Dozens of emotional Division of Schooling staff took half in a remaining “clap-out” in Washington, D.C., after dropping jobs amid the Trump administration’s company restructuring.
The administration slashed about 50% of the division’s workforce as a part of President Donald Trump and Schooling Secretary Linda McMahon’s technique to abolish the division and ship schooling choices to the states.
The departing civil servants, who’ve both been terminated, retired or voluntarily purchased out, have every been given about half-hour to retrieve their belongings this week — earlier than exiting the constructing to clapping colleagues who had been screaming “thanks!” exterior the workplaces in Washington, D.C.
Former Secretary of Schooling Miguel Cardona speaks in entrance of supporters of schooling staff throughout a clap-out occasion in entrance of the Division of Schooling constructing in Washington D..C., March 28, 2025.
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The final schooling chief, former Schooling Secretary Miguel Cardona, visited his previous workplace to have a good time staff affected by the workforce shakeup.
Clapping, shaking arms and cheering them alongside, Cardona instructed the civil servants, “Thanks in your service.”
“These public servants which might be strolling out proper now deserve a thanks. They deserve respect. They’ve labored exhausting — not simply through the time that I served as secretary however earlier than that,” Cardona, carrying plain garments, instructed reporters in a short assertion exterior company headquarters.
“I am right here, for the workers right here, to say thanks,” he added.
Former Secretary of Schooling Miguel Cardona joins supporters of the Division of Schooling staff throughout a clap-out occasion in entrance of the Division of Schooling constructing in Washington D..C., March 28, 2025.
Arthur Jones II/ABC Information
DeNeen Ripley shook Cardona’s hand and instructed him her total transportation division was eradicated. Ripley has labored on the division over 30 years and mentioned she is taking an early retirement now.
“It seems like a demise,” Ripley instructed ABC Information. “It seems like a foul divorce of types, it simply feels heartbreaking.”
Regardless of the huge overhaul and virtually 2,000 staff misplaced, McMahon has harassed the Division of Schooling will proceed to manage its statutory features that college students from deprived backgrounds depend on, together with grants, components funding and loans.
“The president made clear right this moment that not one of the funding will cease for these [programs],” McMahon instructed ABC Information Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott after Trump’s govt order signing final week, which directed McMahon to make use of all crucial steps permitted below the regulation to abolish the company she’s been tapped to steer.
“I feel it’s his hope that much more funding might go to the states. There will probably be extra alternative for it. And, you recognize, he means what he says. And so there’s not going to be any defunding or discount in funding,” she added.
A dream job “snatched”
Washington, D.C., native Leondra Richardson and a crowd of emotional colleagues throughout the division left the near-defunct company’s headquarters for the ultimate time Friday.
“It was a dream job,” Richardson instructed ABC Information. “And that dream was snatched from me by the brand new administration.”
Richardson mentioned her total workplace, the Workplace of the Chief Information Officer, was folded earlier this month by the “discount in pressure” carried out on March 11.
Sydney Leiher, a midlevel profession public servant, mentioned she felt compelled out and would not know what’s subsequent for her. After leaving along with her belongings, together with a seaside volleyball and Dealer Joe’s sack, Leiher harassed the reforms will not be solely unjustified but in addition unpopular.
“It is undoubtedly emotional,” Leiher mentioned, holding again tears. “I really feel dangerous for all the folks within the Chief Info Workplace who need to, like, collect all of our laptops and gear — like, they do not need to be doing this both.
A Division of Schooling employee acknowledges a crowd of supporters after leaving the Division of Schooling constructing, March 28, 2025.
Josh Morgan/USA TODAY Community
“It is only a actually unhappy day. However seeing the assist out right here from all of different Division of ED workers after which additionally, like, different federal companies after which the general public simply makes it exhibits to me that, like, folks don’t want this, and like, this isn’t well-liked, and this should not be taking place,” Leiher added.
Richardson and Leiher each labored in the identical division, the OCDO, that was shuttered. With out the workplace, Richardson mentioned there’ll hardly be anybody left on the federal stage to gather knowledge to point out pupil enhancements or delays.
The Trump administration has claimed it’s making cuts to rid the federal government of bureaucratic bloat, however Richardson instructed ABC Information her IT job was not coverage based mostly or bureaucratic. Leiher, an analyst who labored on synthetic intelligence machine studying, instructed ABC Information that she took this job after getting back from the Peace Corps. She added that civil service work should not be about politics.
“I imagine in public service,” Leiher mentioned. “I imagine in a nonpartisan civil service. We’re essential, we matter.”
In the meantime, departing civil servants resembling Dr. Jason Cottrell, a knowledge coordinator within the Workplace of Postsecondary Schooling, the most important grant-making division within the division, mentioned he believes college students are being put in jeopardy because the Division of Schooling is diminished.
“Our nation’s college students are going to endure,” Cottrell mentioned. “I consider the doctoral college students which might be, you recognize, attempting to do analysis on most cancers or, you recognize, studying or no matter it could be, and with out the funds to assist them, they’re going to — it will be exhausting for them to succeed with out these funds, and we’re not going to realize that data that we want.”
DeNeen Ripley, who labored on the Division of Schooling for over 30 years, mentioned she is taking an early retirement amid the layoffs on the company. “It seems like a demise,” Ripley instructed ABC Information, March 28, 2025.
Arthur Jones II/ABC Information
The farewell ceremony on the division comes as “clap-outs” are set to proceed throughout the nation subsequent week at regional workplaces in locations resembling Cleveland, Dallas and San Francisco. However these moments hit particularly near residence for Richardson, who detailed how she overcame a teenage being pregnant whereas rising up east of the river within the Southeast quadrant of town.
She mentioned it is so shut but so “far-off” from the federal authorities.
“I hate that I can not be a voice or inspiration to the younger ladies rising up in Southeast D.C. that I needed to encourage,” Richardson mentioned, including that she “needed to present an opportunity to, you recognize, present that there is one other manner and you may make it ahead.”
“You can also make a huge impact and an enormous distinction within the nation coming from the place we from,” she mentioned.
ABC Information’ Alex Ederson contributed to this report