The U.S. Department of Education announced plans to lay off 1,300 employees, and state education officials fear funding disruptions.

The moves will cut the department from 4,133 workers when President Donald Trump began his second term in January to 2,183 workers. The significant cuts come as Trump is considering an executive order attempting to dismantle the agency and as all federal departments and agencies are preparing "large-scale reductions in force" ahead of a Thursday deadline ordered by Trump.

The Education Department’s civil rights branch is losing nearly half its staff in the Trump administration’s layoffs, effectively gutting an office that already faced a backlog of thousands of complaints from students and families across the nation.