Corey Turner
Appearances
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-11-2025 5PM EDT
Staff were instructed by the department's Office of Security to leave their offices by 6 p.m. Eastern Time, and they were told to work from home Wednesday. The email included little explanation, saying offices would be closed for security reasons and would reopen Thursday. Employees of the department shared the email with NPR, and we're not naming them because the employees fear retribution.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-11-2025 5PM EDT
Neither the White House nor the Education Department responded to multiple requests for comment. The email further unsettled employees who fear imminent sweeping staff cuts. This Thursday, agency heads are expected to turn in restructuring plans to achieve large-scale reductions in force. Corey Turner, NPR News.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-20-2025 4PM EDT
Between early retirement buyouts, the firing of newer hires, and last week's big reduction in force, the department will soon be down to roughly half the size it was when Trump took office. The White House insisted in a fact sheet to NPR that the executive action would not cut key federal funding streams that help schools serve low-income students, kids with disabilities, and rural communities.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-20-2025 4PM EDT
But last week's purge included the entire legal staff at the department responsible for making sure that funding... is spent according to law and reaches the children who need it most. Corey Turner, NPR News.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 05-15-2025 7AM EDT
Edelman is about as good of a draw as she could have ever hoped for.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 05-15-2025 7AM EDT
The federal school voucher plan has been included in Republicans' reconciliation bill, and if it becomes law, would work like this. A private citizen could make a charitable donation to a non-profit third party known as an SGO, or Scholarship Granting Organization.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 05-15-2025 7AM EDT
The SGO would then distribute the money to families in the form of scholarships to pay for private school tuition or homeschooling expenses. The person who donates the cash would also get a generous tax credit. Every dollar they donate would cut their federal tax bill by a dollar. Families would be able to use the money even in states where voters have fought back vouchers.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 05-15-2025 7AM EDT
The measure will soon move with the rest of the reconciliation bill to the full House. Corey Turner, NPR News.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 12-20-2024 7PM EST
This latest effort for borrowers in the public service loan forgiveness program will provide more than $4 billion in relief. In a statement, President Joe Biden said his administration has now approved relief for nearly 5 million student loan borrowers. The news comes as Biden's largest efforts to provide loan forgiveness have been shut down or remain tangled in the courts.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 12-20-2024 7PM EST
Over the past four years, the White House has argued that broad loan forgiveness is justifiable, given the enormity of federal student loan debt. While Republicans have countered that forgiveness not only privileges those with some college, it's also a costly use of taxpayer dollars that only Congress, not the White House, has the power to decide. Corey Turner, NPR News.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-09-2025 7PM EST
In this latest ruling, a federal judge in Kentucky agreed, striking down the rule nationally and writing that it, quote, turns Title IX on its head. Before this decision, the rule had already been blocked in half the country. Corey Turner, NPR News.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-09-2025 7PM EST
For half a century, Title IX has banned discrimination in schools based on sex. At issue in this decision is a rule the Biden administration released last spring interpreting the law to also protect sexual orientation and gender identity. The rule had been hailed by LGBTQ plus advocates, but was challenged by 26 conservative-led states that argued the president had exceeded his legal authority.
Planet Money
The Rest of the Story, 2024
Yeah, it was August 2023. And a lot has happened since then. In that episode, I was talking about President Biden's big new student loan repayment plan, the Saving on a Valuable Education Plan, or if you love acronyms, SAVE. He rolled it out after the Supreme Court struck down his big effort to outright forgive billions of dollars in federal student loan debt.
Planet Money
The Rest of the Story, 2024
As repayment plans go, Save is radically more flexible and generous and forgiving, really, than anything that has come before. And I want to give you one example here, Alexi. A borrower I've spoken to a few times over the past year, his name is Carlos Sanchez of Texas. He took out a ton of student loan debt to put his three children through state schools.
Planet Money
The Rest of the Story, 2024
Before he enrolled in SAVE, his monthly payment was over $1,000.
Planet Money
The Rest of the Story, 2024
Ah, the rest of the story, Alexi, is that Carlos did not have much time to enjoy those save benefits.
Planet Money
The Rest of the Story, 2024
That turmoil was a bunch of Republican state attorneys general sued the Biden administration, arguing that the SAVE plan is illegal.
Planet Money
The Rest of the Story, 2024
Way bigger. It's happening to all of the roughly 8 million people who are enrolled in the SAVE plan and are now in the student loan equivalent of limbo.
Planet Money
The Rest of the Story, 2024
Because of the cost, really, Alexi, by one estimate, the plan could cost $475 billion over 10 years, which would make it maybe more expensive than Biden's original loan forgiveness plan, which was obviously struck down by the Supreme Court. And so those Republican state attorneys general, I mentioned earlier, They have been arguing in court over the past year that, look, this is Civics 101.
Planet Money
The Rest of the Story, 2024
President Biden created the SAVE plan, but only Congress has the power of the purse, not the president. And if Congress had wanted to spend nearly half a trillion dollars on a loan repayment plan, it would have. And is this argument working? Like, where do things stand legally at the moment?
Planet Money
The Rest of the Story, 2024
Well, we're waiting for the next ruling, but the courts have already issued an injunction, which is a fancy way of saying nobody can use save until they figure out if it's legal.
Planet Money
The Rest of the Story, 2024
Yeah, it means nobody has to make payments until the court decides if save is legal. Also, interest is not accruing. But, you know, there are a lot of borrowers for whom this confusion, this limbo is just too much. And so for them, they should know they have a few other options. The Ed Department is reopening to older repayment plans.
Planet Money
The Rest of the Story, 2024
Though I should say a court ruling against save, if it's broad enough, could actually take them down too. If borrowers want a safer bet, they could jump over to the one income-based plan, Alexi, that Congress created itself, which means it's safe. It's called IBR, for income-based repayment, and it offers some loan forgiveness.
Planet Money
The Rest of the Story, 2024
But because of its rules, there are going to be some borrowers who may not qualify for the plan. What is clear at this point is that just about any other plan compared to save is probably going to mean an increase in borrowers' monthly payments.
Planet Money
The Rest of the Story, 2024
I don't have a crystal ball, obviously, but I would say the only way it survives is for three unlikely things to all happen. And that is for the courts, for the incoming Trump administration, and for Congress, which will soon be controlled by Republicans, to all three decide that they want Save to stick around. Is that impossible? No, but boy, is it unlikely.
Up First from NPR
Trump Remaking Government, RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearings, US Education Report Card
Good morning, Steve.
Up First from NPR
Trump Remaking Government, RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearings, US Education Report Card
Well, this is not the report card we were hoping for. These results come from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which was created by Congress. It's been around for decades. Every other year, the country tests a sample of fourth and eighth graders, and we're talking reading and math. And the last time we got results in 2022... They showed steep learning losses from the pandemic.
Up First from NPR
Trump Remaking Government, RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearings, US Education Report Card
So the hope was when students took these tests again in 2024, we might see them doing better. Well, here's Peggy Carr. She is commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics.
Up First from NPR
Trump Remaking Government, RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearings, US Education Report Card
Now, Steve, as bleak as that sounds, I actually want to start with one glimmer of hope in those sobering results. Fourth graders who took the math test in 2024 actually did a little better than the fourth graders who took it in 2022. Okay. And that's really important because it ends a pandemic slide in fourth grade.
Up First from NPR
Trump Remaking Government, RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearings, US Education Report Card
Yeah, a lot of not so good news, because even in fourth grade math, kids still aren't back to the scores we saw before the pandemic. In fact, when you break the data down, in only one state, Steve, Alabama, are fourth graders doing better in math than fourth graders were doing before the pandemic. One state.
Up First from NPR
Trump Remaking Government, RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearings, US Education Report Card
And in eighth grade, there's a really worrying achievement gap that's been widening between top and lower performers.
