For the last few months, Laura Meckler from the Washington Post has been trying to understand exactly what's happening at the Department of Education. The problem is that there are not that many people left to tell her.

How often are you speaking to people inside the department?

Are they calling you? Are you calling them?

I mean, there's a little bit of both.

You know, I have a group of people who I try to keep in touch with.

And, you know, some of whom were workers there at the start of the year and are no longer

workers there.

Laura says, things began to really go south back in March.

That's when Secretary of Education Linda McMahon issued this memo, which laid out an overhaul.

It repeated this one phrase, again and again,

final mission. This is our opportunity to perform one final, unforgettable public service to future

generations of students, McMahon wrote. I hope you will join me in ensuring that when our final mission is complete,

we will all be able to say that we left American education freer, stronger,

and with more hope for the future.

The language here is a little strange, right?

It's kind of a St. Crispin's Day speech for civil servants. The implication of a final

mission is you will not survive. Within a few days, McMahon had issued another memo. This one

laid off half of her own staff. Her workers appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court, and the court

ruled last week. People had said, you know, this is essentially trying to close the department without

permission. They're not going to, the department is not going to be able to maintain its

statutorily mandated functions with such a small staff, but the Supreme Court disagreed and said

that they could go ahead

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