Education Department Moving to Smaller Office as Workforce Shrinks

The Department of Education announced it will move to a smaller building to reduce the agency's footprint, with staff vacating the Lyndon B. Johnson headquarters building so the Department of Energy can move in by August. The agency has seen its ranks thinned by mass layoffs since President Donald Trump took office, and its headquarters building has been 70% vacant, the Education Department said.

The relocation will save taxpayers approximately $4.8 million annually in operating costs and eliminate wasted space in a building that is about 70% vacant. Administration officials added that the move also avoids needed maintenance on the Energy Department's current headquarters building. The Education Department will relocate to 500 D Street SW.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon hailed it as a milestone in the administration's efforts to shutter the agency, which Trump ordered to move toward closure a year ago this month. "Thanks to the hard work of so many, we have made unprecedented progress in reducing the federal education footprint, and now we are pleased to give this building to an agency that will benefit far more from its space than the Department of Education," McMahon said in a written statement.

The physical relocation follows a broader campaign to hollow out the department's functions. While only Congress has the authority to close the department, the administration has offloaded many of the Education Department's programs and functions to other parts of the federal government through interagency agreements. Most recently, the management of student loans in default went to the Treasury Department, and responsibility for the rest of the $1.7 trillion federal student loan portfolio is to go to Treasury at an unspecified date. Over the last year, programs overseeing family engagement, funding for low-income schools, and teacher training have moved to agencies such as Health and Human Services and the Labor Department.

Alongside transferring oversight of most of the Education Department's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the programs it oversees to the Labor Department, five other interagency agreements moved programs that support Native American students, child care for parents who attend college, low-income college students, and other functions to different agencies. Those agreements were all dated September 30, the day before the federal government shutdown began and the Education Department furloughed most of its staff.

One program cluster drew particular scrutiny. The office of Indian education will move to the U.S. Department of the Interior, which already administers some education programs for tribal nations through the Bureau of Indian Education. The Indian education office oversees programs that support teacher training, financial assistance, research collection, and career and technical education at schools with large populations of Native American students. Susan Faircloth, an expert and advocate for Native American education and a member of the Coharie tribe of North Carolina, warned that the Bureau of Indian Education will "struggle even more to deliver required services on time" as a result of the transfer.

While Congress holds the key to shutting the operation down for good, McMahon plans to show legislators that the interagency agreements are "proof of concept" that the Education Department is not needed for federal grant aid and federal student loans to continue flowing to borrowers.

Critics were unsparing. Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee, said moving the Education Department out of its headquarters is one of the most "overt actions" McMahon has taken to shut down the agency. "This decision to close the Department's physical building is not just a symbolic move," Scott said. "It reflects a broader effort to reduce the federal government's role in ensuring people have equal access to a quality education."

The union representing department workers condemned the move. "The message the Secretary's announcement sends to our staff and the American public is clear — education is next on the chopping block," American Federation of Government Employees Local 252 President Rachel Gittleman said in a statement.

Abandoning the D.C. headquarters is the Trump administration's latest and most visible move toward eliminating the Education Department altogether. Formally closing it, however, remains a steep legislative climb: doing so would require an act of Congress and 60 Senate votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster.