Back to work, but not back to normal: The fragile future of America’s Education Department
The reopening of the federal government reinstates hundreds of Education Department employees, but uncertainty deepens inside an agency already strained by layoffs, political pressure, and operational paralysis. With grant programmes disrupted, staff morale fractured, and core functions weakened, the department emerges from the shutdown not restored, but destabilised—its future hinging on yet another looming funding deadline.
The reopening of the federal government reinstates hundreds of Education Department employees, but uncertainty deepens inside an agency already strained by layoffs, political pressure, and operational paralysis. With grant programmes disrupted, staff morale fractured, and core functions weakened, the department emerges from the shutdown not restored, but destabilised—its future hinging on yet another looming funding deadline.
