(Bloomberg) — The US Department of Education’s sweeping cuts Tuesday included staff that oversee schools’ efforts to help millions of students learn English.
Employees from the Office of English Language Acquisition, or OELA, are being eliminated as part of the Education Department’s reduction in force this week, according to the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, the union representing the agency’s employees. The wider Education Department cuts aim to eliminate half of its more than 4,000 employees. A spokesperson for the department said OELA’s work will continue in another division.
“The Office of English Language Acquisition and management of ESEA’s Title III will return to OESE, where it previously resided until December 2023,” Madi Biedermann, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said in an email, referring to another Department division — the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. “The Department is committed to fulfilling its statutory obligation to prepare English learners to attain English proficiency and develop high levels of academic achievement in English.”
At least a dozen OELA staff were cut including those who worked on the Title III program, which provides federal funding for states to improve education for students learning English, as well as the National Professional Development Program and the Native American and Alaska Native Children in School program, which train teachers to support those students, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named and a document seen by Bloomberg.
The Title III funds are distributed to states using a calculation that factors in the number of immigrants and students learning English, according to OELA’s website. There were 5 million students served under the program, according to a January fact sheet.
Beatriz Ceja, the deputy assistant secretary and director at OELA, declined to comment. It’s unclear whether she still is employed by the Education Department. She took over leading the office after Trump’s inauguration.
The cuts at the education department, which also hit hundreds of staff from the Office of Civil Rights and the Federal Student Aid office, according to the document seen by Bloomberg, are part of a broader reduction in force of federal workers across agencies.
Members of the Department of Government Efficiency, the cost-cutting crew directed by Elon Musk, have been embedded at the Education Department for more than a month now.
Earlier this month the Trump administration designated English as the sole official language to “reinforce shared national values, and create a more cohesive and efficient society.”
–With assistance from Gregory Korte.
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