Education Department lays off roughly 20% of its workforce amid shutdown

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Education on Friday laid off over 460 employees, dramatically reducing the workforce of a beleaguered agency that is already struggling to serve students on the heels of massive cuts.

The number was made public in a court filing the same day from the Justice Department, after the White House delivered on its threat of a fresh wave of firings across the federal workforce.

President Donald Trump and other administration officials have indicated the terminations are part of a broader effort to pressure congressional Democrats to end the ongoing government shutdown. Lawmwakers on Capitol Hill, entrenched in a seemingly intractable debate over health care and immigration, have struggled for nearly two weeks to pass any funding bills to turn the lights back on.

The new departures, which have already been challenged in court, whittled the Education Department’s staff by nearly a fifth, based on its most recent headcount estimates of full- and part-time employees.

The Trump administration already cut the department in half in March through a series of buyouts, layoffs and incentivized retirements. (After a lawsuit, the Supreme Court mostly allowed those firings to proceed while their legality is debated.) Since then, schools have reported widespread disruptions in government services, particularly in programs related to college financial aid, school oversight and civil rights enforcement.

The divisions most impacted included the state and local engagement team at the Office of Communications and Outreach, according to AFGE Local 252, the union representing Education Department workers.

Nearly the entirety of the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education was laid off, too. Among many responsibilities, that office is in charge of making sure that states annually check to see whether kids are learning subjects like reading and math at grade level.

Rachel Gittleman, the president of AFGE Local 252 and a former employee who spent years helping student loan borrowers, called the layoffs illegal.

“Once again, the Trump administration is acting as though they have impunity to cut staff from an already lean, efficient agency,” she said in a statement. “In March, the administration fired more than 1,000 critical employees who held statutorily required roles and responsibilities, and for months we have seen department leadership detail staff to cover holes.”

In May, Education Secretary Linda McMahon suggested in congressional testimony that the agency’s previous layoffs had perhaps gone too far. Within days of the announcement of those firings, the department quietly brought dozens of employees back, USA TODAY previously reported. Since then, even more workers have been hired, public staffing numbers show.

“When you are restructuring a company, you hope that you’re just cutting fat,” McMahon told lawmakers. “Sometimes you cut a little in the muscle, and you realize it as you are continuing your programs, and you can bring people back.”

Nearly 90% of the Education Department’s staff has also been furloughed due to the shutdown.