Three former U.S. Department of Education secretaries and a national union leader have formally requested an investigation into the federal agency’s mass workforce reductions. The group sent a letter Tuesday to Acting Inspector General Mark Priebe, asking for a review of the financial costs and operational impacts associated with the layoffs that occurred last year.
The signatories include Arne Duncan, John B. King Jr., and Miguel Cardona, who previously served as Education Secretary under Democratic administrations. They were joined by Rachel Gittleman, president of the National Education Association. The letter specifically asked Priebe to examine the expenses related to reinstating and rehiring hundreds of employees following the reductions in force (RIF) that took effect in early August 2025.
The request comes amid ongoing legal and political battles over the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the federal education bureaucracy. President Donald Trump appointed Linda McMahon as Education Secretary in March 2025, tasking her with leading a downsizing initiative outlined in an executive order that same month. The department announced the initial RIF in March 2025, but the action faced immediate legal challenges.
The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily approved the mass layoffs and downsizing plan in July 2025, allowing the agency to proceed with terminating roughly 1,000 workers or forcing them into retirement by early August. Gittleman stated that these terminations were unlawful. The former secretaries also questioned a separate October 2025 effort to fire nearly 500 additional employees, an action that was paused by courts and ultimately halted by Congress.
During a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers joined Gittleman to criticize the administration’s strategy. Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, along with Representative Bobby Scott of Virginia, argued that the cuts undermine the department’s core mission. Alsobrooks accused Secretary McMahon of failing to uphold the agency’s purpose of promoting student achievement and ensuring equal access to education.
“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 event.
Beyond direct layoffs, the administration has pursued structural changes through more than a dozen interagency agreements. These deals transfer Education Department responsibilities to other federal agencies, including Health and Human Services, Labor, Interior, State, Justice, and Treasury. Rep. Scott criticized these arrangements as illegal, inefficient, and wasteful.
Congressional pushback has emerged on both sides of the aisle. In July 2025, a Senate education panel advanced a bipartisan bill designed to block interagency agreements that would transfer programs related to special education, elementary and secondary schooling, postsecondary aid, and Native American education. Earlier that month, a House education panel advanced a separate package aimed at reducing the department’s overall responsibilities.
A spokesperson for the Education Department defended the RIF as compliant with existing regulations and laws. The spokesperson criticized the former secretaries’ records on issues such as Common Core implementation, FAFSA administration, and gender definitions in schools, suggesting their objections were politically motivated rather than grounded in administrative concern.
The dispute highlights a broader tension between the executive branch’s authority to restructure federal agencies and congressional oversight of workforce management. With hundreds of employees reinstated after legal interventions, the cost of reversing course remains a central point of contention. The Inspector General’s office has not yet announced whether it will open a formal investigation based on the letter.