The Trump administration has taken another step toward the president’s goal of shuttering the U.S. Department of Education by slashing its workforce in half.

On March 11, the department announced that as part of its “final mission” it would be laying off around 1,300 workers from all divisions within the department. Impacted staff will be placed on administrative leave beginning March 21.

In addition, 572 employees have opted to take voluntary resignation opportunities and retirement options over the last seven weeks. Following these actions, the department said its workforce would total roughly 2,183 workers, down from 4,133 on the day Trump took office.

According to a news release, the Department of Education will continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency’s purview, including formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students, and competitive grantmaking.

Trump would need an act of Congress to fully abolish the department, which was created by legislation signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979.

The department is responsible for distributing Title I supplemental funding to schools with low-income students with the goal of providing students with an equitable, high-quality education. It conducts educational research and provides guidance and technical assistance to schools on implementing laws such as the Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act (IDEA). The department distributes grants and loans for higher education to undergraduates with financial need. The department also houses the Office of Civil Rights, which is tasked with enforcing laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, sex and disability in K-12 and higher education.

“This is an assault on public education in America. Let’s not pretend its something else,” said Arne Duncan, former U.S. secretary of education, during a broadcast of ACSA’s Legislative Lunch Break on March 5. “I am extraordinarily concerned for our nation’s public schools, for our teachers and for our students. How this movie ends, I’m not sure. But this is not a time to be silent.”

Duncan, who headed the Department of Education during the Obama administration from 2009-2015, recently spoke to ACSA about efforts to dismantle the agency he once led.

Duncan advised educators to be “explicitly clear” with families about how K-12 federal funding cuts are impacting students.

“Parents will put up with a lot of lies, but if you start messing with their kids, those parents turn into Mama Bear and Papa Bear,” he said.

He also called on public pensions like CalSTRS to divest from private equity firms that are using their power in Washington, D.C., to attack public education.

“That would shock the world,” Duncan said. “The power’s in the purse, in the pocketbook, with these guys.”

Calling education the “ultimate bipartisan or non-partisan issue,” Duncan said efforts to break apart the department were counterproductive to improving the academic achievement of students, who have fallen farther behind since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“All of this public commotion doesn’t help a single child anywhere in country,” he said. Trump’s pick to lead the dismantling of the department is Linda McMahon, a Republican donor and founder of World Wrestling Entertainment, who was confirmed by the Senate in a 51-45 vote on March 3.

In a message to department staff shortly after being sworn in, Secretary McMahon said her vision for education in America was aligned with President Trump’s: to empower states and parents to make educational decisions and to rid the system of political ideologies, special interests and unjust discrimination.

“This is our opportunity to perform one final, unforgettable public service to future generations of students,” McMahon wrote to staff. “I hope you will join me in ensuring that when our final mission is complete, we will all be able to say that we left American education freer, stronger, and with more hope for the future.”

Duncan said he wishes the current secretary of education well.

“I do not want her to fail. ... If she fails, kids get hurt and the country gets hurt,” he said. “What she has to do is she has to look into her heart and into her soul and figure out if there’s a way to push back on Trump and actually do the right thing for children.”