The Trump administration has announced it is laying off nearly half of all staff at the U.S. Department of Education, a bold step toward keeping President Trump's campaign promise to close it.
Cory Turner reports and edits for the NPR Ed team. He's helped lead several of the team's signature reporting projects, including "The Truth About America's Graduation Rate" (2015), the groundbreaking "School Money" series (2016), "Raising Kings: A Year Of Love And Struggle At Ron Brown College Prep" (2017), and the NPR Life Kit parenting podcast with Sesame Workshop (2019). His year-long investigation with NPR's Chris Arnold, "The Trouble With TEACH Grants" (2018), led the U.S. Department of Education to change the rules of a troubled federal grant program that had unfairly hurt thousands of teachers.
In almost every state, student achievement in math is below pre-pandemic levels. Alabama was the only state where fourth-graders' average math scores surpassed 2019. What are they doing differently?
According to the department, more than 1,300 positions will be cut as a result of this reduction in force. Roughly another 600 employees have accepted voluntary resignations or retired.
The draft executive action, obtained by NPR, acknowledges that the department and its signature responsibilities were created by Congress and cannot legally be altered without congressional approval.