According to an NBC News report, the Department of Education is preparing to slash roughly half of its jobs — nearly 3,000 positions — as the Trump Administration pushes towards eliminating the department completely.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement that the layoffs reflect the department’s “commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.”
“I think [President Trump] made it very clear, that he thought that the Department of Education should totally go away — and he said that my successful job will be to put myself OUT of a job,” McMahon said during a recent NEWSMAX interview. “I’m working to fulfill that mandate that he gave to me… but in the meantime, we want to make sure that the programs — everything that is put in place — continues to operate in a more efficient way.”
From NBC News:
The job cuts will perforate a department that enforces an array of anti-discrimination laws and campus safety rules and distributes funding to assist needy students, and which has drawn scorn from conservatives calling for its elimination ever since it was established during the Carter administration.
Around 3,000 people work in the department’s Washington headquarters, and roughly 1,000 are in 10 regional offices — making Education one of the smallest Cabinet-level federal departments. Its $268 billion appropriations last year represented 4% of the federal budget.McMahon said in an interview Tuesday night that the layoffs were the first step on the road toward shutting down the department.
President Donald Trump cannot unilaterally get rid of a federal agency without congressional approval, which McMahon acknowledged.
Democrats are not happy with the DOE layoffs.
“Ultimately, what they want to do is clear: fire the people who help our kids and gut funding for our students, teachers, and schools,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), who serves on the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, in a statement. “This is about breaking government for working families—and enriching billionaires like themselves in the process.”
