in World News Nearly Half of Department of Education Employees Laid Off in Reduction of Force by Secretary Linda McMahon
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon ordered Reduction in Force layoffs targeting roughly half the department’s over 4,000 employees, effective March 21. Those laid off will receive full pay and benefits until June 9th, as well as severance pay or retirement benefits. About 600 of the workers had previously accepted buyout offers.
President Donald Trump campaigned on shutting down the Education Department. Trump recently said he is looking at signing an executive order starting the process, however complete elimination of the department would require Congressional approval.
Earlier Tuesday, the department sent out an email telling employees to take their laptops and vacate their offices by 6 p.m. because the headquarters in Washington, D.C. and regional offices would be shut down for “security “reasons” until Thursday morning when office hours would resume.
McMahon reposted a White House video clip Tuesday evening saying she was fulfilling President Trump’s order to put herself out of a job, “I think @POTUS made it very clear, that he thought that the Department of Education should totally go away — and he said that my successful job will be to put myself OUT of a job. I’m working to fulfill that mandate that he gave to me… but in the meantime, we want to make sure that the programs — everything that is put in place — continues to operate in a more efficient way.”