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March 13, 2025 | 11:21 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The US Department of Education on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, announced that it will carry out layoffs on nearly half of its staff. This move could be a signal of the potential total closure of the Ministry after several government agencies struggled to meet the deadline for submitting a list of second-round mass layoffs.
In a press release published by Reuters on Thursday, March 13, 2025, it was mentioned that this layoff is part of the final mission of the US Department of Education. US President Donald Trump had previously boasted about wanting to disband this Ministry, which is responsible for overseeing college loans up to US$1.6 trillion.
The US Department of Education also oversees the enforcement of civil rights in school environments and distributes funding assistance from the central government to districts in need.
The current debt of the United States is very high. Consequently, President Trump has made radical changes to the US government since taking office on January 20, 2025. He cut state expenditures and dramatically streamlined 2.3 million civil servants. He has appointed billionaire Elon Musk to head the National Efficiency Agency, which is responsible for combing through payment records and personnel.
Trump told reporters in February 2025 that this effort is expected to cut US$1 trillion from the federal budget, which amounted to US$6.75 trillion in the last fiscal year.
The US government has been spending more money than it collects each year since 2001, leading to annual budget deficits and a continually increasing debt burden.
The country has borrowed heavily to wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan, finance tax cuts, respond to natural disasters, and help Americans cope with the 2007-2009 recession and the Covid-19 pandemic. However, Washington has been running deficits even when the country is not in crisis.
The current publicly held debt is at US$28.9 trillion, equivalent to 100 percent of the GDP, and the non-partisan Government Accountability Office predicts that the debt will reach 107 percent of GDP, a record high, in 2027.
Among Trump's steps to reduce the debt burden is to dramatically reduce the number of civil servants in the central government through layoffs or voluntary retirement.
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