Education Department Not Transparent About RIF Cost or Effectiveness, Former Employees Say
The request cites roughly 1,000 layoffs and later rehiring, and asks the department watchdog to review the cost and legality of the moves.
- On Tuesday, former Education Secretaries Arne Duncan, John B. King Jr., and Miguel Cardona urged acting inspector general Mark Priebe to investigate the costs of mass firings and subsequent rehirings at the Education Department.
- The Trump Administration's reduction in force took effect in August 2025 after Supreme Court approval, resulting in roughly 1,000 workers being 'unlawfully terminated or forced into retirement,' according to Gittleman.
- Beyond the RIF, the group questioned an October 2025 attempt to fire nearly 500 employees that Congress stopped, alongside over a dozen interagency agreements with Labor and Treasury to offload responsibilities.
- Defending the RIF as 'implemented carefully,' a department spokesperson panned the former secretaries' records, citing 'failures of Common Core' and the 'botched FAFSA rollout' as evidence of a 'demonstrably broken bureaucracy.'
- At the Capitol on Tuesday, lawmakers including Angela Alsobrooks and Chris Van Hollen joined union leaders, with Van Hollen pledging 'we are fighting back' against the administration's systematic effort to dismantle the department.
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13 Articles
Past secretaries, union leader call for probe into Education Department slashing • Rhode Island Current
WASHINGTON — Three former U.S. Education Department secretaries and the union representing agency workers on Tuesday urged the department’s top watchdog to investigate the cost and impact of mass firings last year. Former U.S. Education Secretaries Arne Duncan and John B. King Jr., who led the department during the Obama administration, and Miguel Cardona of the […]
Past secretaries, union leader call for probe into Education Department slashing • West Virginia Watch
WASHINGTON — Three former U.S. Education Department secretaries and the union representing agency workers on Tuesday urged the department’s top watchdog to investigate the cost and impact of mass firings last year.
Daily Montanan
Past secretaries, union leader call for probe into Education Department slashing
The U.S. Department of Education building in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 23, 2026. (Photo by Niki Kelly/Indiana Capital Chronicle)WASHINGTON — Three former U.S. Education Department secretaries and the union representing agency workers on Tuesday urged the department’s top watchdog to investigate the cost and impact of mass firings last year. Former U.S. Education Secretaries Arne Duncan and John B. King Jr., who led the department during the Obam…
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