The Institute of Education Sciences Layoffs: An Examination of the Impact and Implications
The Department of Education (ED) has undergone significant staff reductions, raising concerns about the future of education research, civil rights enforcement, and student aid. This article delves into the details of these layoffs, their potential consequences, and the broader implications for the education sector.
Background: Reduction in Force at the Department of Education
The Department of Education experienced a significant reduction in its workforce, which has brought the Department’s headcount down from about 4,100 to about 2,200. This followed nearly 600 people who had already taken early retirement or buyouts, as well as another 60 probationary employees who had already been fired. News is dripping out describing the reduction in force as affecting virtually every office in the agency.
Impact on Employees
The layoffs have had a significant impact on the affected employees and their families. It’s a shame that these cuts have apparently been made without regard to employee performance or effectiveness. It’s particularly disappointing that probationary employees were let go, given that they are either people strong enough to have recently earned promotions or were junior people bringing fresh ideas and talent into the federal government. It’s especially galling to see the Presidential Management Fellows program eliminated; it was essentially a Teach For America for federal workers.
The Institute of Education Sciences (IES)
The Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the department's independent research, statistics, and evaluation arm, has been particularly hard hit. The Trump administration gutted the federal government’s central education data collection and research funding agency, the Institute of Education Sciences. DOGE said it cut dozens of research contracts worth roughly $900 million. These cuts included large-scale efforts to study everything from the best ways to teach literacy in the early grades to how to help students with disabilities make the sometimes difficult transition from high school into the working world. “This is a decimation,” one source with knowledge of IES’ inner workings told NPR, “the destruction of knowing what works for kids.”
On top of those research cuts, on Tuesday, the Education Department terminated more than 100 IES employees, including many research analysts who specialize in K-12 studies and adult and career education. The IES is now left with fewer than 20 federal employees, down from more than 175 at the start of the second Trump administration, according to my reporting.
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National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
IES is home to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the National Center for Education Research, the National Center for Special Education Research, and the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. A source familiar with IES cuts said the dismissals essentially hollow out the National Center for Education Statistics, one of four centers within IES and the one that handles key data collections and the number-crunching behind the NAEP. Former employees reported that the government-gutting DOGE cut the NCES head count from 100 to three.
NCES is responsible for producing the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card, which tracks student academic performance across all 50 states every two years.
Concerns about Data Quality and Research
The cuts to IES raise concerns about the future of education research and data collection. Some officials suggested that the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), which sets NAEP policy, could take over the test’s administration.
IES statistician Aida Ali Akreyi said she served as operations lead for the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).“IPEDS has been a cornerstone of higher education data for more than 40 years, providing essential insights on enrollment, graduation rates, financial aid and institutional performance,” she wrote. “With the recent reduction in force eliminating the IPEDS team, I am deeply concerned about the future of this valuable resource.”
Critics argue that the cuts will undermine the ability to identify best practices and improve educational outcomes. Despite spending hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds annually, IES has failed to effectively fulfill its mandate to identify best practices and new approaches that improve educational outcomes and close achievement gaps for students,” the statement said.
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Potential for Modernization
Mark Schneider, a former IES director who is now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said he hoped that McMahon would rebuild NCES into a modern, more efficient statistical agency that could collect data more cheaply and quickly, and redirect IES’s research division to drive breakthrough innovations like those the Defense Department has.
Impact on Civil Rights Enforcement
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has been dramatically cut. In the department's own language, its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the attorneys who work there are tasked with "preventing, identifying, ending, and remedying discrimination against America's students" based on race, national origin, sex, age and disability. At least 240 OCR employees were laid off, most of them attorneys who investigate complaints from parents and families who believe a school has discriminated against their child. The number of layoffs is likely higher, as that 240 does not include non-union employees. A revised department organizational chart obtained by NPR shows that more than half of the OCR's 12 field offices will also be shuttered - in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco and Dallas.
Beth Gellman-Beer, who said she had been a regional director for ED’s Office for Civil Rights, where she and her team enforced civil rights compliance in public schools across five states. “It’s true. “It was my greatest honor and privilege to serve the public in fighting against the rising tide of discrimination in public schools all these years.”
Concerns about Enforcement Capacity
With roughly half the staff on the way out, what half of that work will fall by the wayside? Now though, the office has at least 40% fewer staffers to enforce those laws. "I'm open to the idea that losing half of the attorneys at OCR is a good decision," says Rick Hess of the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute (AEI), "but being open to it doesn't mean I believe it." Hess says staffing cuts this large should have to be explained, with full transparency, by the administration doing the cutting. In this case, that hasn't happened yet.
