{"id":8618,"date":"2026-02-02T15:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/02\/us-education-department-paid-up-to-38m-to-civil-rights-workers-on-leave-watchdog-says\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T15:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:50:14","slug":"us-education-department-paid-up-to-38m-to-civil-rights-workers-on-leave-watchdog-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/02\/us-education-department-paid-up-to-38m-to-civil-rights-workers-on-leave-watchdog-says\/","title":{"rendered":"US Education Department paid up to $38M to civil rights workers on leave, watchdog says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

The Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building pictured on Nov. 25, 2024. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda\/States Newsroom)<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Department of Education exhausted millions in taxpayer dollars trying to eliminate a chunk of its Office for Civil Rights, a government watchdog found in a report released Monday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The department spent between roughly $28.5 million and $38 million on the salaries and benefits of the hundreds of Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, employees who were not working between March and December 2025, according to a\u00a0Government Accountability Office<\/a> report.<\/p>\n

OCR employees \u2014 tasked with investigating civil rights complaints from students and families \u2014 were targeted in March as part of a larger Reduction in Force, or RIF, effort at the department and placed on paid administrative leave while legal challenges against President Donald Trump\u2019s administration unfolded.<\/p>\n

Amid a mounting backlog of discrimination complaints, the department said in December it would be bringing back the affected\u00a0employees<\/a>. The agency moved to rescind the RIFs against the OCR employees in early January while legal challenges proceeded.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Complaints resolved<\/h4>\n

The department resolved more than 7,000 of the over 9,000 discrimination complaints it received between March and September, GAO, an independent, nonpartisan body that reports to Congress, said.<\/p>\n

However, roughly 90% of the resolved complaints were due to the department dismissing the complaint, the watchdog found. The dismissal rate ranged from 49% to 81% during academic years in the 2010s, GAO found in a 2021 report.<\/p>\n

The department \u201chas not made complete information publicly available about potential costs and has not made any information available about potential savings associated with its OCR RIF actions,\u201d GAO said, calling on the agency to provide those estimates and document its analysis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump has taken significant steps to try to dismantle the 46-year-old department as part of his quest to move education \u201cback to the states.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to a draft of the report, Kimberly Richey, the assistant secretary for OCR, said the matter is rendered \u201cmoot\u201d because the agency brought OCR employees back to work in December and rescinded the RIFs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not concur with the recommendation,\u201d Richey wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Unacceptable\u2019<\/h4>\n

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who requested the GAO report, blasted the millions of dollars the department spent as \u201cunacceptable\u201d in a Monday statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery child in America should be able to get a good education no matter where they live, what their religious beliefs are or whether or not they have a disability,\u201d said the Vermont independent, who serves as ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, the Trump administration fired half of the Education Department employees working to protect the civil rights of students and wasted as much as $38 million in taxpayer dollars by preventing investigators from doing their jobs,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rachel Gittleman, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents Education Department workers, said that \u201cinstead of following court orders and federal law, the Trump Administration chose to keep these civil rights professionals on paid administrative leave rather than letting them do their jobs, while students, families, and schools paid the price.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gittleman added that Education Secretary Linda McMahon \u201chas made clear that she would rather play politics than uphold her responsibility to protect students\u2019 rights,\u201d and \u201cher actions have undermined the Department\u2019s mission, harmed families, and subjected dedicated federal employees to needless uncertainty, abuse, and harassment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building pictured on Nov. 25, 2024. 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