Education Secretary Linda McMahon said massive layoffs Tuesday were the “first step” toward accomplishing President Trump’s goal of eliminating the agency — and insisted the cuts won’t affect educational programs.
McMahon, during an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, was asked if the termination of nearly half of the department’s 4,000-person workforce was part of a broader plan aimed at a “total shutdown” of the federal agency.
“Yes – actually, it is,” the 76-year-old responded.
“That was the president’s mandate,” McMahon added. “His directive to me clearly is to shut down the Department of Education.”
The World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder said the Trump administration understands that it will have to “work with Congress” to accomplish the president’s goal, but that Tuesday’s “reduction in force” plan is key to eventually abolishing the department.
“What we did today was to take the first step of eliminating what I think is bureaucratic bloat,” McMahon said.
McMahon, who led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, said the department was mindful of keeping the “good people” at DOE in place so as not to interrupt funding for educational programs.
“We wanted to make sure that we kept all of the right people, 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,” she said.
McMahon dismissed criticism from American Federation of Teachers head Randi Weingarten that Trump is planning on “getting rid of education” and “taking opportunities away from kids,” arguing that test scores will go up under the president’s plan.
“Well, clearly we’re not taking away education,” McMahon said in response to the criticism from the teachers’ union boss. “The president never said that. He’s taking the bureaucracy out of education so that more money flows to the states.
“Better education is closest to the kids … I think we’ll see our scores go up with our students when we can educate them with parental input as well,” she argued.
On Tuesday, the DOE laid off 1,315 employees that were “redundant or not necessary for the functioning of the department,” according to a senior official.
The terminations add to the nearly 600 staffers who had already left the agency after accepting buyouts and the 63 probationary employees, with less than one year of service on the job, who were fired last month as the Trump administration works to streamline the agency.
“We have to identify where the bloat is, where the bureaucracy is, and we’re going to start there, because the programs, so many of the programs are really excellent,” McMahon said.
“We need to make sure that that money does get to the states, but we want more money to be able to go to the states,” she added. “And that’s what the president has said all along – If we get rid of the bureaucracy the states will get more.”
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