Puerto Rican-Dominican Débora Menieur Núñez experienced firsthand the layoffs at the federal Department of Education, which are now getting worse, following the decision of Donald Trump’s administration to reduce the workforce of that important government agency by almost half.

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Menieur Núñez, from Camuy, was dismissed in February from her position as Public Affairs Officer, at a time when the first layoffs of employees were ordered, focusing on those still in their probationary period.

She had a career position since June 2024, through which she was in charge of communications for the decentralization project of the Puerto Rico Department of Education, which was halted by Governor Jenniffer González, a Republican.

“They fired me by e-mail,” Menieur Núñez, whose father is Dominican and mother is Puerto Rican and was born in a hospital in Manatí, said on Wednesday.

In her termination letter, she was notified that she had the responsibility of proving that her job was needed. “It was a little confusing. I had two performance evaluations that had been ‘exceptional,’” said Menieur Núñez, who originally came to federal education through the Truman Fellowship program.

To soften the blow, they only gave her 30 days of access to the benefits of the health plan.

Now, she watches with regret as layoffs of more than 1,300 of his former colleagues’ employees are underway.

“I have seen, in publications of former colleagues on social networks, that there have been departments (in which) entire offices have been closed,” she said in an interview with El Nuevo Día.

In the face of dismantling the Department, which President Donald Trump wants to eliminate in order to transfer its functions to state governments or other agencies, Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced that, by March 21, the workforce she leads will have been reduced by almost half.

Adding voluntary resignations and retirements, federal education workers will be down to 2,183 next week, after the layoffs and resignations of 1,930 employees.

The former Secretary of Education, Puerto Rican Miguel Cardona, under whose leadership Menieur Núñez worked, warned that the dramatic reduction in staffing will adversely affect the distribution of key funds for disadvantaged students, such as Title 1, disabled and Pell Grant recipients.

Last week, Puerto Rico’s Secretary of Education, Eliezer Ramos Parés, indicated that the main contact with his agency, Lorena Dickerson, who was a Risk Analyst, resigned in February. Ramos Parés also indicated that he will be vigilant in the face of potential cuts.

But, the reduction in personnel should alter federal Education’s response to the island, which generally receives funds through reimbursement.

“The priority should be to maintain that good relationship with the federal Department of Education, to identify who are the new people who will be working with Puerto Rico’s cases, and to make sure that Puerto Rico’s needs are taken into account,” Menieur Núñez said.

The Puerto Rican educator and communicator began working in education in 2014, in the Dominican Republic, where she went to study medicine, but became enthusiastic about student mobility and international education.

“That changed my life,” she said, noting that, in 2018, she wrote a book on student mobility.

She moved to Washington, D.C., in 2020 to work, through the Truman Fellowship, with the organization Excelencia in Education, which promotes Latino student achievement.

At that time, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out and closures began, causing her to question the premise that student mobility and exchange were the solution “for different education problems.”

As a Truman Fellow, however, she came to federal education to work on Puerto Rico issues. Just eight months ago, she had won the career employee position that Trump and his special adviser, billionaire Elon Musk’s layoff agenda took away.

Before she was fired, Menieur Núñez combined work with studying for a master’s degree in Public Policy and Educational Analysis at Harvard University.

“My days were 14 to 16 hours long,” she said, explaining that she decided to dedicate herself full-time to finishing her master’s degree and wait for a better time before rejoining the workforce in search of new opportunities.

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This content was translated from Spanish to English using artificial intelligence and was reviewed by an editor before being published.