The Trump administration on Tuesday took a major step toward dismantling the U.S. Department of Education by firing
roughly half of the agency’s workforce, a decision that teachers’ unions and other champions of public education said would have devastating consequences for the nation’s school system.

The department, now led by billionaire Linda McMahon, moved swiftly, terminating
more than 1,300 federal workers on Tuesday including employees at the agency’s student aid and civil rights offices.

Sheria Smith, president of AFGE Local 252, which represents Education Department workers, pledged in a statement to “fight these draconian cuts.” The union
toldNPR minutes after the statement was issued that Smith, an attorney with the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, was laid off.

The Education Department said the mass staffing cuts would affect “nearly 50%” of the agency’s workforce and that those impacted “will be placed on administrative leave beginning Friday, March 21st.”

In a
press release, McMahon declared that the workforce cuts reflect the department’s “commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.”

But critics, including a union that represents more than 3 million education workers nationwide, said the firings underscore the Trump administration’s commitment to gutting public education in the interest of billionaires pushing tax cuts and
school privatization.

“Trump and Elon Musk have aimed their wrecking ball at public schools and the futures of the 50 million students in rural, suburban, and urban communities across America by dismantling public education to pay for tax handouts for billionaires,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association.

“The real victims will be our most vulnerable students,” Pringle added. “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.”

“We will not sit by while billionaires like Elon Musk and Linda McMahon tear apart public services piece by piece.”

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement that “denuding an agency so it cannot function effectively is the most cowardly way of dismantling it.”

“The massive reduction in force at the Education Department is an attack on opportunity that will gut the agency and its ability to support students, throwing federal education programs into chaos across the country,” she continued. “This move will directly impact the 90% of students who attend public schools by denying them the resources they need to thrive. That’s why Americans
squarely oppose eliminating the Education Department. We are urging Congress—and the courts—to step in to ensure all students can maintain access to a high-quality public education.”

The Education Department purge came days after
news broke that President Donald Trump was preparing an executive order aimed at completely shuttering the agency—a move that would legally require congressional approval.

Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said late Tuesday that the Education Department firings “are Project 2025 in action, and they have one goal—to make it easier for billionaires and anti-union extremists to give themselves massive tax breaks at the expense of working people.”

“Today’s announcement from the Department of Education is just the beginning of what’s to come,” Saunders warned. “These layoffs threaten the well-being and educational opportunities for millions of children across the country and those seeking higher education. The dedicated public service workers at public schools, colleges, and universities deserve better. Elections may have consequences, but we will not sit by while billionaires like Elon Musk and Linda McMahon tear apart public services piece by piece. We will keep speaking out and finding ways to fight back.”