WASHINGTON — President Trump’s Education Department is floating a buyout offer of up to $25,000 to its employees, which is set to terminate at 11:59 p.m. Monday, officials told The Post.
The department shared details of the “Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment” — which will come to $25,000 or uniquely calculated severance, whichever amount is fewer — to employees on Friday afternoon.
So far, officials say 137 workers, including those slated for retirement, have taken them up on the offer.
“This is a one time offer in advance of a very significant Reduction in Force for the US Department of Education,” wrote chief human capital officer Jacqueline Clay in the missive, which was first reported by Politico Friday.
The offer followed requests last week from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for agencies to submit “reorganization plans” by March 13.
It also follows a broader federal buyout package that OPM extended to 2 million government employees who didn’t want to return to in-person work in Washington, DC.
Around 75,000 accepted those terms before a Feb. 12 deadline. They will be able to leave their jobs while being awarded full pay and benefits until the end of the 2025 fiscal year on Sept. 30.
To be eligible for the Education Department’s offer, employees must not have received the initial OPM buyout, must not be temporary or politically appointed workers, and must not have been rehired out of retirement or in the process of retiring due to a disability.
Eligible retirees in the Voluntary Early Retirement Plan (VERA) or Optional Retirement will be able to receive the extra cash on top of existing benefit packages.
Those who took any student loan repayments over the past three years, a recruitment or relocation bonus in the last two years or a retention bonus in the last year are not eligible.
Eligible employees must also have worked for the government for at least three years.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk first suggested the buyout plan last year before overseeing its implementation by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Trump tapped the Tesla and SpaceX founder to dramatically cut costs and reduce the workforce of the executive branch as part of the initiative run by DOGE, which despite the name is not a government department.
OPM fired off emails last week at Musk’s direction asking federal employees to list five things they accomplished — or else face firing.
Trump, 78, hasn’t minced words about his plans for the Education Department, ripping the agency as “a big con job” that he’d like “to be closed immediately” — and also saying that his goal for Education Secretary-designate Linda McMahon, who will receive a final Senate confirmation vote later Monday, was to “put herself out of a job.”
Congressional Democrats have slammed the Trump administration and Musk’s DOGE team for seeking to dismantle the Department of Education, culminating in a showdown at the department’s headquarters in DC last month.
“The Department was created through an Act of Congress. It cannot be abolished except through an Act of Congress,” said Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) during a protest at which Dem lawmakers were barred from entering the building.
