Education

Inside Our Schools

325 stories published since 2015

A Teacher Dragged a 6-Year-Old With Autism by His Ankle. Federal Civil Rights Officials Might Not Do Anything.

by Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen

May 20, 2025, 5:00 am EDT
The Department of Education Forced Idaho to Stop Denying Disabled Students an Education. Then Trump Gutted Its Staff.

by Becca Savransky, Idaho Statesman

May 13, 2025, 6:00 am EDT
Help Us Report on How the Department of Education Is Handling Civil Rights Cases

by Asia Fields, Ashley Clarke, Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards

May 2, 2025, 5:05 am EDT
A Gutted Education Department’s New Agenda: Roll Back Civil Rights Cases, Target Transgender Students

by Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen

May 2, 2025, 5:00 am EDT
Idaho Gave Families $50M to Spend on Private Education. Then It Ended a $30M Program Used by Public School Families.

by Audrey Dutton

April 18, 2025, 5:00 am EDT
In An Era of Big Money, the University of Illinois Shrugs Off Rules on Athletes’ NIL Deals

by Stacy St. Clair, Chicago Tribune, and Jodi S. Cohen, ProPublica

April 4, 2025, 6:00 am EDT
A Texas School Board Cut State-Approved Textbook Chapters About Diversity. A Board Member Says Material Violated the Law

by Jeremy Schwartz, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, and Dan Keemahill, The Texas Tribune

April 2, 2025, 6:00 am EDT
A University, a Rural Town and Their Fight to Survive Trump’s War on Higher Education

by Molly Parker, Capitol News Illinois

March 27, 2025, 6:00 am EDT
How Texas Conservatives Use At-Large School Board Elections to Influence What Students Learn

by Jeremy Schwartz, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, and Dan Keemahill, The Texas Tribune; photography by Shelby Tauber for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune

March 19, 2025, 6:00 am EDT
Parents Sue Trump Administration for Allegedly Sabotaging Education Department’s Civil Rights Division

by Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen

March 14, 2025, 9:40 am EDT
Texas Lawmakers Want a Charter School Network to Stop Paying Its Superintendent Nearly $900K. The School Board Says No.

by Lexi Churchill, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, and Ellis Simani, ProPublica

March 14, 2025, 7:00 am EDT
Inside the Schools Alaska Ignored

by Taylor Kate Brown

March 14, 2025, 5:00 am EDT
Massive Layoffs at the Department of Education Erode Its Civil Rights Division

by Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards

March 12, 2025, 10:30 am EDT
Two Transgender Girls, Six Federal Agencies. How Trump Is Trying to Pressure Maine Into Obedience.

by Callie Ferguson and Erin Rhoda, Bangor Daily News, and Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen, ProPublica

March 11, 2025, 2:45 pm EDT
She’s on a Scholarship at a Tribal College in Wisconsin. The Trump Administration Suspended the USDA Grant That Funded It.

by Matt Krupnick for ProPublica

March 10, 2025, 5:00 am EDT
This Charter School Superintendent Makes $870,000. He Leads a District With 1,000 Students.

by Ellis Simani, ProPublica, and Lexi Churchill, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune

March 6, 2025, 6:00 am EST
A Rural Alaska School Asked the State to Fund a Repair. Nearly Two Decades Later, the Building Is About to Collapse.

by Emily Schwing, KYUK

March 4, 2025, 5:00 am EST
Illinois Has Virtually No Homeschooling Rules. A New Bill Aims to Change That.

by Molly Parker and Beth Hundsdorfer, Capitol News Illinois

March 3, 2025, 7:00 am EST
Education Department “Lifting the Pause” on Some Civil Rights Probes, but Not for Race or Gender Cases

by Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen

February 20, 2025, 8:35 pm EST
“We’ve Been Essentially Muzzled”: Department of Education Halts Thousands of Civil Rights Investigations Under Trump

by Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen

February 13, 2025, 9:30 pm EST
A New Mexico District Says It’s Reduced Harsh Discipline of Native Students. But the Data Provided Is Incomplete.

by Bryant Furlow, New Mexico In Depth

February 12, 2025, 7:00 am EST
Idaho Passed $2 Billion in Funding for School Building Repairs. It’s Not Nearly Enough.

by Becca Savransky, Idaho Statesman

February 11, 2025, 6:00 am EST
Elon Musk’s Team Decimates Education Department Arm That Tracks National School Performance

by Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards

February 11, 2025, 12:30 am EST
The Department of Education Told Employees to End Support for Transgender Students

by Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen

February 8, 2025, 4:30 pm EST
First Came the Warning Signs. Then a Teen Opened Fire on a Nashville School.

