Those who decline the offer could be terminated later under ongoing plans to reduce the size of the agency or eventually eliminate it.
The U.S. Department of Education has offered most of its employees a buyout offer to leave their posts by the end of this month.
The agency confirmed to The Epoch Times that on Feb. 28, it sent an email to its staff offering employees up to “a $25,000 Separation Incentive Payment.”
“The offer expires at 11:50 p.m. (Eastern time) Monday.”
No additional information regarding the offer was provided.
This latest cost-saving effort follows the cancellation of $900 million in contracts related to the department’s Education Sciences agency and $101 million in contracts linked to diversity, equity, and inclusion training in education.
Those planned reductions were verified last month.
President Donald Trump previously noted his intention to shrink the Department of Education, move its functions to other federal agencies or states, and eventually eliminate it. The department, created in 1979, is the smallest of all federal agencies. Its critics say it was never intended to shape policy and curriculum for K-12 or higher education, and the performance of U.S. students compared with those in other developed countries has decreased during its 45-year existence.
Lawmakers have noted that congressional approval is required to eliminate the department. In the meantime, some have discussed moving its functions and funding streams to other agencies and the states through block grants. Federal student loan and grant functions, for example, could be handled by the Treasury Department. The Justice Department is equipped to handle the agency’s Office for Civil Rights, and data collection and reporting could be tasked to the Census Bureau.
Democrats oppose the elimination or reduction of the Department of Education. Senators noted prior to Linda McMahon’s March 3 confirmation as secretary of education that they could not support someone who does not back the department’s original mission or who is tasked with dismantling the agency she oversees.
“I’m very proud to say that every single Democrat will vote against McMahon,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said before the vote.
The result was 51-45, along party lines, with two senators absent.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) reminded opponents that the department mainly exists to fund a small share of school programs. He supports decreasing the size of the agency and trusting education decisions to states and local school boards.
“There is no such thing as a federal superintendent of education,” he said. “I have no reason to believe that she can’t run the Department of Education.”