A new internal report warns the Education Department has lost capacity to serve students in K12 and higher ed after losing 40% of its staff in the first few months of 2025.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order to close the Education Department soon after his inauguration and famously tasked Education Secretary Linda McMahon with putting herself out of a job. In the ensuing months, staff were cut from 16 of the agency’s 17 offices, leading to the elimination of several suboffices, according to the Office of the Inspector General’s review.
A number of these suboffices were required by law to oversee financial aid, civil rights complaints, English learner programs and cybersecurity, among other functions, the report notes.
“Remaining suboffices could be indirectly impacted should staff be reassigned or the suboffices’ functions be expanded,” the report says.
Some 90 grants worth $504 million were terminated and an additional 223 grants were identified for cancellation, the report found. The agency also halted 129 contracts worth $1.3 billion.
The Education Department did not provide all the information requested by the Inspector General or permit unfettered access to department staff, which limited the reviewers’ ability to determine the full impact of the cuts, the report attests.
Education Department adjustments
Earlier this month, the Education Department transferred civil rights enforcement and special ed support to other agencies. The Office for Civil Rights will move to the Department of Justice, while the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services will shift to Health and Human Services.
Four new interagency departments have been established with Justice and Health and Human Services. In just over a year, the Education Department has created 14 interagency partnerships to shift its responsibilities to other federal agencies.
The latest agreement marks another step by the Trump administration to scale back the government’s role in public education.
“With federal law as the heavy anchor, our goal in this partnership is to break down the bureaucratic barriers and strengthen the coordination of resources to improve programs that serve infants, toddlers, children and adults, McMahon wrote in a letter to parents of children with disabilities.
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