At least 800 education department research employees and outside partners have lost jobs. The cuts will decimate research and data collection.

Since his first term in the White House, President Donald Trump has set his sights on shuttering the Department of Education. Now, as the administration has cut hundreds of millions of dollars in its funding and fired more than half of its workforce,

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education announced a nearly 50-percent reduction of its workforce under newly confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon. The widespread layoffs, which affect some 1,