乔·墨菲，他的管理和数据分析师的职位被教育部取消了裁员近50%周二晚上，周三说，他和他的同事充满了“悲伤”和“难以置信”
“我们有一种感觉，从某种意义上说，我们是可任意处置的，尤其是我们这些在数据空间的人，”他告诉美国广播公司新闻。
据墨菲说，他直接共事的每个人都被解雇了。
这位来自弗吉尼亚州邓弗里斯的56岁的人说，他已经花了近20年的时间研究教育数据，此前在国家教育统计中心工作，此外还在教育部担任公式拨款数据收集空间的承包商。
政府效率部(Department of Government Efficiency)的高级官员表示，在该机构削减联邦成本的最新努力中，约有1315名教育部员工受到“裁员”通知的影响，剩下2183人。
白宫新闻秘书卡罗琳·莱维特周三为裁员辩护，称其为“做出的承诺和履行的承诺”
“我们没有理由比世界上大多数发达国家花费更多。我们的教育系统正在失败，”她补充道。“总统希望让教育回归美国，让那些与人民最亲近的人能够为我们孩子的生活做出这些非常重要的决定。这是这一过程的第一步。”
尽管墨菲说终止妊娠是意料之中的，但他说这种经历仍然令人不安。
“没有什么让我感到惊讶了，但它仍然有点令人震惊和有影响力，”他说。
“我不知道我从这里前进到哪里...我突然进入了一个就业市场，与此同时，这个市场也受到了严重的限制，并且充斥着与我有着相似技能的人。我已经56岁了，”墨菲继续说道，并补充道，他已经在这一行中度过了“一生中超过三分之一的时间”。
“今天早上醒来感觉很奇怪，好像在想，哇，我该怎么办?”他说。
墨菲强调了他的工作中最重要也是最有意义的方面，他的工作隶属于中小学教育办公室，为国家的孩子们服务。
“这真的是为了孩子们，我们所做的一切都是为了孩子们。我们很多人都有这种感觉，”他说，并补充说他“希望事情有所不同。”
“这是我最引以为豪的事情。我认为，你知道，做得很好，并以正确及时的方式将数据提供给项目-良好、准确的数据，以便他们可以代表这个国家的10万所学校、18，000个地区和50多个州教育机构做出决定，”他解释说。
当被问及他是否认为儿童将继续获得所需的教育福利和服务时，墨菲预测了一个黯淡的前景，并表示他认为“我们正在将教育部和我们学生的教育政治化。”
他还表示担心他的工作是否能够继续。
“所以，我们为这些项目所做的所有工作，我不知道现在谁会去做或者谁有能力去做。项目中的人们已经不堪重负。他们非常感谢我们为他们所做的工作，我们为他们从大量的数据中提炼出几个答案，他们与我们一起奠定了基础，”他说。“所以，我不知道这将在哪里完成。”
墨菲是美国政府雇员联合会的成员，他说他最近才加入，因为政府从拜登到特朗普发生了变化。
“当情况似乎变糟，每个人都在就职典礼后接手时，我说，好吧，好吧，我要去报名了，”他说，解释了他如何受到“过去两个月被威胁和恐吓主导”的影响
“我不一定不同意联邦政府需要某种程度的改进和重组，”墨菲承认。“但是你怎么做真的很重要，你不能只是...联邦政府不是私人企业，你不能这样经营。”
Fired Education Department worker: 'We got the sense that we were disposable.'
Joe Murphy, whose position as a management and data analyst was eliminated when the Department of Educationlaid off nearly 50% of its workforceTuesday evening, said on Wednesday that he and his colleagues are filled with a sense of "sadness" and "disbelief."
"We got the sense that we were disposable in a certain sense, especially those of us in the data space," he told ABC News.
According to Murphy, everyone he worked with directly had their positions terminated.
The 56-year-old from Dumfries, Virginia, said he has spent almost 20 years in education data, previously working for the National Center for Education Statistics, in addition to serving as a contractor for a formula grant data collection space in the Education Department.
In the Department of Government Efficiency's latest efforts to cut federal costs, some 1,315 Education Department employees were affected by the "reduction in force" notices, leaving 2,183, according to senior officials at the agency.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the job cuts on Wednesday, referring to them as "a promise made and a promise kept."
"There is no reason that we should be spending more than most developed countries in the world. And our education system is failing," she added. "The president wants to return education back to the states, empower those closest to the people to make these very important decisions for our children's lives. And this is a first step in that process."
Though Murphy said the terminations were expected, he said the experience has still been disconcerting.
"Nothing surprises me anymore, but it's still kind of shocking and impactful," he said.
"I do not know where I go forward from here ... I am suddenly belched out into a job market that has been at the very same time, severely constricted and also completely flooded with people who have a similar skill set to mine. I'm 56 years old," Murphy continued, adding that he has spend "more than a third of [his] entire life" in this line of work.
"Felt really weird to wake up this morning and be like, wow, what am I gonna do?" he said.
Murphy emphasized how the most important and rewarding aspect of his job, which falls under the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, was serving the nation's children.
"It's really for the kids, and what we do is for the kids. And so many of us feel that way," he said, adding that he "wish[es] things went differently."
"That's the thing I have the greatest sense of pride in. I would think, you know, doing a good job and getting the data to the programs in the right timely fashion -- good, accurate data, so that they can make decisions on behalf of, you know, 100,000 schools in this country and 18,000 districts and 50-something state education agencies," he explained.
When asked if he believes children will continue to receive needed educational benefits and services, Murphy projected a bleak outlook and expressed his belief that "we're politicizing the department of education and the education of our students."
He also expressed concern over whether his work will even be able to continue.
"So, all that work that we did for the programs, I don't know who's going to do it now or be able to do it. The folks in the programs were already overwhelmed. They were so grateful to us for the work that we did for them in distilling down this massive amount of data to a few answers with groundwork that they laid together with us," he said. "So, I don't know where that's going to get done."
Murphy is a member of the American Federation of Government Employees union, which he says he joined only recently due to the change in administrations from Biden to Trump.
"When it seemed to be going south and everybody was taking over after the inauguration, I said, okay, well, I'm gonna go ahead and sign up," he said, explaining how he was affected by the "last two months of being led by threats and intimidation."
"I don't necessarily disagree with the idea that the federal government needed some improvements and some restructuring to some degree," Murphy acknowledged. "But how you do it really matters, and you can't just ... the federal government is not a private business, and you can't run it that way."
