The collective retrenchment of the Education Department on Tuesday affected some 1,315 employees – including civil servants from across the country, who are now surprised that they would advocate those they served.
According to the officials of the Senior Education Department, the deduction – which is for a reduction of about 50% in the department – affected every part of the education department.
But a formula tells familiar ABC News that the lack of force affected the offices for civil rights and federal student aid. Civil servants working for OCR and FSA are tasked to investigate discrimination within US schools and help students of the country to get higher education.
OCR and FSA employees were abolished in almost all regional offices, according to the source, who spoke to ABC News on condition of anonymity. Therefore, about half of the federal agency will “absolutely affect” the operation of the department, which is in accordance with the delegation of the department working in the department.
Another department of education said, “I don’t know how to serve (disabled students),” another education employee said that his name is not required for this story. “
The headquarters of the US Department of Eduction, which was ordered to be closed for the day for the officers described as security reasons amid large -scale trimmed, is seen on 12 March 2025 in Washington.
Mark Sheffelbin/AP
The employee’s office is a law enforcement agency that has been accused of implementing anti-discrimination laws for students on the basis of race, gender and disability among other characteristics.
According to the law, the office review is about complaints about the weakest students of the country, including Section 504, which helps to ensure that disabled students have the same access to educational opportunities. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has ensured that important programs for disabled students will not be cut.
Closing the office of this employee – and other regional offices – reduces the number of civil servants across the country that provide disability services to these students.
Employees of the Regional Education Department, who gained a decrease in force email on Tuesday, told ABC News that their Civil Rights Office was abolished.
The employee said, “All those disabled children, who are the wholesale of our dock, will not be helped.”
However, McMahon said that the agency would still manage statutory programs that rely on the disadvantaged background students. In an interview on Fox News “The Ingraham Angle” on Tuesday night, McMahon suggested that “good” employees who administer legally mandatory tasks would not be damaged in the process.
McMahon said, “The first step to end what we did today, which I think is the bureaucracy blot.”
“This is a human matter for many people who are there, they are out of a job, but we wanted to make sure that we kept all the right people, good people, to ensure that all of the external-affected programs, grants, appropriations that come from Congress, all of them are being completed and no cracks are going to fall,” he said.
Linda McMahon, nominated to be the Education Secretary of President Donald Trump, testifies during the hearing of his Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, in Washington on 13 February 2025.
Win McNamee/Getty Pictures
A statement by the Education Department on Tuesday said that the employees starting from March 21 will be placed on administrative leave. They will get full salary and benefits through June 9, senior officials said.
The statement also stated that DOE “will continue to distribute all statutory programs under the agency, including formula funding, student loans, pail grants, funding for special requirements, and competitive grants.”
But on Tuesday, the news of the deduction was demorous to the education department employee, who is out of the job after more than two decades in the agency.
“It’s upset,” said the employee. “It is not understood-this is the reverse world.”
On Wednesday, Trump said that he felt “very badly” about the mass cut in DOE, but quickly claimed, without proof, that many of its employees were not going to work or do good work.
“Now, the Department of Education, perhaps more than any other place, there are many people who can be bitten,” he said.
She praised McMahon and said that she is “doing a great job.”
“We have a dream, the dream is that we are going to transfer the education department, we are going to transfer education to the states,” he said.
The Trump administration has urged McMahon to return power to the states, but education is already a local level issue. The responsibility of the Education Department is to conduct the amount, conduct important research projects and to oversee complaints of discrimination.
The Education Department said, “We all know that local education agencies and state education agencies- they control 95% of public education.” “The federal government does not control the course, hiring, does not control the firing of teachers, does not control standardized tests, etc.. We do not control anything other than trying to help people, give loans to people so that they can probably help their family and educate themselves and then ensure that the children who are disabled are considered to be those who are disabled. Is.”
The civil servant said that he – along with the rest of his office – is now shocked.
“There is no rule in a hostile acquisition,” the employee said. “They are treating the government as if it is a business, and it is not and that is unfortunate.”
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