Following through on a high-profile campaign promise to dismantle the US Department of Education, the Trump administration is slashing nearly half the agency’s workforce — a prelude, many experts suspect, to a forthcoming executive order further shifting responsibilities for educating the country’s students away from the federal government.

Nearly half of the Education Department’s workforce is set to be off the job, including employees right in Boston. All employees working out of the department’s regional office in Boston will be part of these layoffs.