Trump's education secretary says over 300 employees accepted the $25,000 buyout. Here's her next move to overhaul the department.

• Education Sec. Linda McMahon told NewsNation that over 300 employees accepted the $25,000 buyout.
• She also said that she's looking into transferring student loans and Pell Grants to other federal agencies.
• It's part of the Trump administration's broader goal to dismantle the Department of Education.

After being on the job for just a few days, President Donald Trump's new education secretary is already thinking about major changes to the Department of Education.

Linda McMahon told NewsNation during a Friday interview that while she "could stand to be corrected on this," over 300 employees accepted the Department of Education's $25,000 buyout they were offered last week.

The offer was part of the White House's DOGE office's larger mission to slash government waste by reducing the federal workforce. It follows an earlier deferred resignation offer from the administration that was offered to most federal employees.

"The responsibility of DOGE is to come in, review, as I've said, audit, and make recommendations of what they think would be helpful, and in taking out the waste and fraud and abuse they find," McMahon said. "But it is up to the agency head or the secretary to make the determination on how we move forward with those suggestions."

Here's what we know about McMahon's plans so far for the Department of Education.

What's next at the Department of Education

After McMahon was confirmed on Monday night, she released a memo detailing the Department of Education's "final mission" in support of Trump's goal to dismantle the department. That mission included prioritizing parents' role in their kids' educations, removing "divisive DEI programs" from classroom curricula, and ensuring postsecondary education programs lead to well-paying careers that fit into workplace needs.

When asked by NewsNation, McMahon declined to provide a timeline on when Trump's official executive order on dismantling the department is coming, but she reaffirmed that shutting down the agency would require 60 votes in the Senate.

"I think my job is to convince Congress that the steps that we are taking are in the best interest of the kids, and that they would vote to close the Department of Education if they feel confident that at the state level, that those kids are going to receive a better education," McMahon said.

McMahon and some Republican lawmakers have previously proposed transferring the Department of Education's responsibilities to other federal agencies if they shut it down. McMahon said that she is examining how Pell Grants and student loans "might best be served in another department, and we're looking as to where that could best be handled."

"This is not a turn off the lights and walk out of the department," she said. "It's with a close consultation with Congress and looking how the needs of students can best be serviced."

Some education policy experts previously told Business Insider that there's no proof that closing the department would actually improve student outcomes. The department has already cut $900 million in research contracts, which both employees and experts said would hinder the agency's ability to collect data on student outcomes.

"I have grave concerns about our future, even if the lights were able to turn on tomorrow, I don't know — what's already been done is just very detrimental," one employee of the Institute of Education Sciences — the Department's research and statistics arm facing severe spending cuts — told BI.

The Department of Education did not immediately respond to BI's request for comment.

Are you a federal worker at the Department of Education or another agency? Contact this reporter via email at asheffey@businessinsider.com or Signal at asheffey.97. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.