Up First from NPR
Trump Remaking Government, RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearings, US Education Report Card
How are kids doing in reading? Well, that may be the toughest news of all. In fourth and eighth grade, both reading scores continued to fall from 2022 to to 2024. And keep in mind, they'd already been falling from 2019 to 2022. The lowest performers in reading are actually scoring worse now than the lowest performers who took the test 30 years ago.
Up First from NPR
Trump Remaking Government, RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearings, US Education Report Card
And remember how I said only one state had surpassed its pre-pandemic math scores? Well, it is the same in reading. In only one state are fourth graders doing better than they were in 2019, and that is Louisiana.
Up First from NPR
Trump Remaking Government, RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearings, US Education Report Card
Yeah, so $190 billion. That is a lot of money. You're right. But several researchers told me, look... That money helped, just not enough. And part of the reason why is because Congress sent most of it directly to districts. They had a lot of freedom in spending it, and they were only required to spend a small fraction of it on learning loss.
Up First from NPR
Trump Remaking Government, RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearings, US Education Report Card
I also want to say, though, these declines in math and reading, Steve, when you look big picture, they were made worse by the pandemic. But they actually started before COVID, around a decade ago. And researchers told me understanding why is going to be key to getting kids back on track.
Up First from NPR
Trump Remaking Government, RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearings, US Education Report Card
This big report card, it's great for understanding where kids are struggling, but not why or what we can do about it.
Up First from NPR
Canada Tariffs, Education Department Targeted, DOGE
Well, and not a lot, at least not through official channels. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. But multiple sources have told me, folks who are not allowed to speak publicly, the Trump administration is eager to close the department. And so in the near term...
Up First from NPR
Canada Tariffs, Education Department Targeted, DOGE
It plans to use this executive action to try to move quickly to cut programs and staff that were not created by Congress. So they're not protected by law. The idea being these will be the programs that are the easiest to cut, essentially the low hanging fruit. The problem here, Steve, is the department itself and its signature responsibilities were all created by Congress.
Up First from NPR
Canada Tariffs, Education Department Targeted, DOGE
And so they're much harder to cut.
Up First from NPR
Canada Tariffs, Education Department Targeted, DOGE
Yeah, so the department has a budget of around $79 billion. On the K-12 side, it administers Title I, which sends extra funding to schools in lower-income communities, both urban and rural. And it administers IDEA, that's the civil rights law that guarantees special education. And obviously on the higher ed side, it manages the $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio.
Up First from NPR
Canada Tariffs, Education Department Targeted, DOGE
Now, I have spoken with a bunch of experts over the past year who all say they really don't see how a president can make meaningful legal changes to these programs without Congress. And that's why, Steve, I'm hearing from my sources that this executive action would essentially acknowledge that by calling on Congress to either cut or move some or all of these programs to other agencies.
Up First from NPR
Canada Tariffs, Education Department Targeted, DOGE
The challenge for the administration is there have been plenty of past efforts to close the department and rewrite the rules of big programs like Title I, but lawmakers, including many Republicans, have always opposed them.
Up First from NPR
Canada Tariffs, Education Department Targeted, DOGE
Yeah, that's right. At least 74 non-management Department of Education staff have been placed on paid administrative leave. They all got this email in the last few days saying they're being placed on leave because of President Trump's executive action targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Up First from NPR
Canada Tariffs, Education Department Targeted, DOGE
In a statement I got, a department spokesperson said, quote, we are evaluating staffing in line with a commitment to prioritizing meaningful learning ahead of divisive ideology in schools and putting student outcomes above special interests. But I spoke yesterday and last night with a bunch of these employees, and they all told me they don't work in DEI. They're career staff.
Up First from NPR
Canada Tariffs, Education Department Targeted, DOGE
They work in multiple departments. The only thing they had in common was that they had all attended at some point a DEI workshop the department has been offering for years, including, by the way, going back to the first Trump administration.