Education Department Cuts Half Its Workforce, Now Moves to Hire Hundreds Back
Why It Matters
The U.S. Department of Education manages a $1.7 trillion student loan portfolio affecting 43 million borrowers nationwide. A major reduction in the agency’s workforce last year has raised questions about whether the administration’s restructuring plans are creating more bureaucratic disruption than efficiency — and at what cost to taxpayers.
What Happened
After cutting roughly half of its workforce through a broad reduction-in-force last year, the Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) is now moving to add approximately 380 new employees. Internal documents from an agency-wide staff meeting held in April reveal that FSA currently operates with 731 full-time equivalent employees — compared to 1,440 before the current administration took office — and that leadership determined it needs to hire an additional 334 workers to reach its operational target.
The agency has already brought on 52 new employees since September. FSA is responsible for managing loan repayment programs, borrower communications, and the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), among other functions.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon has publicly acknowledged that the original cuts may have gone further than intended. “Sometimes you cut into the muscle and you cut a little too deep,” she said at a public appearance last year, adding that some staff had already been brought back.
Department press secretary Ellen Keast said the new hires are not former employees returning to their previous roles, and that restructuring the federal education bureaucracy “does not mean that critical programs won’t continue.”
By the Numbers
- 1,440 — FSA full-time equivalent staff before the Trump administration’s cuts
- 731 — current FSA full-time equivalent staff
- ~380 — new workers being added in the current hiring push
- 52 — employees already hired since September
- $28.5M–$38M — estimated taxpayer cost from unnecessary back-and-forth staffing cuts and reversals at the Department’s Office for Civil Rights, according to a Government Accountability Office investigation
Zoom Out
The staffing reversal at FSA is part of a broader pattern of federal agencies experiencing disruption from rapid workforce reductions followed by partial rehiring. The Department’s Office for Civil Rights underwent a similar cycle — deep cuts, legal challenges that stalled them, and eventual reversal — a process a nonpartisan GAO review found cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
A separate GAO investigation also found that, just before last year’s cuts, FSA had stopped auditing the accuracy of loan servicers’ records and borrower call logs — a lapse in oversight that could affect millions of Americans with federal student debt. The agency is currently rolling out new loan limits and two new repayment plan structures, adding to its workload during the transition period.
The hiring also comes amid announced plans to transfer FSA responsibilities to the Treasury Department. McMahon has signed interagency agreements toward that end, but testimony before Congress complicated that narrative. At a recent Senate hearing, McMahon clarified that Education Department employees would essentially continue doing the same work — just housed in different federal buildings. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin challenged that explanation directly, calling it a reassignment of the same people to different locations to administer identical programs.
For those tracking federal education and workforce policy, the situation echoes broader debates about the practical limits of rapid government downsizing. Federal workforce reshuffling has also intersected with state-level political dynamics in several key states.
What’s Next
FSA is expected to continue its hiring process to reach its stated staffing target. The transition of student loan management responsibilities to the Treasury Department remains in progress, though the practical division of labor between agencies is still being defined.
New applicants for FSA positions are reportedly being asked screening questions tied to administration policy priorities, including one question that has already prompted legal action. The full cost of recruiting, training, and onboarding the new workforce has not yet been publicly disclosed by the department.