Lawsuits and Legal Challenges
The layoffs have drawn a lawsuit filed by 21 Democratic attorneys general arguing that the reductions imperil the agency’s ability to fulfill its congressional mandates. On Thursday, New York Attorney General Letitia James led a group of 20 other state attorneys general suing to stop the Trump administration from dismantling the Education Department. "Firing half of the Department of Education's workforce will hurt students throughout New York and the nation," James said in a statement, "especially low-income students and those with disabilities who rely on federal funding. This outrageous effort to leave students behind and deprive them of a quality education is reckless and illegal."
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Impact on Student Aid
The Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), which administers the sprawling federal student loan portfolio, was hit especially hard in Tuesday's cuts, losing more than 320 unionized staffers. Top Education Department and FSA officials said they will lose more than 450 employees to this upcoming reduction-in-force - and a combined 727 when you include probationary staff who've been terminated as well as veteran workers who have agreed to retire or leave voluntarily.
Sources familiar with the inner workings of FSA, who would not speak publicly for fear of retribution by the Trump administration, said these layoffs, coupled with steep numbers of veteran staff who have chosen to leave, have been devastating. "We've lost hundreds of years of institutional knowledge," one FSA employee told NPR. Also lost in the layoffs, according to multiple FSA sources, were staff who helped oversee the companies that manage the federal student loan portfolio, as well as a large group of IT specialists who help maintain FSA's online presence, including cybersecurity compliance.
Concerns About Borrower Services
Sources tell NPR that the office could soon struggle to perform even basic functions - at a time when huge changes will need to be made in the coming months as Congress and the courts settle on the future of income-driven repayment. "Borrowers are going to be calling call centers," one source told NPR, "and they're going to have even less information than is available to them now."
Potential for FAFSA Chaos
Millions of college students need no reminding of what happens when FSA falls short. Many no doubt remember the Biden administration's troubled rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and are hoping these staff cuts don't mean a return to FAFSA chaos.
Impact on K-12 Education
The department oversees the administration of Title I funding for low-income school districts, as well as programs supporting students with disabilities. While administration officials have insisted that these programs will continue, experts have questioned whether a drastically reduced staff will be able to effectively manage the complex processes required to distribute funds and monitor compliance.
Patrice Willoughby, chief of policy and legislative affairs at the NAACP, says the cuts will affect the government's ability to offer either legal guidance or guardrails - to guarantee the money is being used to help the children it was intended to help. "That will have very negative effects on communities around the country that currently don't really even understand that their child's [special education], or the supports that they receive for their child, are directly connected to the U .S. Department of Education,"
Formula Grant Programs
There will now be fewer people working on the big formula grant programs, like Title I, Title II, and IDEA. Some people worry that that means questions from states and school districts won’t be answered as quickly as before.
Legal and Political Challenges
The legality of the mass layoffs is being questioned, with some arguing that the Trump administration is overstepping its authority. The executive branch has the authority to manage federal personnel; that's not in doubt. The question of the moment is: At what point does managing personnel undermine or even endanger a program that is protected by statute?
Separation of Powers
Sauer further argued that the injunction violates the separation of powers, putting the judicial branch in charge of employment decisions that are the purview of the executive branch.“The injunction rests on the untenable assumption that every terminated employee is necessary to perform the Department of Education’s statutory functions,” Sauer wrote in a court filing. “That injunction effectively appoints the district court to a Cabinet role and bars the Executive Branch from terminating anyone.”
Congressional Oversight
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, told The Washington Post that he had spoken with Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who assured him that the staff reductions will not impact the department’s ability to carry out its statutory obligations.
Broader Implications
The turmoil at the Department of Education is also contributing to uncertainty for colleges and universities across the country. In response to instability surrounding federal resources, many institutions have announced hiring freezes as they brace for potential disruptions in funding.
“Federal resources are one of the main pillars of support for colleges and universities,” said Derrick Anderson, senior vice president of Education Futures at ACE, in an interview with NPR.
Potential for Shifting Key Functions
The staff reductions may also be a precursor to shifting key ED functions to other federal agencies. The New York Times reports that department officials recently visited the Treasury Department to discuss moving student loan management there, signaling a potential transfer of the federal student aid portfolio. Other functions under discussion include relocating civil rights enforcement to the Justice Department and services for disabled students to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Reintegration Plan
Since the layoffs, the department has closed regional offices, consolidated offices in three Washington, D.C. buildings into one, reduced its contracts for parking space, and discontinued an interoffice shuttle. In the most recent filing, Oglesby said the department is working on a “reintegration plan.”
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