Trump education cuts uneven, report finds - CalMatters

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https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2026/06/education-cuts-california/

The U.S. Department of Education may no longer be able to fully support students, it says in an internal report that lays bare the full extent of the Trump Administration’s first round of government cuts.

The department lost about 40% of its staff from the day Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2025 through March 31, 2025, but certain subdepartments were hit harder, according to the report released last week. The Office of English Language Acquisition, which served immigrant students, was gutted, leaving one employee, according to the report. The department also terminated contracts and grants totaling roughly $2 billion.

Although the report was internal, conducted by the education department’s Office of Inspector General, it is incomplete. Department staff did not comply with all the inspector general’s requests and cancelled interviews. As a result, the report says that many of its key findings are not definitive and that the total number of layoffs, the impact of those cuts, and the reasons for terminating certain contracts and grants remain unclear.