GAO auditors found that placing about half of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights staff on paid leave and closing most regional offices cost taxpayers at least $38 million in salaries and benefits. The department has not been able to document net savings or improved efficiency from the shakeup, and GAO says other costs remain unknown. The report arrives alongside a string of school-safety and child-protection stories, from immigration detentions near schools to lawsuits and data risks involving tech platforms and AI.
GAO: Paid Leave From Trump-Era Education Dept. Cuts Cost At Least $38M — Students Left Waiting
The Government Accountability Office reports that last year’s reorganization of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights resulted in a measurable and significant cost to taxpayers and left many students waiting for resolution of discrimination complaints.
What the GAO Found
GAO estimates that placing roughly half of the Office for Civil Rights staff on paid administrative leave while closing most regional offices cost at least $38 million in salaries and benefits for employees who were kept home. The watchdog also notes that additional costs remain unknown, and nearly a year later the Department of Education cannot demonstrate that the personnel actions produced savings, improved efficiency, or better served students—the rationales previously offered for the moves.
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Without a full accounting of expenses and savings, GAO concluded the department cannot credibly claim the shakeup achieved its stated goals.
Impact On Students And Civil Rights Enforcement
The staffing reductions and office closures coincided with delays in handling complaints alleging racial and sexual discrimination in schools. Thousands of students and families waiting for investigations, remedies, or enforcement actions saw their cases stall while federal civil rights personnel were sidelined.
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Related Developments In School Safety And Child Protection
The GAO report arrives amid several high-profile, nationwide stories involving school safety and children’s well-being. Among them:
- Legal challenges in Minnesota seeking to restore a policy that bars immigration enforcement near schools and other sensitive locations, and reports of children detained during immigration sweeps.
- Incidents that triggered school closures and safety concerns, including a bomb threat in Columbia Heights and intense scrutiny of arrests involving very young children.
- Lawsuits and settlements against major technology platforms that allege harms to children, and revelations that Amazon’s AI training data included hundreds of thousands of images of child sexual abuse, complicating law enforcement investigations.
- Policy and legal friction over artificial intelligence: state efforts to protect children from unsafe AI tools and a federal executive order that may limit state consumer protections in the name of national competitiveness.
- A reported failure by the National Institutes of Health to sufficiently protect genetic data for more than 20,000 children, with those records later misused by fringe researchers to advance racist claims.
Why This Matters
The GAO findings raise core questions about transparency, accountability, and priorities at the Department of Education. When civil rights investigators are sidelined, the immediate consequence is delayed relief for students who allege discrimination. The longer-term consequence is weakened public trust in the federal role in protecting students rights and enforcing civil rights law.
GAO’s recommendation is straightforward: the department needs a full accounting of costs and savings and must justify reorganizations with clear evidence that they improve outcomes for students and preserve civil rights enforcement.
Further reading: See the GAO report for the detailed audit and methodology behind the cost estimate.
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