How Education Department staffers could get screwed by Trump’s ‘buyout’
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Leaders at the Department of Education have reportedly warned employees that the Trump administration’s controversial, government-wide buyout offer, should they accept it, could get canceled at any time. Last week, the White House announced that it was offering buyouts worth roughly eight months of salary and benefits to all federal employees. But there’s a catch: Employees must decide whether they’ll willingly leave their posts by Monday. (The original deadline was 11:59 p.m. ET on Feb. 6, but a federal federal judge pushed back the deadline by four days.) But education department workers who accept the offer might see it get rescinded without warning. According to NBC News, the department’s employees were informed during an all-staff meeting on Feb. 5 that the education secretary could nullify the package—or that the government could simply stop paying. What’s worse, employees who accept the buyout offer would have little to no recourse, as accepting the deal means they waive all legal claims. “It sounded like a commercial for a used car dealership, like, ‘Act now, one day only,’” an official who attended the meeting told NBC News. According to The Washington Post, a paltry 40,000 federal employees out of a possible 2.3 million have already accepted the offer. The Trump administration, however, has increasingly pressured employees to accept the buyouts as part of its short-sighted effort to transform the federal government and to slash spending. CNN reported Tuesday that the White House is plotting mass layoffs that target federal workers who don’t accept this so-called “rare and generous opportunity.” Federal employees were also told earlier this week that there will “NOT be an extension of this program.” Spokespeople for the Department of Education and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management dismissed the NBC News report, citing a memo saying that “assurances are binding on the government. Were the government to backtrack on its commitments, an employee would be entitled to request a rescission of his or her resignation.” But, as NBC News noted, that same memo included a sample agreement, which says that the heads of federal agencies have “sole discretion” to waive the agreements and that employees waive “all rights” to challenge them. The fact that the yet-to-be-confirmed education secretary, Linda McMahon, could potentially renege on the buyout offer has left department staff feeling worried that it could essentially amount to a bait-and-switch with the federal government failing to hold up its end of the deal. “The morale is pretty bad. One of the managers I work with just said he hasn’t seen any emails in the last four hours since the meeting ended, because everybody just kind of had the life sucked out of them,” another education department official told NBC News. And for education department workers in particular, there’s the added wrinkle that President Donald Trump has pledged to completely dismantle the department, a longtime goal of Christian nationalists. As of Monday, the Trump administration was working on drafting an executive order that would shut down all functions of the agency that aren’t explicitly written into statute. Lawmakers across the aisle have noted that the buyout package is illegal, though Republicans expressed doubt that the congressional GOP majority would do anything to put a stop to it. What’s more, Democratic state attorneys general have warned federal employees that the buyout program is “misleading,” urging them to follow the guidance of their unions. “President Trump’s so-called buyout offers are nothing more than the latest attack on federal workers and the services they provide,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “These supposed offers are not guaranteed.” Campaign Action
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/6/2301943/-How-Education-Department-staffers-could-get-screwed-by-Trump-s-buyout?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=main
Leaders at the Department of Education have reportedly warned employees that the Trump administration’s controversial, government-wide buyout offer, should they accept it, could get canceled at any time. Last week, the White House announced that it was offering buyouts worth roughly eight months of salary and benefits to all federal employees. But there’s a catch: Employees must decide whether they’ll willingly leave their posts by Monday. (The original deadline was 11:59 p.m. ET on Feb. 6, but a federal federal judge pushed back the deadline by four days.) But education department workers who accept the offer might see it get rescinded without warning. According to NBC News, the department’s employees were informed during an all-staff meeting on Feb. 5 that the education secretary could nullify the package—or that the government could simply stop paying. What’s worse, employees who accept the buyout offer would have little to no recourse, as accepting the deal means they waive all legal claims. “It sounded like a commercial for a used car dealership, like, ‘Act now, one day only,’” an official who attended the meeting told NBC News. According to The Washington Post, a paltry 40,000 federal employees out of a possible 2.3 million have already accepted the offer. The Trump administration, however, has increasingly pressured employees to accept the buyouts as part of its short-sighted effort to transform the federal government and to slash spending. CNN reported Tuesday that the White House is plotting mass layoffs that target federal workers who don’t accept this so-called “rare and generous opportunity.” Federal employees were also told earlier this week that there will “NOT be an extension of this program.” Spokespeople for the Department of Education and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management dismissed the NBC News report, citing a memo saying that “assurances are binding on the government. Were the government to backtrack on its commitments, an employee would be entitled to request a rescission of his or her resignation.” But, as NBC News noted, that same memo included a sample agreement, which says that the heads of federal agencies have “sole discretion” to waive the agreements and that employees waive “all rights” to challenge them. The fact that the yet-to-be-confirmed education secretary, Linda McMahon, could potentially renege on the buyout offer has left department staff feeling worried that it could essentially amount to a bait-and-switch with the federal government failing to hold up its end of the deal. “The morale is pretty bad. One of the managers I work with just said he hasn’t seen any emails in the last four hours since the meeting ended, because everybody just kind of had the life sucked out of them,” another education department official told NBC News. And for education department workers in particular, there’s the added wrinkle that President Donald Trump has pledged to completely dismantle the department, a longtime goal of Christian nationalists. As of Monday, the Trump administration was working on drafting an executive order that would shut down all functions of the agency that aren’t explicitly written into statute. Lawmakers across the aisle have noted that the buyout package is illegal, though Republicans expressed doubt that the congressional GOP majority would do anything to put a stop to it. What’s more, Democratic state attorneys general have warned federal employees that the buyout program is “misleading,” urging them to follow the guidance of their unions. “President Trump’s so-called buyout offers are nothing more than the latest attack on federal workers and the services they provide,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “These supposed offers are not guaranteed.” Campaign Action
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/6/2301943/-How-Education-Department-staffers-could-get-screwed-by-Trump-s-buyout?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=main