US Department of Education workers decry ‘final mission’ email as power grab

In a message to employees on Monday, the newly confirmed secretary of education, Linda McMahon, a billionaire ex-wrestling executive, laid out the “final mission” for the department as Donald Trump threatens to dismantle the agency.

“My vision is aligned with the President’s: to send education back to the states and empower all parents to choose an excellent education for their children,” wrote McMahon, a co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the professional wrestling organisation. “This is our opportunity to perform one final, unforgettable public service to future generations of students.”

The message comes as Trump is reportedly finalizing plans to issue an executive order to eliminate the 45-year-old US Department of Education and eliminate or reorganize the department’s functions and programs.

Workers at the Department of Education called the email a “power grab” focused on privatization at the expense of children with disabilities and from low-income families.

“It’s heartbreaking to read such a disingenuous, manipulative letter from the head of the agency,” said one employee who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. “I don’t read the letter to be an end to the department. It reads as a transformation into something sinister, a tool for the president to use to ensure his ideology is implemented by states and local governments at the risk of losing funding. It’s the exact overreach it’s purporting to stop.”

Another Department of Education employee explained that “morale is beyond low”. It comes after an email from Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) told staff to justify their jobs by emailing five bullet points explaining what they did last week.

“After reading the WWE’s former CEO’s email, coming off the back of Musk’s email, made me realize that I have three bosses that are billionaires that know nothing about improving performance for America’s students,” they said.

“This is a power grab. The message is clear that they want to privatize public dollars on the backs of our nation’s most vulnerable children. We know poor children and children with disabilities will suffer with the plans McMahon has laid out. Private schools will leave our students with disabilities out. Poor kids will receive less money to compete on a level playing field.”

A third employee characterized the email as “incredibly hostile” and ominous of the plan to dismantle the department.

McMahon’s message claimed Congress and other federal agencies would be involved in moves that will “profoundly impact” budgets, staffing and operations at the department. She cited three “convictions” for the efforts: that parents are the primary decision makers in children’s education; diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and gender ideology in schools must be rooted out; and postsecondary education should be aligned with workforce needs.

At the Department of Education, probationary employees were fired last month, though a federal court ruled last week that the mass firings were probably illegal and granted a temporary injunction to halt them.

Sixty employees at the department were placed on administrative leave in response to Trump’s anti-DEI executive order and $900m in research funding that tracks American students’ academic progress was canceled by Doge.

Last Friday, the US Department of Education sent a resignation buyout offer to employees of up to $25,000 or severance owed to the employee, whichever is less, citing a looming reduction in force at the agency.

Workers called the offer “misleading” as employees would have more rights and probably receive more benefits in severance and unemployment benefits through a reduction in force compared with voluntarily resigning.

“The email used final three times in the last three sentences. We have a secretary overtly leading us on a kamikaze mission,” they said. “She cannot possibly do right by children and college students by eliminating the federal education agency. Education is primarily funded by local taxpayer dollars in this country and is, thus, without some federal support, inherently unequal. The federal education agency exists to bolster those schools and districts that would not have what they need to give students a quality education based on local community funding alone.”

The White House and Department of Education were contacted for comment but did not respond.