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With a mass email sharing what it called difficult news, the U.S. Department of Education has eroded one of its own key duties, abolishing more than half of the offices that investigate civil rights complaints from students and their families. Civil rights complaints in schools and colleges largely have been investigated through a dozen regional outposts across the country. Now there will be five. The Office for Civil Rights locations in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco are being shuttered, ProPublica has learned. Offices will remain in Atlanta, Denver, Kansas City, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. The OCR is one of the federal governments largest enforcers of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, investigating thousands of allegations of discrimination each year. That includes discrimination based on disability, race, and gender. This is devastating for American education and our students. This will strip students of equitable education, place our most vulnerable at great risk and set back educational success that for many will last their lifetimes, said Katie Dullum, an OCR deputy director who resigned last Friday. The impact will be felt well beyond this transitional period. The Education Department has not responded to ProPublicas requests for comment. In all, about 1,300 of the Education Departments approximately 4,000 employees were told Tuesday through the mass emails that they would be laid off and placed on administrative leave starting March 21, with their final day of employment on June 9. The civil rights division had about 550 employees and was among the most heavily affected by Tuesdays layoffs, which with other departures will leave the Education Department at roughly half its size. At least 243 union-represented employees of the OCR were laid off. The Federal Student Aid division, which administers grants and loans to college students, had 326 union-represented employees laid off, the most of any division. On average, each OCR attorney who investigates complaints is assigned about 60 cases at a time. Complaints, which have been backlogged for years, piled up even more after President Donald Trump took office in January and implemented a monthlong freeze on the agencys civil rights work. Catherine Lhamon, who oversaw the OCR under former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden said: What youve got left is a shell that cant function. Civil rights investigators who remain said it now will be virtually impossible to resolve discrimination complaints. Part of OCRs work is to physically go to places. As part of the investigation, we go to schools, we look at the playground, we see if its accessible, said a senior attorney for OCR, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not laid off and fears retaliation. We show up and look at softball and baseball fields. We measure the bathroom to make sure its accessible. We interview student groups. It requires in-person work. That is part of the basis of having regional offices. Now, California has no regional office. The OCR was investigating about 12,000 complaints when Trump took office. The largest share of pending complaintsabout 6,000were related to students with disabilities who feel theyve been mistreated or unfairly denied help at school, according to a ProPublica analysis of department data. Since Trump took office, the focus has shifted. The office has opened an unusually high number of directed investigations, based on Trumps priorities, that it began without receiving complaints. These relate to curbing antisemitism, ending participation of transgender athletes in womens sports, and combating alleged discrimination against white students. Traditionally, students and families turn to the OCR after they feel their concerns have not been addressed by their school districts. The process is free, which means families that cant afford a lawyer to pursue a lawsuit may still be able to seek help. When the OCR finds evidence of discrimination, it can force a school district or college to change its policies or require that they provide services to a student, such as access to disabilities services or increased safety at school. Sometimes, the office monitors institutions to make sure they comply. OCR simply will not be investigating violations any more. It is not going to happen. They will not have the staff for it, said another attorney for the Department of Education, who also asked not to be named because he is still working there. It was extremely time and labor intensive. The department said in a press release that all divisions at the department were affected. The National Center for Education Statistics, which collects data about the health of the nations schools, was all but wiped away. Education Secretary Linda McMahon called the layoffs a significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system. In addition to the 1,300 let go on Tuesday, 600 employees already had accepted voluntary resignations or had retired in the past seven weeks, according to the department. Trump and his conservative allies have long wanted to shut the department, with Trump calling it a big con job. But the president hasnt previously tried to do so, and officially closing the department would require congressional approval. Instead, Trump is significantly weakening the agency. The same day Congress confirmed McMahon as education secretary, she sent department staff an email describing a final missionto participate in our opportunity to perform one final, unforgettable public service by eliminating what she called bloat at the department quickly and responsibly. Education Department employees received an email on Tuesday afternoon saying all agency offices across the country would close at 6 p.m. for security reasons and would remain closed Wednesday. That led many workers to speculate that layoffs were coming. Then, after the workday had ended, employees who were being laid off began receiving emails that acknowledged the difficult workforce restructuring. Emails also went to entire divisions: This email serves as notice that your organizational unit is being abolished along with all positions within the unitincluding yours. Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards, ProPublica This story was originally published by ProPublica.
