The Department of Education is beginning the process of reducing its workforce, announcing on Tuesday that it is cutting roughly half of the agency’s staff.
At 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday, 1,315 employees were notified that they would be terminated in what senior Education Department officials are calling a “streamlining process.” The move brings the Trump administration closer to the president’s call to abolish the department.
The Education Department has seen an exodus of employees over the last two months: 259 employees signed up for the deferred resignation program, 313 took the $25,000 buyout and 63 probationary employees were terminated earlier in the year, according to a department official.