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The Trump administration has slashed almost half the workforce of the US education department, in a step towards the president’s pledge to abolish the agency.

The education department said on Tuesday it was on its “final mission” as it announced it would lay off more than 1,300 workers.

The move comes as President Donald Trump considers whether to issue an executive order to shut the department, though an act of Congress would be needed to abolish it entirely.

Education secretary Linda McMahon told Fox News last week that she thought Trump “certainly intends to sign” an executive order that would lead to the closure of the department.

The department has long been a target of conservatives, who argue that education should be left entirely in the control of individual states, which set curricula and handle the day-to-day management of the country’s public, or state-run, primary and secondary education system.

Project 2025, the blueprint for a conservative presidency drawn up by the right-wing Heritage Foundation think-tank, called for the department’s elimination.

Trump has said he wants “the states to run schools” and for McMahon to “put herself out of a job”.

“Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents and teachers,” McMahon said on Tuesday. She called the move “a significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system”.

The department will go from a staff of 4,133 to about 2,183 employees. The cuts include 572 workers who have resigned voluntarily, including through the Trump administration’s federal buyouts. The affected employees will be put on administrative leave starting on March 21.

Educators have warned that lower-income families would be hardest hit by the evisceration of the department.

The American Federation of Teachers said the decision would affect the 90 per cent of US children who attend state-run, or public, schools. The reduction in workforce was “throwing federal education programmes into chaos across the country”, said AFT president Randi Weingarten.

“Ten million students who rely on financial aid to go to college or pursue a trade will be left in limbo. States and districts will be forced to navigate funding crises without federal support, hurting millions of students with disabilities and students living in poverty,” she added.

The education department oversees student loans for university, as well as special higher education grants for low-income students, known as Pell Grants. It also gives money to individual school districts to fund primary and secondary education for low-income and special-needs children.

The agency said it would still “deliver on all statutory programmes that fall under the agency’s purview, including formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students and competitive grant-making”.