The deadline for U.S. Department of Education employees to accept an offer of up to $25,000 to resign or retire has passed as Linda McMahon was sworn in to lead the agency on Monday.
The majority of Department of Education staff were offered the one-time buyout incentive as President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) look to gut the agency and return education responsibilities back to the states.
Education Department employees were offered the one-time buyout and given an 11:59 p.m. deadline on Monday to accept or decline the deal, a spokesperson for the department told Fox News Digital on Monday.
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It is unclear how many employees accepted the offer ahead of the deadline. Fox News Digital on Tuesday reached out to the Education Department for figures but did not immediately receive a response.
With about 4,200 employees, the agency’s workforce is the smallest of the 15 Cabinet-level executive departments.
The buyout offers come on the heels of President Donald Trump saying he wants to abolish the Department of Education, calling it a “con job” that has failed to properly educate American students.
“They ranked the top countries in the world. We’re ranked No. 40, but we’re ranked No. 1 in one department: cost per pupil,” Trump said earlier this month.
DOGE SLASHES OVER $100M IN DEI FUNDING AT EDUCATION DEPARTMENT: ‘WIN FOR EVERY STUDENT’
The Trump administration has already announced drastic cuts to the department with the Elon Musk-led DOGE terminating 29 DEI training grants totaling $101 million earlier this month. DOGE then quickly announced the cancelation of another 89 contracts worth $881 million.
The Department of Education earlier this month canceled 10 contracts with Regional Educational Laboratories (REL), totaling $336 million, after a review of the contracts uncovered “wasteful and ideologically driven spending not in the interest of students and taxpayers,” a news release states. A review found instances where DEI initiatives were being funded, the Department of Education said.
Linda McMahon, the former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) CEO, was officially sworn in to serve as the next Secretary of Education on Monday. She has vowed to follow through with the president’s plans for the department.
“President Trump believes that the bureaucracy in Washington should be abolished so that we can return education to the states, where it belongs,” McMahon told members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Feb. 13. “I wholeheartedly support and agree with this mission.”
The Senate confirmed McMahon 51-45, along party lines, the final hurdle of her confirmation process.
“I am prepared to lead the Department in this transformational time and embrace the challenge to improve the education system for the more than 100 million children and college students who deserve better,” McMahon said in a statement after being confirmed.
Fox News’ Aubrie Spady, Stepheny Price and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
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