For hundreds of civil servants, today marks the end of their work at the U.S. Department of Education, though most haven't been allowed to work since March when they were placed on leave and later laid off. These employees performed a wide range of jobs, from safeguarding students' civil rights to helping borrowers navigate a bewildering federal student loan system.

Nearly 1,400 department workers are being fired as part of a broad reduction in force (RIF) that began on March 11. Days later, when President Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Education Department, he said, "We're going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs."

He also claimed that many department employees "don't work at all" and that "we want to cut the people that aren't

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