Education Department offers employees up to $25K to quit

The Education Department is offering a buyout of up to $25,000 to most of its employees, according to a department-wide email obtained by POLITICO.

Employees have until Monday at 11:59 p.m. to make a decision, Jacqueline Clay, a chief human capital officer, wrote in an email sent on Friday afternoon.

“This is a one time offer in advance of a very significant Reduction in Force for the US Department of Education,” Clay wrote.

Those who take the offer can stack it with retirement benefits. They will receive the equivalence of severance pay or $25,000, whichever is less, Clay wrote in an email. The offer would take effect March 31.

Most department employees are eligible. A few exceptions include those that are using disability retirement, received a student loan repayment benefit in the last 36 months or was awarded a retention bonus in the last 12 months.

The offer comes after every agency received a memo from the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management on Wednesday stating they had to submit agency "RIF and reorganization plans” by March 13.