Author: Cory Turner

The Trump administration announced a plan to move significant management of and responsibility for the nation’s federal student loan portfolio from the U.S. Education Department to the U.S. Treasury Department. Alex Brandon/AP hide caption toggle caption Alex Brandon/AP The Trump administration announced Thursday a three-phase transition that will move significant management of and responsibility for the nation’s federal student loan portfolio from the U.S. Education Department to the U.S. Treasury Department. The administration says the Treasury Department is better equipped to, among other things, help millions of borrowers who are in default return to repayment on their loans, though the…

Just over a year ago, the U.S. Department of Education abandoned key oversight of the companies that run the federal student loan program, according to a new report from the nonpartisan U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). GAO investigators found that, in February 2025, the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) stopped reviewing the accuracy of loan servicers’ records. FSA also stopped reviewing recordings of calls with borrowers to make sure they’re being given accurate information. Without this oversight, the report warns, borrowers could feel the consequences. “If servicers’ records are inaccurate, borrowers could, for instance, be placed in the wrong…

Roughly a million borrowers defaulted on their federal student loans late last year, with millions delinquent on their payments and sliding toward the same fate. That’s according to federal data and the latest Household Debt and Credit Report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which dropped on Tuesday. The report includes student loan data as of the end of 2025. Student loan delinquencies have continued to worsen, said New York Fed researchers on a call with reporters, and they expect the number of borrowers in default to continue to grow. The report offers further confirmation of a crisis…

The Lyndon Baines Johnson Building, which houses the U.S. Department of Education, in Washington, D.C. Bill Clark/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Bill Clark/Getty Images A new report from a government watchdog suggests the Trump administration’s efforts to fire staff at the U.S. Department of Education cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. The report, from the nonpartisan U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), focuses on the department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which investigates complaints of discrimination in schools based on students’ sex, race, national origin, disability and more. In March, the administration attempted to fire more than half of…

The risks of using generative artificial intelligence to educate children and teens currently overshadow the benefits, according to a new study by the Brookings Institution’s Center for Universal Education. The sweeping study includes focus groups and interviews with K-12 students, parents, educators and tech experts in 50 countries, as well as a literature review of hundreds of research articles. It found that using AI in education can “undermine children’s foundational development” and that “the damages it has already caused are daunting,” though “fixable.” Because generative AI is still young — ChatGPT was released just over three years ago — the…

2025 was a tumultuous year for federal student loan borrowers. NPR breaks down the most important changes borrowers should understand as they head into 2026. SCOTT DETROW, HOST: Student loan borrowers have spent much of 2025 trying to keep up with massive changes to the federal student loan system. That includes changes to repayment plans and borrowing limits. NPR’s Cory Turner has this update on where we’ve been and where we’re headed.CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Even student loan experts found the past year a little dizzying.PERSIS YU: Let’s see. Where to start (laughter)?TURNER: Persis Yu, with the liberal advocacy group Protect…

The U.S. Education Department is house in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Building, pictured here in March in Washington, D.C. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Employees at the U.S. Education Department who were fired in March got an unexpected email on Friday – telling them to return to work. These federal workers, including many attorneys, investigate family complaints of discrimination in the nation’s schools as part of the department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR). They were terminated by the Trump administration in a March reduction-in-force, but the courts…

Students help put away supplies at the end of a reading and writing lesson at a Head Start program in Miami in January 2025. Rebecca Blackwell/AP hide caption toggle caption Rebecca Blackwell/AP Some Head Start early childhood programs are being told by the federal government to remove a list of nearly 200 words and phrases from their funding applications or they could be denied. That’s according to recently submitted court documents. The list of words includes “accessible,” “belong,” “Black,” “disability,” “female,” “minority,” “trauma,” “tribal” and “women.” The list was submitted on Dec. 5, as part of an ongoing lawsuit filed…

Annelise Capossela for NPR Borrowers have spent much of 2025 trying to keep up with dizzying changes to the federal student loan system. The Trump administration and Congress are in the process of overhauling everything from how much Americans can borrow to how quickly they have to pay it back. Here’s what to know as we head into a new year: President Biden’s SAVE Plan is ending The U.S. Department of Education announced in early December that it had reached a proposed settlement agreement to end the popular, yet controversial Biden-era student loan repayment plan known as SAVE. The Saving…

Left: Ed Martin was one of the authors of the law now known as IDEA. Before the law, children with disabilities were often turned away from public schools. “They were invisible,” says Martin. Right: Maggie Heilman and her daughter, Brooklynn, 14, at their home in a Kansas City suburb. Brooklynn has Down syndrome and her own special education plan thanks to IDEA. Thomas Simonetti and Katie Currid for NPR hide caption toggle caption Thomas Simonetti and Katie Currid for NPR Fifty years ago, just after Thanksgiving of 1975, President Gerald Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, the…