Author: Seung Min Kim and Stephen Groves, Associated Press

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House budget office said Friday that mass firings of federal workers have started, an attempt by President Donald Trump’s administration to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown dragged into a 10th day.Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said on the social media site X that the “RIFs have begun,” referring to reduction-in-force plans aimed at reducing the size of the federal government.A spokesperson for the budget office said the…