With mass layoffs, McMahon and Trump begin mission to end Education Department

WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Tuesday that large-scale staffing cuts at her department are a step toward ending its operations, as ordered by President Donald Trump.

“His 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,” McMahon said on Fox News.

The announced reduction in force would cut nearly 50% of employees, according to a statement from the department.

If the Trump administration’s plan is implemented, the number of Education Department employees would go from over 4,100 down to about 2,200, with roughly 600 leaving voluntarily while others are laid off.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said he had spoken with McMahon about the announced staffing cuts as part of what McMahon has termed the “final mission” for the department. Cassidy said he had been assured that the cuts would not impair “statutory obligations.”

“This action is aimed at fulfilling the admin’s goal of addressing redundancy and inefficiency in the federal government,” Cassidy posted on social media.

McMahon said on Fox News that the department would meet mandates, including for programs such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, although she could not immediately identify what that acronym stood for, noting it was only her fifth day on the job.

She said the goal was to eventually get more money flowing to the states though block grants and other means with fewer federal requirements.

‘Today’s staff eliminations are illegal’

McMahon’s acknowledgment that shuttering the Education Department would require congressional approval has not assuaged Democrats, who widely panned the announcement.

Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the ranking Democrat on both the Appropriations Committee and the subcommittee that oversees the Education Department’s spending, called the staffing cuts “illegal.”

“The Department of Education — created by an act of Congress, funded by appropriations bills passed by Congress and signed into law — ensures that, no matter the wealth their family does or does not have, or whether they have a disability or other disadvantage, every single child has the opportunity to obtain an education,” DeLauro said in a statement. “Today’s staff eliminations are illegal, and they are a slap in the face to the dedicated public servants who work to make sure American children have access to a quality education.”

While the House voted 217-213 on Tuesday to pass a stopgap spending bill through the end of fiscal 2025, the Senate has not yet taken up the measure. The Education Department announcement is another factor for Democrats to consider in deciding whether to vote for the continuing resolution.

The top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, said in a statement Tuesday night that McMahon and Trump “know they can’t abolish the Department of Education on their own but they understand that if you gut it to its very core and fire all the people who run programs that help students, families, and teachers, you might end up with a similar, ruinous result.”

“Students, families, and teachers in every part of the country will pay the price for Trump’s slash and burn campaign to destroy public education in America,” said Murray.

“Clearly our education system needs fixing so that every child in America can get the world-class education they deserve. But the solution is not to pull funding and resources from local schools and tell families to figure it out themselves,” Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, an Appropriations Committee member, said in a statement.

The Senate voted to confirm McMahon as Education secretary on March 3 by a party-line vote of 51-45, with no Democrats voting for her.

Trump has been clear about his objective for the Education Department, although he has not yet signed an executive order seeking to dissolve it.

During an Oval Office media availability on Feb. 4, Trump endorsed the idea of terminating the department and “giving” management of all things education to each state. He told reporters that he had instructed McMahon to “do a great job and put yourself out of a job.”

During the 2024 presidential race, Trump promised to shut down the department — a move many experts have said would be difficult, if not impossible.

“We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort,” Trump said in a statement in November when he nominated McMahon for the job.

McMahon emphasized Tuesday on Fox News that she was the one making ultimate determinations and not billionaire Elon Musk and the office known as the Department of Government Efficiency.

“They’re there to go to find out information to make suggestions, but you know the secretaries and the agency heads are actually ones who run the departments and make the final decisions,” McMahon said.