DOGE protesters rally outside key department after employees are told not to report to work Wednesday

Protesters against Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency rallied outside the Department of Education Tuesday and held a moment of appreciation and applause for the federal agency, which is rumored to be next on the chopping block.

The protesters, many of them former Education Department officials, chanted, “This is what democracy looks like” and held signs saying, “Boycott Tesla!,” “Elon don’t rob kids” and “No DOGE no kings.”  

After the protest, FOX Business Senior Correspondent Charles Gasparino posted on X that he had reviewed an email from education department officials telling employees they would have to vacate the agency’s offices by 6 p.m. Tuesday and that the offices would remain closed Wednesday. 

He also reported that “employees have been receiving multiple emails alerting them of massive cuts in the workforce and opportunities to tap into buyouts and severance.”

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Rally speakers railed against the Trump administration’s planned cuts to the department and instead called for more funding. At one point, organizers had attendees turn to face the department building and clap for the federal workers inside.

President Donald Trump is expected to issue an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Education Department” based on “the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law,” according to a draft of the order reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The draft order says the “the experiment of controlling American education through Federal programs and dollars — and the unaccountable bureaucrats those programs and dollars support — has failed our children, our teachers, and our families.”

Trump has long talked about dismantling the Department of Education, saying it has failed America’s students. 

“It’s a big con job,” the president said in November. “They ranked the top countries in the world. We’re ranked No. 40, but we’re ranked No. 1 in one department, cost per pupil. So, we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, but we’re ranked No. 40.”

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However, the protesters, who stood outside the Education Department headquarters in Washington, D.C., claimed dismantling the agency “will lead to children and families being hurt.”

“This cut in funding is the opposite of what we should be doing. We should be providing more federal funding for these services for these kids, not less,” one protester, a former Education Department employee, told Fox News Digital.

She said her biggest worry was that DOGE cuts would make students “suffer” and also affect after-school programs such as special programs and English courses for immigrant children. 

“We’re going to be going back to the 1800s, the early 1900s, when special ed kids can’t get services, when English learners can’t learn English. This is an outrage,” she said.

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Another former federal employee at the rally told Fox News Digital that “seeing all these employees laid off right now breaks our heart,” and “we really have to speak up for what’s been done to the federal government.”

One of the rally speakers, Rebecca Pringle, president of the National Education Association, pointed out that, on its own, the Trump administration does not have the authority to close the Education Department. Fully abolishing the department would require 60 votes in the Senate, requiring cooperation from Democrats.

Pringle told Fox News Digital her group is organizing a series of national walk-in protests for March 19 to hold Congress members “accountable.”

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“Educators all over this country are rising up, and they’re saying, no. … We will not stand by while this administration focuses on giving tax cuts to billionaires who already have more, when we know our students need more,” said Pringle. 

Speaking directly to Trump and Musk, Katie Gates, an activist with the political activism group Voters of Tomorrow, told Fox News Digital her message to the administration is, “Please stop. Just don’t do it.”

“You might think that you’re making government more efficient, or you’re getting rid of the deep state or whatever. But, like I said, this has far-ranging impacts on kids, on parents, on communities, on schools,” she said. “Sometimes efficiency isn’t the highest value. Sometimes it’s support. Sometimes it’s learning.”

Fox News Digital reporter Louis Casiano contributed to this report.