(Washington) A new wave of layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education is weakening an agency hit hard by previous layoffs by the Trump administration, threatening further disruption for students and schools at all levels.
The Trump administration began firing 466 Department of Education employees on Friday. The goal of his firings was to put pressure on Democratic lawmakers to shut down government operations. The layoffs would reduce the agency’s workforce by nearly a fifth.
The cuts are part of President Donald Trump’s broader plan to close the Education Department and turn over its operations to other agencies.
Over the summer, the department began moving its adult education and job training programs to the Department of Labor. He previously announced that he was negotiating a deal to transfer his $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio to the Treasury Department.
Department officials did not release details about the layoffs and did not immediately respond to a request for comment. AFGE Local 252, a union representing more than 2,700 department employees, noted that information collected from employees indicates the job cuts will decimate many offices within the agency.
All employees except a few top officials are being laid off at the office charged with implementing a federal law that ensures their schools support millions of students with disabilities, the union said. Layoffs, the number of which remains unknown, were also noted at the Office of Civil Rights. The latter investigates complaints of discrimination in schools and universities across the country.
Loss of personnel
The layoffs would result in the elimination of teams responsible for overseeing the payment of federal grants to schools across the country, the union warned. Because of this, school districts risk delays in reimbursing expenses incurred under these programs, including for salaries of teachers in disadvantaged neighborhoods, fears Sasha Pudelski, director of advocacy for AASA, the association of school superintendents.
The layoffs will also eliminate teams that oversee TRIO, a set of programs helping students from disadvantaged backgrounds pursue higher education, as well as those that oversee federal funding for historically black colleges and universities.
The Education Department had about 4,100 employees when Mr. Trump took office. After the new layoffs, its workforce would be reduced to fewer than 2,000. The March layoffs had reduced the department by nearly half, but some employees were rehired after officials deemed the cuts too deep.
If continued, the budget cuts will leave the government unable to meet its obligations to enforce special education laws, according to a statement from the National Association of Directors of Special Education.
The layoffs will reduce the department’s special education office staff from about 200 to about five people, according to Katy Neas, director of The Arc of the United States, a group that advocates for people with disabilities.
The government’s latest layoffs are being challenged in court by the American Federation of Government Employees and other national unions. Their suit, filed in San Francisco, claims the government’s budget and personnel offices exceeded their authority by ordering agencies to carry out layoffs in response to the shutdown.
In a court filing, the Trump administration said the executive branch has broad discretion to reduce the federal workforce.
Associated Press writer Annie Ma contributed to this report.
