Gov. Tim Walz on Wednesday criticized layoffs in the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) which he says will likely also lead to funding cuts and have a negative impact on students in Minnesota.

The department is already beginning to lay off more than 1,300 employees – about half of its staff. Impacted staff will be placed on administrative leave starting March 21. It’s a move that President Donald Trump says would give states more control over schools.

Walz, who is also a former teacher, posted on social media about the layoffs, saying this is about defunding local public schools.

RELATED: The Education department was created to ensure equal access. Who would do that in its absence?

However, President Donald Trump has called the Department of Education a “con job.” Education Secretary Linda McMahon says the agency will continue to oversee federal aid and student loan management.

When questioned about layoffs in the U.S. Department of Education on Wednesday, Trump says his moves are aimed at returning to local control of schools. “We have a dream,” he told reporters in an Oval Office meeting with the prime minister of Ireland. “And you know what the dream is? We’re going to move the Department of Education. We’re going to move education into the states. So that the states, instead of bureaucrats working in Washington, so that the states can run education.”

Walz began Wednesday by reading the book “We Don’t Eat Our Classmates” to second graders in Fridley at Hayes Elementary. After reading to students with First Lady Gwen Walz, Walz held a news conference with Minnesota Education Commissioner Willie Jett to speak out against the layoffs and cuts.

Walz criticized Secretary McMahon’s lack of awareness about the programs being cut, such as Individualized Education Programs (IEP) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), stating the secretary lacked knowledge and understanding of what they do but was cutting them anyway.

“She did not know the very basics of her job,” Walz said. “The irony of this, of criticizing our schools where she has never spent a minute in there, or in public schools, is simply an outrage.”

Walz also criticized the cuts made to staff who are experts in those fields, saying they ensure children have resources and tools to succeed.

“We’re here today to make sure we’re lifting up the work that our schools do, the work that they do in partnership with parents, the impact that the move that’s being made will have, the detrimental impact on children, individual children that it will have, that it will undermine our ability both from innovation in this country to economics by undermining the very principle that set America apart from the rest of the world: the idea of an equal education and a quality education for all children,” he said.

He then warned that the cuts to the department would have a large-reaching impact across the country outside of people simply losing their jobs.

“I’m telling you, as parents, as citizens, this is going to have an impact,” Walz said. “They are basing this on no evidence or no facts that this move will increase student achievement while saving money while recruiting and raising the morale of teachers and staff across the country. None of those things are happening. All of these things are going the other way.”

Minnesota Commissioner of Education Willie Jett said at the state level, they had been left in the dark about what would happen to programs and resources like early learning programs and low-income student support schools receive through the DOE if the department would be dissolved.

“So far we have received no answer,” Jett said. “But while federal actions remain unclear, here in the state of Minnesota, our commitment is not. The Minnesota Department of Education, we’re still here and we’re not going anywhere.”

Jett said the Minnesota DOE would continue to fight for resources, stability, and policies that Minnesota schools need.

Some teachers fear gutting the department will leave vulnerable students even more vulnerable.

“Firing half of your workforce without cause – we know necessarily will mean there will be cuts to services that our students and families need,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association.

“Well, clearly, we’re not taking away education. The president never said that. He’s taking the bureaucracy out of education so that more money flows to the states,” said Linda McMahon.

Walz predicts the Trump education cuts will have a detrimental effect. “And it will go just as well as the tariffs have gone, just as well as the stock market is going, just as well as egg prices have gone, but this time it’s our kids,” Walz said.

You can watch Wednesday’s full news conference in the video player below.