Department of Education Workforce Gutted, Workers Warn of Long Delays for Services

Nearly half of the workforce at the U.S.Department of Education is being let go, as the Trump Administration takes steps to essentially shut down the agency. 

Plans call for the termination of nearly 2,200 workers, roughly half the entire department’s workforce. The impacted staff will be placed on administrative leave starting March 21. 

The reduction in force is a precursor to the administration’s goal of shutting down the department. The elimination of the federal agency has been a goal of conservatives for decades. 

“His (President Trump's) directive to me, clearly, is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we’ll have to work with Congress to get that accomplished. But what we did today was to take the first step of eliminating what I think is bureaucratic bloat,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon on Fox News. "If you were in the private sector, this would be an audit.”

Included in the job tally are about 600 workers who accepted voluntary resignation or retirement. 

Civil Rights, Student Aid Offices Hit Hard

While the cuts hit every division, some were harder hit in the reorganization, which is designed to “better serve students, parents, educators, and taxpayers.”

Among the hardest hit were the Office for Civil Rights, which protects students and teachers from discrimination, and the Federal Student Aid Office, which handles the disbursement of federal student aid. 

At the aid office, about 300 union employees were let go, according to a preliminary union tally. Job functions ranged from student loan specialists to investigating colleges. The day after the layoff announcement, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), experienced a massive outage. But the Trump Administration says the glitch was not related to the job cuts. 

At the Office for Civil Rights, seven regional offices were closed. The regional offices served as key places where attorneys could develop relationships with local officials. 

“The department has so gutted the offices that they’re a sham now,” said Catherine Lhamon, who led civil rights enforcement in schools in the Biden administration.

Trump Administration officials insist that any funding that is mandated by Congress, will continue, even if it’s rerouted through another agency.  

But workers say the layoffs will unquestionably make it harder for remaining staffers to handle the workload.

“The quality of customer service is going to go down,” an employee told the Washington Post. “What this means is that, when people need help with their student loans, they're not going to be able to get it.”

What the Department of Education Does

It’s important to note that the Department of Education does not administer curriculum or dictate lessons. 

Instead, the agency holds schools accountable for enforcing discrimination laws, administers support programs for rural areas, administers Title 1 funds for schools that have a lower achievement rate,  issues student financial aid, collects data to monitor education achievement, as well as other related tasks. 

Peter Granville, a fellow at The Century Foundation and expert on higher education, told CBS MoneyWatch that the Department is "primarily about ensuring who can access the classroom — it's not so much about what is being talked about in the classroom.”