McMahon: Trump Isn't 'Taking Away Education'

Education Secretary Linda McMahon says mass layoffs at the Department of Education do not mean that President Trump is "taking away education"—but he still plans to eliminate the department. In a Fox News interview, McMahon told Laura Ingraham that Trump's directive to her "clearly, is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we'll have to work with Congress, you know, to get that accomplished." In a news release issued Tuesday after workers were told offices would be closed Wednesday, the department said a "reduction in force" would affect nearly half its workforce, cutting its headcount from 4,133 workers to 2,183. McMahon said Trump is "taking the bureaucracy out of education so that more money flows to the states."

• Key programs: Officials insist the cuts won't affect key programs like student aid, the Hill reports. "We wanted to make sure that we kept all of the right people and the good people to make sure that the outward-facing programs … the grants, the appropriations that come from Congress, all of that are being met, and none of that's going to fall through the cracks," McMahon said Tuesday. She said the layoffs are the "first step of eliminating what I think is bureaucratic bloat."

• Where the cuts hit hardest: The department's Office of Civil Rights was hit hardest by the cuts; some of its regional offices will be closed, the New York Times reports. "The office, already understaffed, regularly struggled to work through lengthy civil rights investigations," the Times notes.
• Plans to dismantle the department: The AP looks at the department's operations and how Trump has discussed changing them. He has spoken of shifting federal funding like the Title I program for low-income schools to the states, without providing details. The Project 2025 conservative policy blueprint includes extensive plans for shifting the department's functions to other federal agencies. Trump is expected to issue an executive order calling for the agency to be shuttered, but it can't be totally eliminated without the approval of Congress.
• Pushback: Sheria Smith, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 25, accused the administration of misleading the public about what the department does, NBC News reports. "Do you want your and your children's rights enforced in school?" Smith said in a statement. "Do you want your children to have the ability to play sports in their school districts? Do you need financial aid for college? Are you a fellow civil servant that relies on student loan forgiveness? Does your school district offset property taxes with federal funding? If yes, then you rely on the Department of Education, and the services you rely on and the employees who support them are under attack."
• Conservatives have always wanted it gone: Conservatives have been trying to get rid of the department since it was created as a standalone agency in 1979, Vox reports in a look at decades of efforts to abolish it. A backlash against how public schools handled the pandemic and culture war issues in recent years made many GOP voters more open to closing the department, Vox notes.

(More Department of Education stories.)