Mass layoffs at the Dept. of Education скачать в хорошем качестве

Mass layoffs at the Dept. of Education

The Education Department said last Tuesday that it is cutting its staff by about half, a major step toward President Donald Trump’s goal of shrinking the federal role in education and one that critics denounced as damaging to American children. Trump has said he wants to eliminate the department altogether, but that is unlikely because it would require an act of Congress and 60 yes votes in the Senate, where Republicans hold only 53 seats. Absent that, the administration has been working to gut the agency by cutting grants and contracts and reducing staff. The staff reductions announced Tuesday were the largest in department history and of a magnitude rarely contemplated before this administration took office. A senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe details of the layoffs, said that every part of the department will be affected but also insisted that the reductions will not impact its ability to deliver services to student borrowers, distribute grant money to school districts or enforce civil rights law. She said all statutorily mandated functions will continue. But critics said it was impossible to reduce staff so dramatically without affecting the services that states, school districts and students have come to rely on. Caption from article by Laura Meckler and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel.