The U.S. Department of Education says it is cutting its workforce nearly in half — a first step in carrying out President Donald Trump plans to eliminate the department.
Chalkbeat reports that about a third of the department's staff will lose their jobs through a “reduction in force." Combined with voluntary buyouts, the Education Department will have just under 2,200 employees by the end of the month, compared with 4,133 when Trump took office in January.
“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 said in a news release.
The layoffs represent a significant escalation of Trump’s efforts to reduce the department’s role in education, which is mostly run by states and school districts. Already, the administration has canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and contracts that paid for education research, technical assistance to states and school districts, and teacher training programs.
The Education Department administers major federal funding programs such as Title I, which provides extra money to high-poverty schools, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, which supports special education.
It also investigates civil rights complaints and oversees an accountability system that pushes states to identify low-performing schools and provide them with additional resources.
ProPublica reports that the cuts have eliminated more than half of the offices that investigate civil rights complaints from students and their families. Civil rights complaints in schools and colleges largely have been investigated through a dozen regional outposts across the country. Now there will be five.
The Office for Civil Rights’ locations in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco are being shuttered, ProPublica reports. Offices will remain in Atlanta, Denver, Kansas City, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
The office is one of the federal government’s largest enforcers of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, investigating thousands of allegations of discrimination each year. That includes discrimination based on disability, race and gender.
“This is devastating for American education and our students," said Katie Dullum, an Office of Civil Rights deputy director who resigned last week. "This will strip students of equitable education, place our most vulnerable at great risk and set back educational success that for many will last their lifetimes."
