Education Department employees offered $25,000 buyout

The Department of Education is looking to downsize by offering employees a $25,000 buyout.

The deadline for employees to accept the offer is 11:59 p.m. Monday.

“This is a one time offer in advance of a very significant Reduction in Force for the US Department of Education,” Jacqueline Clay, a chief human capital officer, wrote in an email sent Friday afternoon, according to Politico.

The Education Department verified the news report.

President Trump has been highly critical of the Department of Education, saying taxpayers are not getting a bang for their buck and pledging on the campaign trail to shutter the agency.

The Senate is expected to vote Monday to confirm former wrestling executive Linda McMahon as the department’s leader.

Mr. Trump told reporters last month that he wanted Ms. McMahon to “put herself out of a job.”

The push to gut the education department is part of the administration’s broader push to dramatically scale down the federal workforce.

Mr. Trump has deputized tech billionaire Elon Musk to steer the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, in its quest to eliminate $1 trillion in federal spending.

Mr. Trump earlier this year offered all federal workers eight months salary in exchange for resigning from their positions.

Roughly 75,000 federal workers — or about 3% of the civilian workforce — have accepted the deferred buyout, which has survived legal challenges.

Federal employees also received a second email from the Office of Personnel Management asking them to share five bullet points on their accomplishments last week.

The initial email sparked confusion across federal agencies after Mr. Musk took to social media to warn that those who did not reply would be considered as having offered their resignations.

Several agencies, including the Department of Defense and the FBI, advised employees not to respond to the request as they sought the best way to proceed.

However, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a post on social media over the weekend that he now expects civilian employees to respond to the “What have you done this week?” email.