Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is scheduled to host an online career information session Wednesday “in an effort to support federal workers” who have lost their jobs, according to a March 31 statement from the district.
Interested federal workers can join the meeting Wednesday on Zoom from 2 to 4 p.m. to learn about career opportunities in the school district, according to the statement. Those interested can register here.
Tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired or laid off by President Donald Trump’s administration since January through actions taken by the Department of Government Efficiency led by billionaire Elon Musk.
According to County Executive Marc Elrich (D), more than 77,550 federal employees lived in the county at the time of Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, and more than 48,400 federal jobs were based in the county, not including contract employees.
The county doesn’t have exact numbers on how many residents may have been laid off, but Elrich has said local officials have confirmed that almost 1,500 have lost their jobs since Trump was inaugurated.
The MCPS information session comes amid budget season, when MCPS is looking to the County Council to fulfill its $3.65 billion fiscal year 2026 operating budget request. Elrich’s proposed county operating budget, presented March 14, includes a 3.4% property tax rate increase to fully fund the district’s budget request. The MCPS budget request includes staff pay raises, almost 700 new special educator positions and 52 additional security positions, among other proposed spending.
MCPS also recently announced the creation of a mobile recruitment bus to deliver information and resources to communities across Montgomery County.
At a February rally advocating for the county government to fulfill the district’s budget request, MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor noted there is now a surplus of federal workers in the area who may need employment.
“There’s a ton of qualified people in our community who would love to be a part of Team MCPS, and we would love to help get them certified to be educators in our community,” Taylor said at the rally held outside of the Isiah “Ike” Leggett Executive Office Building in Rockville.
MCPS joins the county government in its efforts to help federal workers. In March, the council proposed legislation that would give displaced federal workers preference when applying for county government jobs and the county launched a public-private partnership to support federal workers. A Montgomery College job fair in Germantown on April 1 also aimed to connect federal scientists who lost their jobs to bioscience firms in the area.
More county resources for local federal employees facing layoffs can be found here.
Bethesda Today reporter Ginny Bixby contributed to this report.
