? I’m not sure I can tell you exactly what it stands for, except that it’s the programs for disabled and needs,” she said. “This is my fifth day on the job. I’m really trying to learn it.”
The department had 4,133 employees on Inauguration Day and will soon be down to roughly 2,183.
The department said 259 employees took the Deferred Resignation Program, dubbed the Trump administration buyout. Some 313 others took a $25,000 Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment.
The difference will be made up in the administrative leave announcements to come later this month.
Those being let go will be paid in full up through June 9 and will get “substantial” retirement or severance pay based upon their time on the job.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Connecticut Democrat, called the staff cuts “illegal.”
“No president or member of the executive branch has the authority to end public education, violate the law, and unilaterally steal dollars promised to students,” she said.
But Tommy Schultz, CEO of the American Federation for Children, said Ms. McMahon’s move is a blow to teacher’s unions “who care only about preserving their own power.”
“This news is another signal that the bureaucratic state is coming to an end in America, ushering in a golden age in American education that is centered on sending education back to the states and parents,” he said.
