Three former U.S. Department of Education secretaries and a prominent union leader called on the agency’s top watchdog to investigate the financial impact of mass layoffs at the federal education bureau. The group sent a formal letter Tuesday to Acting Inspector General Mark Priebe, requesting an examination into the costs associated with terminating employees last year.
The signatories included Arne Duncan, John B. King Jr., and Miguel Cardona, all former heads of the department, alongside Rachel Gittleman, president of the American Federation of Teachers. They held a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol to criticize President Donald Trump’s administration for its efforts to dismantle the 46-year-old agency.
The controversy centers on a reduction in force (RIF) announced by the department in March 2025. President Trump outlined the downsizing plan via executive order that same month. After a legal battle, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily approved the layoffs in July 2025, allowing the RIF to take effect in early August.
Gittleman stated that roughly 1,000 workers were unlawfully terminated or forced into retirement during the August action. The letter to Priebe also questioned a separate effort in October 2025 to fire nearly 500 additional employees, an initiative that was paused by courts and halted by Congress.
“We need a full picture of the fraud, waste and abuse carried out by this administration as they continue to play politics rather than doing their jobs to serve the American people,” Gittleman said at the press conference.
The former officials asked Priebe to investigate the expenses incurred by reinstating and rehiring hundreds of employees after the initial firings. They argued that the administration’s actions have disrupted the department’s ability to function effectively.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education defended the layoffs, stating they were compliant with existing regulations and laws. The spokesperson criticized the former secretaries’ records on issues such as Common Core implementation, FAFSA processing, and gender definitions in education policy. Linda McMahon, appointed by Trump as Education Secretary, leads the current downsizing effort.
Democratic lawmakers joined the union leader at the Capitol to voice opposition to the restructuring. U.S. Sens. Angela Alsobrooks and Chris Van Hollen, along with Rep. Bobby Scott, accused the administration of failing the department’s mission. Van Hollen stated that Democrats are fighting back against efforts to dismember the agency.
The administration has signed more than a dozen interagency agreements with other federal departments, including Health and Human Services, Labor, Interior, State, Justice, and Treasury. These agreements seek to offload Education Department responsibilities to those agencies.
Rep. Scott criticized the interagency agreements as illegal, inefficient, and wasteful. In response to these transfers, a Senate education panel advanced a bipartisan bill in July 2025 to block agreements that would transfer specific education programs, including special education, elementary and secondary education, postsecondary education, and Native American education.
A House education panel advanced a package earlier that month aimed at reducing the department’s responsibilities. The legislative actions reflect ongoing tension between lawmakers and the executive branch over the future structure of federal education oversight.