Dan Mitchinson: US correspondent on the US Department of Education laying off nearly half its workforce

The US Department of Education has initiated mass layoffs, reducing its workforce by nearly 50 percent. 

Impacted staff will be placed on administrative leave from March 21, according to a statement from the Department. 

US correspondent Dan Mitchinson says DOGE team lead Elon Musk has expressed interest in getting rid of the Department of Education altogether - and it's unclear how possible this goal is.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dan Mitchison. Is that US correspondent Dan, Good afternoon to you.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Well, you know what kind of photo a turtle loves
to take, right shelfy? Nothing?

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Okay, Thanks, thanks Dan. I don't know if anyone's better
off for you telling that joke, but I appreciate the sentiment.
This is some quite very unfunny news, actually some night
breaking news out of the US. The Education Department is
going to lay off half its stuff.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, I mean this is this is just a huge
sweeping layoff that has begun tonight. They're going to cut
about fifty percent of the workforce right now. They began
this evening. They employ about four thousand, maybe forty five
hundred people or so. And what was interesting earlier today,
they just sent out this email to all the employees
saying the offices are going to be closed tonight and

(00:49):
tomorrow for unspecified security reasons. They didn't say what it
was going to be, but they told everybody to take
their laptops. So I think most people could see the
riding on the wall. And you know, there have been
reporters that have been saying that they can't remember a
time that all the offices were closed like this, even
for VIPs that are going to be on the site.
So the layoffs looks like i'll take effect in about

(01:11):
ninety days, and I think this is going to affect
and impact just a lot of day to day operations
with the department.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Trump wants to get rid of that department altogether, though, right,
some of they just buttering it up for the end.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Well, yeah, that's I think that's what you're I think
you're right between him and Elon Musk. I mean, his
whole goal is to get rid of this department completely.
I don't know whether they'll be able to do that,
but I mean at this point in time, with the
number of cuts they've been going through with the government
so far in the last ninety days, I mean, anything
seems possible.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, because presumably you would need someone left standing to
run the Education Department, wouldn't you do, right?

Speaker 2 (01:46):
I mean yeah, unless you get Unless you get Trump,
who says I'm going to take this over like he's
taken so over so many other agencies.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
All Right, How Ukraine is on board with this proposal
for a sea spy. What's Trump saying about him?

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Well, I think there that things are moving forward, Like
you were talking about in the world wires theremy Marko
Rubio said that after all this this meeting, right now,
the ball is in Russia's court to take steps to
end the war. The President has said he's going to
speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin about a plan potentially
this week, and they've also agreed that you know, this,
this minerals deal, which was kind of what blew up

(02:20):
in the Oval Office a week and a half ago
or so or so, is going to be done as
soon as possible. And you know, Trump is saying this
is going to expand Ukraine's economy and at the same
time it's going to guarantee their long term security, which
is you know, something that the President of Ukraine had
been adamant about.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Dan. We are five years on from the pandemic, but
here in New Zealand, we still have big problems with
our education, with school attendance, all that kind of stuff.
How are you guys fearing over there?

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, it's kind of the same way. I mean, it's
hard to believe it's been five years this month since
this kind of first hit and our kids were kind
of caught up in my kids, I say, or were
caught up in their first year of high school and
they had to do remote learning here, and as a
parent it was challenging, and then as a reporter it
was challenging too. And what we've learned from studies that
have just come out is basically, kids got behind over

(03:08):
the next couple of years, you know, math and English
and science scores dropped, and unfortunately they still have not
caught up five years later. And what they're saying is,
and a lot of this is stuff that we'd heard before,
but a number of kids didn't have the adequate tools
and they didn't have the right spaces to learn, and
as a result, students are seeing their levels of learning
compared to the predecessor's fall. Now, the one good thing

(03:30):
real quick, I will say, Ryan, is that, Okay, we
know we can make remote learning work if we have to,
but most importantly, we know that the kids are actually
learning things in school and the environment is better than
trying to separate them. And you know, a lot of
socioeconomic hurdles that we had to face, you know, during
the last few years of the pandemic.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Dan, thank you very much for that. Dan Mitchton, how
US correspondent For more from hither dupless Yellen Drive. Listen
live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iheidra Vidio