On March 11, the Trump administration announced a cut to nearly half of the Department of Education’s 4,000-person workforce—signaling the beginning of the president’s longtime campaign promise of shuttering the department.

Internal changes have been ongoing for weeks. Current and former employees at the agency spoke with The Nation about the chaos inside the department as the administration released layoff notifications and aligned the department with President Trump’s political agenda. The Department of Education did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Employees were notified on Tuesday that the department’s offices would be closed starting at 6 pm due to “security reasons,” per a copy of an e-mail obtained by The Nation. Confusion and rumors began to swirl about potential shake-ups, according to an employee who was laid off and granted anonymity for fear of losing their severance benefits. “We were all trying to figure out ‘What’s the security concern?,’” they said.

Fifteen minutes after the offices closed, the department announced the layoffs. But employees were not initially told whether they were one of the approximately 1,300 who were fired. Employees called and texted one another in an attempt to learn if they still had a job. Those fired did not receive an e-mail notifying them of their termination until 7:30 pm—over an hour after it was announced to the public.

The termination e-mail, obtained by The Nation, says the decision was a result of Trump’s executive order establishing the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and a memo from the Office of Personnel Management advising workforce cuts. “This decision is in no way a reflection of your performance or contributions,” the e-mail reads. But one employee said that rhetoric from the administration about “bureaucratic bloat,” including Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s comments Tuesday on Fox News, has made federal employees ask: “Why would anyone want to hire me after this if there’s been messaging that we’re not good people?”

McMahon hinted at the move in a department-wide e-mail to staff sent last week titled “Our Department’s Final Mission.” Criticizing DEI programs, federal bureaucracy, and alleged anti-American ideology in schools, she wrote that “we will partner with Congress and other federal agencies to determine the best path forward to fulfill the expectations of the president and the American people.”

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McMahon has acknowledged that fully shutting down the agency, which was created by statute in 1979, would require an act of Congress. But the expansive nature of the layoffs effectively paralyzes the department, according to a former employee. “By the time there is an act of Congress, there isn’t going to be anything left anyway.”

“The ramifications of this will be enormous,” according to one employee, who said that the political upheaval from these firings is only just beginning. “We’re going to see a societal shift on education.” The department vowed that the eliminations will not impact the agency’s statutory functions, such as Pell Grants, funding for students with disabilities, and student loans. An employee pushed back on this, saying, “It’s impossible for statutory functions to occur without the necessary people in place to provide oversight and make sure they are implemented appropriately and in a timely manner.”

“We were already understaffed and trying to do our best,” they said. “This gutting of the agency will harm millions of people and interrupt services and activities across America.”

A coalition of 20 state attorneys general, led by New York Attorney General Leticia James, filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Trump administration over the department’s Tuesday firings. In a press release, James called the move “madness,” arguing that “this administration may claim to be stopping waste and fraud, but it is clear that their only mission is to take away the necessary services, resources, and funding that students and their families need.”

The administration’s crusade began well before Tuesday’s layoffs. In a February 5 e-mail, employees were directed to ensure compliance with some of Trump’s DEI- and gender-related orders. They included a list of keywords they say were unacceptable, including “fairness,” “access,” “empathy,” “homosexual,” “equity,” gender,” “LGBTQ,” “social justice,” and more.

Employees removed letters “supporting LGBTQI+ youth and families in school,” “supporting intersex students,” “supporting transgender youth,” and a resource guide for “confronting anti-LGBTQ+ harassment in schools” from the department’s website, according to a partial list of removals obtained by The Nation.

That same day, employees were sent an e-mail requiring them to review all new and ongoing grants to ensure “department grants do not fund discriminatory practices—including in the form of D.E.I.” In a team meeting to discuss the new orders, employees planned to begin a review of all Education Department grants that contain these keywords. The department began cutting millions of dollars in grants later that month they claim contained DEI.

In January, the department also stopped the development of Spanish translations for trainings that are provided to agency personnel and grant awardees, according to an employee and an internal e-mail. An e-mail sent last week, and reviewed by The Nation, said that the department was considering fully removing all Spanish trainings from its website.

Before Tuesday’s layoffs, some employees in the department received buyout offers of up to $25,000, per an internal e-mail. The employees were also sent the “Fork in the Road” e-mail in late January, offering a deferred resignation. Other probationary employees were also terminated. Dozens of employees associated with DEI initiatives in the department were also placed on administrative leave, according to an e-mail obtained by The Nation.

Sheria Smith, the president of the union that represents thousands of Education Department employees, said at the time that “our members want to continue their important work for the public and are frustrated that their work has been disrupted.”

These shake-ups have left employees feeling scared and uneasy, as they only learn about the termination through news reports. “Sometimes I’ll e-mail someone and just get an automated response that they are on administrative leave,” they said, “and I had no clue they were put on leave.”

McMahon said that nearly 600 employees voluntarily resigned or retired over the past seven weeks. Tuesday’s layoffs cut about 1,300 additional workers. Similar layoffs have been seen at other agencies in recent weeks, including at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the US Agency for International Development.

Plans for the agency’s elimination have not been a secret. Campaigning a third time for the presidency, Trump vowed to eliminate the department and dismantle the federal government’s role in education while simultaneously hoping to assume a more intensive ideological regulatory role. In his eye, doing so would combat an education system “taken over by the radical left maniacs.”

Even with the vow to dismantle the department, Trump and his inner circle have been brandishing the Education Department’s main enforcement mechanisms—federal funding and investigations—as a punishment for those they view as not conforming to their executive authority.

The Education Department, in conjunction with other federal agencies, has opened investigations and sent warning letters to schools they believe are not doing enough to protect Jewish students amid pro-Palestinian protests on campus. Last Friday, the administration canceled $400 million in federal funds to Columbia University “due to the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”

Rumors of an executive action to substantially dismantle the department have been swirling in Washington for weeks. In an interview on Fox News last Friday, McMahon said that Trump “certainly intends” to sign an executive order that would remake the department and ensure that “education is back at the state level where it belongs.”

On February 4 in the Oval Office, Trump said his administration would “have to work with the teachers’ union” to eliminate the department “because the teachers’ union is the only one that’s opposed to it.” Becky Pringle, president of the largest US teachers’ union, the National Education Association, previously denounced the potential executive action, calling it a “wrecking ball at public schools.”

“We won’t be silent as anti-public education politicians try to steal opportunities from our students, our families, and our communities to finance tax cuts for billionaires,” she said. “Together with parents and allies, we will continue to organize, advocate, and mobilize so that all students have well-resourced schools.”