by Aliyya Swaby, ProPublica, and Paige Pfleger, WPLN/Nashville Public Radio

February 8, 2025, 5:00 am EST
Hoping to “Trump Proof” Students’ Civil Rights, Illinois Lawmakers Aim to End Police Ticketing at School

by Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards

February 4, 2025, 6:00 am EST
In the Wild West of School Voucher Expansions, States Rely on Untested Companies, With Mixed Results

by Alec MacGillis

January 30, 2025, 5:00 am EST
How Many Students Have Been Expelled Under Tennessee’s School Threats Law? There’s No Clear Answer.

by Aliyya Swaby

January 28, 2025, 1:15 pm EST
How Segregated Are Your Local Private Schools? We Made a Tool to Help You Find Out.

by Jennifer Berry Hawes

January 18, 2025, 6:00 am EST
ProPublica Releases New Private School Demographics Lookup

by Sergio Hernández, Nat Lash and Ken Schwencke

January 16, 2025, 12:45 pm EST
Private School Demographics

by Sergio Hernández, Nat Lash and Brandon Roberts

January 16, 2025, 12:40 pm EST
On a Mission From God: Inside the Movement to Redirect Billions of Taxpayer Dollars to Private Religious Schools

by Alec MacGillis

January 13, 2025, 6:00 am EST
Two Families Sue After 11-Year-Old and 13-Year-Old Students Were Arrested Under Tennessee’s School Threat Law

by Aliyya Swaby, ProPublica, and Paige Pfleger, WPLN/Nashville Public Radio

January 13, 2025, 5:00 am EST
Feds Fine Baker College $2.5 Million for Deceptive Marketing That Left Students With Debts and Regrets

by Anna Clark, ProPublica, and David Jesse, The Chronicle of Higher Education

January 7, 2025, 5:10 pm EST
Arizona Regulators Closed a Failing Charter School. It Reopened as a Private Religious School Funded by Taxpayers.

by Eli Hager

December 31, 2024, 6:00 am EST
The Story of One Mississippi County Shows How Private Schools Are Exacerbating Segregation

by Jennifer Berry Hawes, data analysis by Nat Lash, with additional reporting by Mollie Simon

December 19, 2024, 6:00 am EST
Illinois’ AG Said It’s Illegal for Schools to Use Police to Ticket Students. But His Office Told Only One District.

by Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards

November 25, 2024, 5:00 am EST
Segregation Academies in Mississippi Are Benefiting From Public Dollars, as They Did in the 1960s

by Jennifer Berry Hawes and Mollie Simon

November 22, 2024, 6:00 am EST
Segregation Academies Across the South Are Getting Millions in Taxpayer Dollars

by Jennifer Berry Hawes and Mollie Simon

November 18, 2024, 5:00 am EST
A 13-Year-Old With Autism Got Arrested After His Backpack Sparked Fear. Only His Stuffed Bunny Was Inside.

by Aliyya Swaby, ProPublica, and Paige Pfleger, WPLN/Nashville Public Radio

November 13, 2024, 5:00 am EST
Despite Trump’s Win, School Vouchers Were Again Rejected by Majorities of Voters

by Eli Hager and Jeremy Schwartz

November 9, 2024, 5:00 am EST
An 11-Year-Old Denied Making a Threat and Was Allowed to Return to School. Tennessee Police Arrested Him Anyway.

by Aliyya Swaby, ProPublica, and Paige Pfleger, WPLN/Nashville Public Radio

October 30, 2024, 7:00 am EDT
Tribal College Campuses Are Falling Apart. The U.S. Hasn’t Fulfilled Its Promise to Fund the Schools.

by Matt Krupnick for ProPublica

October 14, 2024, 5:00 am EDT
In a State With School Vouchers for All, Low-Income Families Aren’t Choosing to Use Them

by Eli Hager and Lucas Waldron

October 12, 2024, 5:00 am EDT
We Enlisted a Community to Help Us Report on One State’s Crumbling Schools. Here’s How You Can Do the Same.

by Asia Fields, ProPublica, with Becca Savransky, Idaho Statesman

October 1, 2024, 5:00 am EDT
In an Unprecedented Move, Ohio Is Funding the Construction of Private Religious Schools

by Eli Hager

September 17, 2024, 5:00 am EDT
Georgia’s Top GOP Lawmaker Seeks Tougher Action Against Students Who Make Threats. But It May Not Make Schools Safer.

by Aliyya Swaby

September 14, 2024, 5:00 am EDT
School District With Highest Student Arrest Rate in the Nation Agrees to Reform How It Disciplines Disabled Students

by Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen

September 6, 2024, 10:15 am EDT
The Unequal Effects of School Closings

by Alec MacGillis

August 26, 2024, 5:00 am EDT
A 10-Year-Old Pointed a Finger Gun. The Principal Kicked Him Out of His Tennessee School for a Year.

by Aliyya Swaby

August 23, 2024, 6:30 am EDT