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E-Commerce
Automakers have increasingly moved controls for functions like air conditioning and volume onto touchscreens, and Volkswagen has been no exception. But now, the German car company is reversing course. VW is going analog, and will bring back physical buttons and knobs for essential cabin functions in future models. Volkswagen design chief Andreas Mindt told the British car magazine Autocar that beginning with its electric ID 2all due out in 2026, the volume, heating, fans, and hazard lights will all have physical buttons again. [Image: Volkswagen] We will never, ever make this mistake any more, Mindt said. Honestly, it’s a car. It’s not a phone: it’s a car. Although digital controls on sleek infotainment screens can signal to car buyers that a vehicle’s technology is cutting edge, what works for smartphones doesn’t necessarily translate to cars. It turns out many drivers prefer physical controls and they’re also easier to use. A 2024 J.D. Power study found car owners say passenger display screens are not necessary, and drivers who review them negatively blame usability issues. The Tesla effect Tesla introduced a touchscreen infotainment center in its Model X in 2012, and other automakers followed. Everything’s computer, President Donald Trump proclaimed Tuesday while touring the inside of a Tesla on the White House grounds as a show of support for Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s car company as its stock slides. [Image: Volkswagen] Packing controls into an iPad-style screen is cheaper for car companies who don’t have to manufacture extra controls and knobs, but according to one study, it’s worse for drivers. The Swedish car magazine Vi Bilägare found test pilots were able to more quickly perform tasks like starting the defroster, turning on the radio, and setting it to a particular station while driving a 17-year old Volvo V70 with physical controls than in new, pricier cars with touchscreens. It makes sense; with touchscreens, drivers have to take their eyes off the road to see what they’re doing, while with physical controls, they can feel their way around and keep their eyes focused on driving. [Image: Volkswagen] Volkswagen will still keep touchscreens in its cars, but in promotional materials for the ID 2all, the company emphasizes controls that are intuitive and easy to see and use, like its illuminated air-conditioning buttons and a practical thumbwheel for volume. Whether Volkswagen’s re-buttoning is the start of a wider trend back to more analog controls remains to be seen, but according to Mindt, there’s consumer demand for it. There’s feedback, it’s real, and people love this, he said.
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E-Commerce
One of the wonderful things about watching AppleTVs Severance is seeing the variety of “employee appreciation events” they throw. Each one worse than the last, but they provide wonderful satire of the flat attempts many companies make to demonstrate to their employees that they are valued. The truth is that employee appreciation is not shown by any event. It turns out that if you want the people who work in an organization to feel appreciated, you need to show that they are respected and valued every day. Managers should not wait for special occasions to say nice things about their employees performance. Instead, leaders need to be looking for chances to compliment excellence, effort, and improvement all the time. It is particularly important that significant recognition, praise, and rewards be given to people whose actions and ethos are aligned with the mission of the organization. When visible awards and praise go to people who are widely known to be favorites of management rather than to great team players, that undermines peoples belief that leaders care about the values they talk about. Intrinsic versus extrinsic rewards Psychologists have long distinguished between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic rewards reflect the joy of engaging in a particular activity. For example, you might read often because you genuinely love engaging with a good book. Extrinsic rewards are rewards given that are independent of the activity itself. If someone paid me $5 for every book I read, that would be an extrinsic reward. The danger with extrinsic rewards is that people pursue the activity for that reward, and will often stop doing it when the reward is taken away. In fact, extrinsic rewards can sometimes interfere with peoples ability to learn that an activity is intrinsically rewarding. There is a parallel with employee appreciation. Authentic employee appreciation is embedded in the daily workflow in a way that feels connected (or intrinsic) to the work itself. Supervisors should regularly catch people doing good things and give them positive feedback. Highlighting great work during team meetings and in email updates is also valuable. What authentic appreciation looks like When compliments are freely given to acknowledge significant contributions, then other employee rewards often feel more authentic. Still, it’s useful for organizations to think about ways to provide perks that are consistent with their brand and mission. For example, I have seen leaders at my university use tickets to sporting events and other events on campus to reward service that goes beyond the call of duty. Rewards ring hollow when they feel separated from the work itself. When leaders routinely lead by creating fear, and fail to acknowledge great work, then any rewardeven ones that are on-brandwill still feel forced and inauthentic. On top of that, the rewards given to employees should feel like actual rewards. Holding a party after hours to honor people who have done great work may create a burden for those who have long commutes home or family obligations to attend to. Sending out gift baskets of food that get dietary restrictions of employees wrong is also a problem, because it signals you dont really know the people youre trying to honor. We spend a lot of our waking life at work. It’s nice to be recognized for the contributions we have made to the mission of our team. But an inauthentic reward can be worse than none. It leaves people feeling cynical because it suggests that their true contribution hasnt really been noticed.
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E-Commerce
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