President Trump moved ahead in mid-March with a plan to mostly eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. Ignoring the reality that the department was created by Congress and would need a congressional vote to dissolve it, the president vowed that he would “bring school back to the states where it belongs.”
Trump’s decision means that the functions of the department — which primarily administers student loans and seeks to ensure equal access to educational resources for students with disabilities, learning differences, and others — will have to be handled by other agencies. Trump announced on Friday that the responsibility for school nutrition and education of students with disabilities and conditions such as autism and ADHD would become the responsibility of the Health and Human Services, a department whose leader has long suggested without basis that vaccines cause autism.
Administering student loans, meanwhile, will apparently become the responsibility of the Small Business Administration — an agency whose leader on the same day announced plans to lay off more than 40% of its workforce.
Well, I'm sure the SBA has the manpower to deal with a sudden new influx of work and …www.cbsnews.com/news/small-b…
— Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) 2025-03-21T23:06:31.716Z
The department previously announced a layoff of 1,300 workers on March 11, advancing an effort under President Trump that at the time had eliminated half of the department workforce.
Breaking News: The Education Department announced that it was firing more than 1,300 workers, effectively gutting the agency. The layoffs mean that the department will now have a work force of about half the size it did when President Trump took office.
— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) 2025-03-11T22:41:57.481Z
The layoff came after Linda McMahon, the secretary of education, emailed workers after her swearing-in to declare that the department’s ‘final mission’ was to wind itself down and “send education back to the states.”
NEW—Dept of Ed staff received an email from Sec. McMahon tonight with the subject, “Our Department’s Final Mission.”McMahon writes that plan is, “to send education back to the states.” Notably doesn’t mention executive order like earlier draft, but some think it’s still coming.Full text:
— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) 2025-03-04T04:35:26.148Z
About 600 workers had previously accepted a buyout in response to an all-staff email on Feb. 28 that warned of “very significant layoffs.” 60 employees in their first year of their jobs (or after getting promoted) were also fired during a “Department of Government Efficiency”-led campaign in February 2025 to shrink the federal workforce.
The Department of Education was created by a law of Congress — and so shutting it down without a vote by Congress would be illegal.
- Education Department to Fire 1,300 Workers, Gutting Its Staff [The New York Times]
- Education Dept. Workers Offered Buyouts Ahead of ‘Very Significant’ Layoffs [The New York Times]