More than 60 Texas-based U.S. Education Department employees were laid off Tuesday as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to slash the federal workforce, according to a document sent to union officials by the education agency.
The Education Department — a 45-year-old agency that President Donald Trump and its newly appointed head Linda McMahon have pushed to dismantle — terminated at least 25 attorneys in Texas specializing in civil rights. It also shuttered its Dallas office, laying off 27 employees; and terminated equal opportunity specialists in Fort Worth, Dallas and Justin, a city north of Fort Worth; compliance review specialists in Midlothian and Cedar Hill; a statistician in Tomball; and an information technology specialist in Conroe.
One Austin-based employee, an attorney, was terminated.
The federal document outlining the terminations, obtained by the American-Statesman, showed that at least 64 of the 969 workers represented by American Federation of Government Employees Local 252 who were laid off were based in Texas. This count does not include non-union employees affected by the layoffs or anyone who might have taken a voluntary buyout.
In a news release Tuesday night, the federal department said the total terminations account for almost 50% of the agency’s workforce, or nearly 2,000 workers. About 1,300 employees were laid off Tuesday, and nearly 600 took buyouts in recent weeks. Some employees will be placed on administrative leave as soon as March 21, though workers will be paid until June 9.
McMahon, whom the U.S. Senate confirmed as education secretary March 3, said the workforce reduction is part of a “commitment to efficiency, accountability and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most.”
Education advocates, however, say the cuts will affect critical services, including civil rights accountability, protection for students with disabilities and distribution of federal aid and grants.
“This is not right,” Sheria Smith, president of the local AFGE 252 union, said at a news conference Wednesday. “What this administration has done is eliminated oversight, eliminated protection of American students, of Texas students, from K all the way to higher education.”
The federal department operates key funding programs for K-12 students who are in special education, low-income, bilingual, migrant and at-risk. Smith was terminated from her position at the Education Department civil rights office in Dallas, which folded with the layoffs.
The Dallas office, which Smith described as an accountability barometer for schools, served as a place where parents and students could access help with civil rights issues. The office received and reviewed thousands of civil rights complaints a year from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, including claims dealing with sexual assault; gender, race or religious discrimination; and accommodations for students with disabilities, medical needs or learning challenges, Smith said. If the schools were not following the law, the office would mediate a solution between all parties.
The Dallas office was one of six that closed across the nation, union officials said.
“The concern is that if you get rid of that entire office, where does all of that work go?” said Brittany Coleman, a chief shop steward at the union and an attorney who was terminated from the Dallas office.
Coleman is unable to contact students and parents in ongoing cases or share information about next steps, she said. She is not aware of any Education Department plan to replace the services the offices’ offered, and she said she fears students will face the brunt of the impact.
Project 2025, a nearly 900-word presidential transition plan published by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, calls for the federal administration to dismantle the Education Department and redirect more resources to the states.
Coleman expressed dismay about the Trump administration painting the Education Department as wasteful and ideological, which she called a gross mischaracterization.
“We are here to make sure that children have equal opportunity to educational outcomes and that they can be the best that they can be. We are not here to tell school districts what to teach in their classrooms, what not to teach,” Coleman said. “It’s very frustrating and disappointing to hear that from people who are supposed to be leading our agency and leading our country who don’t have a full understanding or any understanding of what we actually do.”
Reducing the number of experienced people who administer education funding — such as money provided under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) or Title I, which largely serves low-income students — is bound to affect services, Texas State Teachers Association spokesman Clay Robison said.
Robison also worried that staff reductions could reduce the federal government’s response to civil rights complaints and legally mandated oversight of civil rights laws.
“It takes people to run these programs,” Robison said. “They don’t operate by themselves. Texas schools are already underfunded. This is a major source of critical funding for these programs.”
Texas received $14.7 billion in public education funding from the federal government in the 2022-23 school year, the most recent year with complete data, according to a February analysis by the Statesman.
The Hays school district, which gets about 10%-12% of its funding from the federal government, hadn’t heard about any changes as of Wednesday, spokesman Tim Savoy said.
The district’s more pressing concern was with state funding, he said.
“Without relief and adequate state funding this year, districts will have to make very difficult budgeting decisions for next school year because most fund balances, including that of Hays CISD, are significantly strained,” Savoy said.
Robison also worries that a federal restructuring of public education funding that puts more control in state hands could mean a shift in Texas on priorities away from the most in-need students.
“We fear for the future of these programs if they’re put in the hands of the leadership of the state of Texas,” Robison said.
In a statement, a Texas Education Agency spokesman said the agency isn’t aware of any changes to the federal Education Department’s funding distributions, but it would inform schools of any adjustments if or when those are handed down.
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