The Education Department is hiring — while it's being dismantled
The U.S. Department of Education is experiencing a hiring boom in its Office of Federal Student Aid despite ongoing efforts to downsize the agency. The department plans to add around 380 new workers to manage its critical functions related to student loans. This hiring comes after significant staff reductions and amid plans to transfer some responsibilities to the Treasury Department.
- ▪The Office of Federal Student Aid is adding approximately 380 new workers to its staff.
- ▪FSA currently has about 731 full-time equivalent staff, which is half of what it had before the Trump administration.
- ▪Education Secretary Linda McMahon acknowledged that previous staff cuts may have been too deep, impacting the agency's ability to function effectively.
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| Original publisher | NPR — News |
| Canonical URL | https://www.npr.org/2026/05/21/nx-s1-5820922/education-department-firings-now-hiring |
| Publication time | Thu, 21 May 2026 05:00:00 -0400 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-21T09:11:10.344Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-21T09:11:10.344Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Education The Education Department is hiring — while it's being dismantled May 21, 20265:00 AM ET Cory Turner LA Johnson/NPR President Donald Trump's plans to close the U.S. Department of Education have run headlong into an awkward reality: The agency does important work that still needs doing. After losing roughly half its staff in last year's big reduction-in-force, the department's student loan office is in a hiring boom. The Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) is adding around 380 new workers, according to internal documents obtained by NPR. Education U.S. Education Department says it is cutting nearly half of all staff FSA is the central nervous system of the nation's $1.7 trillion student loan portfolio.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at NPR — News.
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