Author: Cory Turner
A person walks past the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, DC. Win McNamee/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Win McNamee/Getty Images Sweeping layoffs announced Friday by the Trump administration landed another body blow to the U.S. Department of Education, this time gutting the office responsible for overseeing special education, according to multiple sources within the department. The reduction-in-force, or RIF, affects the dozens of staff responsible for roughly $15 billion dollars in special education funding, and for making sure states provide special education services to the nation’s 7.5 million children with disabilities. “This is decimating the office responsible for…
Kat Lloyd talks to the students during a presentation inside the Tenement Museum in New York City. Keren Carrion/NPR hide caption toggle caption Keren Carrion/NPR Kat Lloyd stands in the dim light on the first-floor staircase of a dilapidated, New York City tenement building. Before her: a tour of wide-eyed teens on a field trip from their high school in Queens. Their guide, Lloyd, encourages the students to imagine the building’s 22 apartments when they were new, back in 1863, and brimming with mostly German immigrants. “I start to imagine, you know, babies crying and people yelling to each other…
The battle over next year’s federal education budget has begun. Congress and the White House have released not one, not two, but three competing funding visions for the nation’s K-12 schools in fiscal year 2026. And education researchers warn that two of those three proposals — from the White House and House Republicans — would impose steep cuts on some of the United States’ most vulnerable students and disadvantaged school communities. The three proposals on the table First up, President Trump’s proposed budget would cut U.S. Department of Education funding by 15%. It would eliminate all funding ($1.3 billion) for…
In a new court filing, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is asking a federal judge to force the U.S. Department of Education to follow the law and cancel the debts of borrowers who have met longstanding requirements for loan forgiveness. The AFT argues the department is delaying cancellation for many borrowers in a way that is “unwarranted and unlawful” and will have “real and significant consequences.” That’s because the clock is ticking. With the American Rescue Plan, Congress temporarily stopped treating loan cancellation as taxable income until Jan. 1, 2026. Soon, many borrowers will again be expected to pay…
New data reveals a growing problem; millions of federal student loan borrowers are at serious risk of default. A MARTÍNEZ, HOST: New data shows a growing problem with federal student loans. Millions of borrowers are at risk, at serious risk, of defaulting. NPR’s Cory Turner explains.CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Every three months, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York releases its quarterly report on household debt and credit. And the latest for the second quarter of 2025 tells a worrying story about federal student loan borrowers.JOELLE SCALLY: More than 10% of balances were past due. That means that they’ve missed at…
As a new academic year starts, American schools are not immune from the politics of this moment. We discuss K-12 education in the U.S., and what the Trump administration wants to change about it. Cory Turner 2025-09-05 21:10:34 Source link
The entrance of the U.S. Department of Education headquarters building in Washington, D.C. J. David Ake/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption J. David Ake/Getty Images In April, the U.S. Department of Education used a landmark law intended, in part, to end racial discrimination to investigate Chicago Public Schools over a “Black Students Success Plan,” after a complaint that the program discriminated against students of other races. In July, the department ruled five Virginia school districts had violated another civil rights law, intended to protect women and girls from sex discrimination and harassment, by allowing transgender students to use school facilities…
A California school district fights chronic absenteeism in kindergarten by helping parents decide whether their kid is too sick to go to school. MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: In this country, students are missing an alarming amount of school, a trend that began during the pandemic. And one of the grades where kids are missing the most might surprise you. It’s kindergarten. NPR’s Cory Turner visited a district in California Central Valley that’s doing something about it.MAYTE RAMIREZ: As you can see, there’s a lot. Out of town, back on Wednesday, appointment, ear infection, sick.CORY TURNER, BYLINE: In Livingston, Calif., elementary school…
Thursday’s move would compel colleges and universities to report more detail about not just the students they enroll but also about those who apply. LA Johnson/NPR hide caption toggle caption LA Johnson/NPR President Trump signed a presidential memorandum Thursday requiring colleges and universities to submit expanded admissions data to the U.S. Department of Education. The move is the latest salvo in the administration’s fight against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and is intended to reveal if schools are still preferencing race in admissions even after the Supreme Court banned affirmative action in 2023. Thursday’s memo claims “the lack of…
In just six months, the Trump administration has profoundly reshaped federal education policy. MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: In the six months since Donald Trump returned to the White House, the federal government’s approach to education has undergone remarkable change, from big staffing cuts at the Education Department to a sweeping overhaul of federal student loans. So we thought this would be a good time to hear from NPR education correspondent Cory Turner for a look at what’s happened since January. Good morning, Cory.CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.MARTIN: So let’s start with a fight over money that Congress intended for public…