*

Education Department will cut nearly half its staff

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Department offices ordered shut down until Thursday

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Agencies cut workers using lump-sum payments, early

retirement

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Thursday is deadline to submit plans for large-scale

layoffs

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Workers would receive buyout payment of up to $25,000

(Adds number of Education Department workers, closure of

Washington-area offices on Tuesday, paragraphs 3-5)

By Timothy Gardner, Tim Reid, Alexandra Alper and Marisa

Taylor

WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of

Education said on Tuesday it would lay off nearly half its

staff, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as government

agencies scrambled to meet President Donald Trump's deadline to

submit plans for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations are part of the department's "final

mission," it said in a press release, alluding to Trump's vow to

eliminate the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in

college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and

provides federal funding for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would lead to the

department's dismantling, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon

said yes, adding that doing so "was the president's mandate."

The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 workers, down

from 4,133 when Trump took office in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the agency ordered offices in

the Washington area closed to staff from Tuesday evening through

Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters.

Similar closures served as a precursor to shuttering the

headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development,

the humanitarian aid agency, and the Consumer Financial

Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against unscrupulous

lenders.

The layoffs are the latest step in Trump's sweeping effort

to downsize the government, led by the world's richest person

Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has

cut more than 100,000 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal

civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign aid and canceled

thousands of programs and contracts, despite dozens of lawsuits

challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE's blunt-force approach has frustrated several White

House officials and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have

confronted angry constituents at town halls. Trump told

department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the final

say on staffing, his first notable public move to restrain the

Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government agencies have been ordered to come up

with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, setting up the next

phase of Trump's cost-cutting campaign. Several agencies have

offered employees payments to retire early to fulfill Trump's

demand.

Affected Education Department employees will be placed on

administrative leave starting on March 21, the department said.

The union representing more than 2,800 department workers

said it would fight the "draconian cuts."

"What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, chaos,

and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this regime has no

respect for the thousands of workers who have dedicated their

careers to serve their fellow Americans," said Sheria Smith,

president of the American Federation of Government Employees

Local 252.

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have offered lump-sum payments of up to

$25,000 before tax to workers who agree to leave their jobs.

Among these are the Office of Personnel Management, the Social

Security Administration and the Department of Health and Human

Services, including its Food and Drug Administration.

The buyout offers, combined with another program that eases

eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being

embraced as a lower-friction way to help meet the Thursday

deadline, human resources specialists at several federal

agencies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad

lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a

first wave of mass layoffs and dismantled entire departments

like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which manages the

government's property portfolio, is also seeking approval to

offer the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent

by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The

Securities and Exchange Commission has already offered bonuses

of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance experts said the

appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less

vulnerable to legal challenges. It also requires workers who

have accepted the offer to repay the money if they take another

government job within five years.

"If your strategy is to get as many people out the door

voluntarily, that reduces the risk of court orders and

opposition to you in the long run," said Don Moynihan, a public

policy professor at the University of Michigan.

STILL AWAITING PLANS

Only a couple of agencies have telegraphed how many

employees they plan to cut in the second phase of layoffs. These

include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to

cut more than 80,000 workers, and the National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029

staff.

Despite the looming deadline, no agency has yet submitted

its job-cutting plan to OPM, the government's human resources

department that is collating the data, a person familiar with

the matter told Reuters.

OPM itself has offered lump-sum payments to some 650 of its

employees, according to another person with knowledge of the

matter. Employees were given until March 12 to respond.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug

Administration sent an email to all 19,000 employees announcing

a Friday, March 14, deadline for a buyout program. Those who

accept would have to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its prior offer by adding two

months of full pay in addition to the bonus, according to a copy

of the email seen by Reuters.