US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon says administration will work with the US Congress to abolish department.
The United States Department of Education has announced it will lay off almost half of its employees as President Donald Trump moves to fulfil his campaign promise to dismantle the agency.
The department said on Tuesday that it would reduce the size of its workforce to roughly 2,183 employees by placing staff on administrative leave from March 21.
It said it would continue to provide “all statutory programs” falling under its purview, including student loans and funding for special needs students.
The cuts follow similar rounds of firings undertaken as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s drive to radically streamline the federal bureaucracy.
“Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.
“I appreciate the work of the dedicated public servants and their contributions to the Department. This is a significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system.”
In an interview with Fox News later on Tuesday, McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, confirmed that the layoffs were a step towards abolishing the department.
“Actually, it is because that was the president’s mandate,” she said.
“His directive to me clearly is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we will have to work with Congress to get that accomplished.”
McMahon said that the cuts took aim at “bureaucratic bloat” and that the department’s “outward facing programs”, such as grants, would be preserved.
Trump campaigned on abolishing the Department of Education, which he claimed had been infiltrated by “radicals, zealots and Marxists”, and passing responsibility for education to individual states and local school districts.
In an exchange with reporters last month, the US president said that he had told McMahon that he wanted her to “put herself out of a job”.
Education in the US is already mostly provided by states and local communities, with the federal government only providing about 8 percent of the total funding for elementary and secondary schooling.
‘Wrecking ball’
Established in 1979 by the US Congress and former President Jimmy Carter, the department’s primary functions include providing financial aid to schools, overseeing student loan programmes, and enforcing civil rights protections.
Republicans have railed against the department since its inception, arguing that education policy should be handled at the state and local level.
Former US President Ronald Reagan repeatedly called for the dismantling of the department but ultimately failed to win the backing of Congress before leaving office in 1989.
The National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the US, condemned the Trump administration’s move, accusing it of taking a “wrecking ball” to the futures of some 50 million students.
“The real victims will be our most vulnerable students,” National Education Association President Becky Pringle said in a statement.
“Gutting the Department of Education will send class sizes soaring, cut job training programs, make higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle-class families, take away special education services for students with disabilities, and gut student civil rights protections.”