more than a thousand federal workers at the Department of Education are out of a job the education secretary Tuesday night announced 50% of the workforce is being slashed as part of an effort to deliver Services more efficiently and a government-wide move by President Trump and billionaire White House adviser Elon Musk to slash spending and reduce what they see as waste but the layoffs mean the department which started the year with more than 4,000 employees will have roughly 2,000 remaining those affected are being told to Tork starting today until March 21st when they'll be placed on administrate of leave then given 90 days pay and benefits all education department offices in Washington DC were closed today for what the administration cited as security reasons the shakeup has many worried about what it'll mean for an agency that manages critical areas like Federal loans for college and civil rights enforcement to name a few for more I'm joined by Robert Kim executive director of the education Law Center Robert good to talk to you based on the jobs that have been targeted within the department what can you say about how this will impact the agency's ability to carry out its functions yeah well we sure we know from some of the initial reporting that uh up to half of the US Department of Education staff is uh on uh set to be cut or eliminated and uh it it the the cuts would eliminate many different areas of the department uh first and foremost uh the Civil Rights department where I used to work during the Obama Administration uh hundreds of Staff in many Regional Offices around the country would be uh are are slated for elimination which is is a a real devastating blow to ensure uh equity and non-discrimination in school districts uh all around the country so that alone is a significant impact um and then other specialty units that deal with educational policy and program development uh concerns uh offices around uh special education let me let me stay with that first part Robert the Civil Rights um where you uh worked previously I mean you know what it takes to both launch and Carry Out investigation I'm thinking about um in particular the amount of uh work power that needs could we see something like that affected where investigations simply aren't carried out or or aren't happening anymore and then of course the victims uh being the school children absolutely we I mean that already has happened with earlier uh cuts that were on a smaller scale to the Civil Rights staff we know that hundreds and if not thousands of Investigations were uh on pause or effectively not moving forward and with the upcoming cuts um that work will be absolutely decimated and so what that means is that thousands of students and their parents uh will uh have uncertainty or a lack of resolution in their civil rights cases uh and uh also those school districts or universities that were uh under investigation they also need finality as as to what's going to happen in those cases as well so it's a it's a a tremendous blow to civil rights and ensuring Equity uh and non-discrimination for students in in schools all over the country I I mean we know the president and and conservatives for that matter for many years have been targeting this department and looking to eliminate it but is a mass layoff like this even legal aren't some of these offices protected by law it's it's a really good question and we know that this department was created by Congress in 1979 to carry out certain functions uh and part of this was because we needed to have a centralized office to deal with uh uh education matters and have these functions not be split across many different agencies of government and so this reduction in in uh the Staffing by such a large amount uh I think raises questions as to whether this white house and this president has the authority to do that um and or whether or not this goes right to the heart of the Congressional uh uh Power to establish this office and that is a power that only Congress has to sort of change the the the the layout and the makeup of of a cabinet agency to such an extent so there are a lot of legal questions uh moving forward very quickly what concerns you most this Department many others have already been through dramatic shifts in these last several weeks what concerns you most about the sheer number of uh layoffs that have happened there these layoffs would impact uh thousands potentially millions of families and students across the country uh it's the and also the states and the districts uh that that need the support and rely on the support and technical assistance from the federal agency so the real impact here is on kids and education and it's a sad statement that the federal government would be instead of uh acting more aggressively to put education at the center of our national policy that would it would be returning to an era in which education was not the priority or focus of of the federal government and that is uh not the right direction for our country in the 21st century we have so many needs around education to lift it up and improve it uh and instead we are signaling that we want to go in the opposite direction and that's not good for the country uh for National Security and for our democracy all right Robert Kim is with the education Law Center Robert good to talk to you thank you [Music]