Author: Cory Turner

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…

The new Republican spending bill will usher in a sweeping overhaul of the federal student loan system for both current and future borrowers. ADRIAN MA, HOST: If you have got student loans or are hoping to take out student loans in the next few years, you may want to listen extra close to this next segment. That’s because among the many changes in the big spending package President Trump recently signed into law, there’s also a complete overhaul of the federal student loan system. It places new limits on loans for many borrowers, and it ends most current repayment plans.…

House Republicans are considering a plan that would force colleges and universities to reimburse the government for a share of the federal loans their students don’t repay. Cory Turner 2025-06-13 20:49:04 Source link

Nestled inside Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act is a bold idea: to penalize colleges and universities whose students leave with mountains of student loan debt but not nearly the earnings boost to pay it off – and to reward schools that do the opposite. Or, as U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon told lawmakers in a recent hearing, it’s a way to force schools to have “a little skin in the game.” This risk-sharing plan would, among other things, require higher education institutions – public and private, for-profit and nonprofit, undergraduate and graduate – to reimburse the federal government…

A private school student works on a lesson at St. Luke’s Lutheran School in Oviedo, Fla. Willie J. Allen Jr./Tribune News Service/Getty hide caption toggle caption Willie J. Allen Jr./Tribune News Service/Getty A first-of-its-kind effort to leverage federal tax dollars to help families pay for private school tuition anywhere in the U.S. is one step closer to becoming a reality. Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee voted this week to include a federal school voucher program, worth $20 billion over four years, in the broader reconciliation bill that would also extend President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. The voucher…

President Trump and his education secretary, Linda McMahon, have said repeatedly that they want to send education “back to the states.” But in recent lawsuits, the administration is accused of doing the opposite: wielding the power of the federal government to tell schools what they can and cannot teach. Alex Brandon/AP hide caption toggle caption Alex Brandon/AP Three federal judges, in Maryland, New Hampshire and Washington, D.C., ruled Thursday that the Trump administration had overstepped when it ordered the nation’s schools to stop all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs as well as classroom teaching the administration might consider discriminatory.…

New research gives a deep dive into how U.S. students are doing. Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images U.S. students were still nearly half a grade level behind in both math and reading in the spring of 2024, compared with achievement levels before the pandemic. That’s according to the latest release of the Education Recovery Scorecard, a data-rich deep dive into student learning. Today’s news arrives on the heels of The Nation’s Report Card, released at the end of January, which also found students still trying to make up for learning they missed during the pandemic.…

Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia began a recent hearing of the House education committee by addressing the “elephant in the room” — President Trump’s efforts to diminish, and eventually dissolve, the U.S. Education Department. Jose Luis Magana/AP; Getty Images; Photo collage/NPR hide caption toggle caption Jose Luis Magana/AP; Getty Images; Photo collage/NPR U.S. education policy is at a crossroads. The White House wants to close the U.S. Department of Education, and has placed dozens of employees on paid leave with little explanation. Its plan, which it confirmed to NPR, is to quickly shutter programs that are not protected by law…