The Department of Education fired more than 1,300 workers.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon decided who to fire in the mass layoffs announced this week at the U.S. Department of Education, President Donald Trump said on March 12.
“We’re keeping the best people and Linda McMahon is a real professional, very, actually very sophisticated business person, and she cut a large number, but she kept the best people. And we’ll see how it all works out,” Trump told reporters during an appearance in Washington with Ireland’s prime minister.
The Department of Education said on Tuesday that it was slashing its workforce by about half, laying off some 1,315 employees within 90 days after another approximately 600 accepted buyouts.
An official with the agency told reporters that all Department of Education offices outside of Washington would be closed and that the remaining employees would all work out of one building in Washington.
Trump told reporters that he drives through Washington and sees empty Department of Education buildings.
“I feel very badly, but many of them don’t work at all. Many of them never showed up to work,” he said.
He added later, “When we cut … we want to cut the people that aren’t working or not doing a good job.”
He pointed to education rankings that routinely place the United States behind dozens of other countries, even though spending in America is among the highest per pupil.
The American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents Department of Education employees, criticized the firings.
“What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, chaos, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this regime has no respect for the thousands of workers who have dedicated their careers to serve their fellow Americans,” Sheria Smith, president of the union, said in a statement.
Trump has said he wants to eliminate the Department of Education, which Congress established in the 1970s, and let states decide what’s best for their students. He said on Wednesday that most states would do a great job. Those who do not, “we‘ll work with them and we’ll get them to be good,” he said.
