Nearly half of the US Department of Education workforce is expected to be eliminated and the staff has been advised to stay home on Wednesday, US media have reported.
The "reduction in force" notices for the department are expected to go out Tuesday, a Semafor reporter said on X on Tuesday.
Staff at the department received a notice on Tuesday instructing them to leave the building by 6 pm and informing them that all department offices in the US Capital as well as regional offices will be closed on Wednesday, CBS News reported.
It said the email, from James Hairfield of the Office of Security, Facilities and Logistics, said that the offices will be closed "for security reasons."
President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to dismantle the agency, including since taking office on January 20.
Trump campaigned on a pledge to close the department, saying it has been infiltrated by “radicals, zealots and Marxists.”
In the nearly five decades since the agency was created, conservatives have made occasional attempts to shut it down, with critics saying it wastes taxpayer money and inserts the federal government into local education decisions.
Act of Congress
Eliminating the department altogether would be a cumbersome task, which likely would require an act of Congress.
Already, the Trump administration has started overhauling much of the department’s work.
Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has cut dozens of contracts it dismissed as “woke” and wasteful. It gutted the Institute of Education Sciences, which gathers data on the nation’s academic progress, and the administration has fired or suspended scores of employees.
The agency’s main role is financial. Annually, it distributes billions in federal money to colleges and schools and manages the federal student loan portfolio. Closing the department would mean redistributing each of those duties to another agency.
The Education Department also plays an important regulatory role in services for students, ranging from those with disabilities to low-income and homeless kids.
