The Trump administration announced late Tuesday that nearly half of the Department of Education’s staff would be placed on administrative leave. The move fulfills one of President Trump’s 2024 campaign promises to phase out the agency and further empower states and local school districts to set education policy.
In an official statement, the Department of Education (DOE) stated that affected staff would be placed on administrative leave on March 21. At the time of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the department had 4,133 staff members. DOE explained that this move will reduce staff to 2,183.
Approximately 600 employees had already accepted voluntary resignation either through the administration’s deferred resignation program or through voluntary payouts of up to $25,000.
“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,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated in response to the workforce reduction.
The department explained in the statement that statutory programs such as “formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students, and competitive grantmaking” would continue despite the downsizing of staff.
DOE employees were previously told on Tuesday to leave their offices by 6 p.m. before the official announcement was made. Offices were to remain closed through Wednesday for “security reasons.”
President Donald Trump campaigned on dismantling DOE and reiterated that he wanted it to be “closed immediately” soon after taking office again. He has said that he wants McMahon to perform so well that she will “put herself out of a job.”
McMahon joined Laura Ingraham on Fox News on Tuesday night to discuss the move to downsize DOE. She confirmed to Ingraham that this was the first step in shutting down the department.
“That was the president’s mandate,” McMahon said during the show. “This directive to me clearly is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we’ll have to work with Congress, you know, to get that accomplished.”
The Trump administration had already worked with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to reduce spending at DOE. DOGE announced several cuts in spending from the department in recent months.
On February 10, for instance, DOGE announced that DOE had terminated 29 grants promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives worth $101 million and terminated 89 contracts overall, totaling $881 million.
Later cuts included $600 million in grants for DEI training that instructed teachers on “anti-racism” and white privilege, as well as 18 additional grants worth $226 million that taught teachers to “flick that white man off your shoulder” to resist “settler patriarchy.”
More updates are expected in the coming days and weeks.
Alan Jamison is the pen name of a political writer with extensive experience writing for several notable politicians and news outlets.
President Trump is accomplishing a lot of things that would make President Reagan very proud of him.
The DOE has almost totally neglected that which should have been the main, and only, purpose – to produce the best graduates in the world. Instead, our nation is embarrassingly way down on the list of quality educated students. They should be leaving the DOE in droves with their heads hung down in embarrassment. The DOE is, and a;always has been, nothing more than a teacher’s union.
Education is sorely needed. Indoctrination must go.
think the Department of Education should be eliminated and school choice be sent back to the States. Also real Estate taxes should eliminate school taxes and allow the home owner to pick whatever type school they want to send their children to, whether it be parochial, private or home schooled. The public school system should not be the forced choice!
Not enough. Shut it down completely.
Perhaps someone could show us all exactly where among the 18 enumerated functions given to the federal government by the United States Constitution there is any mention of education.
I will wait…
The Department of Education is, and always has been, unconstitutional and should never have been created.
If Congress wants to support education within the 50 states, they should create a law that defines how to divide and distribute to the states an annual sum determined by the annual federal budget document.
Abolish the DOE now.
I think these cuts are great.
But Congress spends money, not the President. I wonder whether the profligates in the House and Senate will resist pressure (read: bribes) to restore funding for all this nonsense.
What I see happening is s few token reductions in some departments, then a lot of self-congratulation (“We have restored common sense”), then back to business as usual, deficits in the trillions.
Lord, I hope I’m very, very wrong.
It’s time that all moneys used to indoctrinate people in the functioning of DEI is stopped. The taxpayers are paying for their own demise. This DEI is a concerted effort to eliminate the white race. The education dept created under Jimmy Carter should have been eliminated a long time ago. It does nothing about education the children receive. The teachers Union controls the education dept. They are allowed to brainwash elementary student into trans. When parents objected at local school board meeting the Biden regime declared them domestic terrorists and had the FBI investigate these concerned parents and arrest them if they had spoken out against the schoolboard. But a criminal who had murdered someone, raped someone, or stole millions and millions of dollars in loot they were let go, to murder rape and rob again. Even Biden said the govt could do a better job raising the children than their parents. What did we hear from the Dept of education. NOTHING. The Union leaders were screaming loud and clear. local school boards along with the oarents should decide on the curriculum. The teachers that are hired should be interviewed by schoolboard members and parents of school age children. When new math came in, in the late 1960’s, and kids could do in the classroom what he or she wanted to do was the fall of standards of education in America. Test scores were lowered and they never were adjusted again. Smart kids were not promoted or given harder instructions but were pulled down to the level of those less bright students. Which lowered education across the board. The education dept never bothered to look into that. They didn’t set standards for teachers qualification. Anyone could teach. Even today they take people to teach without any credentials. Because no red blooded American wants to be a teacher. The school system in America is broke beyond repair. And the education dept let it happen. Because it was created but not given any power over education in any of the 50 states. The unions run the school boards and the teachers. How many children have been mutilated in the name of trans by manipulating teachers. We with the parents have to take educating our kids back at the local level. We pay enough in taxes but have nothing to show for it. We should be striving to give our children the best education in the world, not be in last place. They have been screaming for 65 years, we need more money, and they have gotten it and it is a bigger mess than ever before. Money isn’t the answer. It’s the politics. Stop brainwashing our kids to one side. And raising the qualifying standards to graduate teachers might also be a good step for the future going forward. Or be prepared to supporting a generation of people that are illiterate.
shutting down the Department of Education? Good luck with that. I support it but there are two groups who will NEVER let that happen: democrats and teachers’ unions.
Drop the agency that took America from #1 down to 16 in World education level.
Next up; eliminating the ENTIRE department. It serves no real purpose, interferes with local school management, serves as a conduit of Federal funds with zero inspection or follow up and supports Leftist Teachers Unions.
God Bless America & God Bless Trump!
The DOE has, for decades, been funding schools with strings attached. You want federal money, you need to teach what the DOE tells you to. The DOE is a disgrace and should have been closed long ago.
DOE has failed our students. Education test scores show a major reduction in education. Many students can’t read, write, or do simple math. Now it is completely broken close it down and send education back to the States. I feel sorry for students in Democrat ran States they don’t have a chance of getting a good education.
Unions will fight this “tooth and nail”. They won’t have as much power in states as they do nationally because GOP-run states either already have laws that hinder unions’ total control, or will soon pass such laws. I say GOOD.
New York, Illinois (esp Chicago) & California will scream & fight the hardest.
The claim that eliminating DOE will return control of education to the states is silly. States currently establish academic standards, manage teachers’ certification process and determine students’ graduation requirements. And, local governments develop educational policies.
Clearly no one is needed at a department that doesn’t exist. Shut it down to see if anyone is needed.
Great Job! I am so sick of this black, brown, white rhetoric from the left. The DOE should be focused on taking our children’s education into the 22nd century. That includes changes to our current electrical capacity infrastructure, building better fossil fuel processing plants, teaching our students to love, not hate.
Our government is reminding me of the film “Sand Pebbles” where the crew hire local Chinese to do labor the crew must never interfere with… because it’s “their rice bowl” by people creating jobs for the sake of people doing jobs.
Flush that toilet!