Trump administration officials are planning to fire many of the Department of Education staff, according to two people familiar with the decision. The move could begin Tuesday and will rule the institutions that manage federal loans, track student achievements and enforce civil rights laws in schools.
The cuts, confirmed by two unauthorized public speaking, could signal another move by the Trump administration to essentially remove the department, as President Trump said, he wanted to do even if it could not be closed without Congress’ approval.
Rumors about potential layoffs began to circulate after department staff received an email about 2 p.m. announcing that the agency’s Washington-area offices would be closed Wednesday and reopened Thursday.
The Department Security Office email obtained by The New York Times did not provide a reason for the closure. But the government issued a similar mysterious notice last month about temporary closure of offices that temporarily closed their offices before severe cuts were severely cut by the U.S. International Development Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
At the end of last year, the Ministry of Education had about 4,200 employees, the smallest workforce among 15 cabinet-level executive departments.
Mr. Trump said he wanted to rely on states and local school districts to fully oversee the U.S. education system. The president has taken a strict stance to align himself with his parents’ rights campaign, which has stood out from school closures and other restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic.
This movement gains momentum through opposition around left-leaning ideas in the course, especially the LGBTQ problem and the opposition to race. Activists argue that these priorities undermine parents’ rights and values.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in an interview with Fox News last week that Mr. Trump intends to sign an executive order aimed at closing the department, but she refuses to provide details about the timing.
The executive order to remove the department would challenge Congress’s mandate that was created under the regulations, legally signing any relocation to close the department. In the Senate-divided Senate, it is unlikely that the government will find enough support to do this, especially since public opinion polls in the past two months have consistently shown that about two-thirds of Americans are opposed to the closure of the department.
