Author: Cory Turner

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…

The Washington headquarters of the Department of Education on March 12. A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment rights of Education Department employees when it replaced their personalized out-of-office notifications with partisan language. Win McNamee/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Win McNamee/Getty Images A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment rights of Education Department employees when it replaced their personalized out-of-office e-mail notifications with partisan language blaming Democrats for the government shutdown. “When government employees enter public service, they do not sign away their First Amendment rights,” U.S. District Judge…

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program was created by Congress in 2007 to cancel the federal student loan debts of borrowers who spend a decade working in public service. Josh Lawton/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Josh Lawton/Getty Images The cities of Albuquerque, N.M., Boston, Chicago and San Francisco are suing the Trump administration over changes it plans to make to the popular Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, or PSLF. The lawsuit, which also includes the nation’s two largest teachers unions and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, comes less than a week after the U.S. Department…

A new peer-reviewed analysis shows K-12 students who got regular access to social and emotional learning had better test scores and better grades. Cory Turner 2025-10-23 20:24:15 Source link

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded more than $150 million in grants to train K-12 teachers in civics education, but what does nonpartisan civics look like in these hyper-partisan times? Cory Turner 2025-10-22 08:59:13 Source link

The Trump administration is cutting another 466 federal workers from the Department of Education, including staff who oversee funding that supports children with disabilities and low-income students. ELISSA NADWORNY, HOST: Amid the government shutdown, the Trump administration has doubled down on its efforts to shrink the U.S. Education Department. Sweeping layoffs last week essentially gutted several offices, including the one overseeing special education. And now, NPR has learned the office charged with enforcing federal civil rights laws in schools may also have taken a big hit. We’re saying may because not long ago, a judge issued a temporary restraining order,…