September 20, 2026

Lisa Collenbaugh says she still owes the U.S. government $10,389.47 for the certificate program she couldn't afford to finish at UEI College.

Jessica Pons for NPR

We know that millions of student loan borrowers are in crisis right now, with roughly 12 million either in default already or headed in that direction. As for why so many are struggling, theories abound. The pandemic payment pause got borrowers out of the habit of repayment — or kept them from ever beginning. Borrowers are confused, thinking the Biden administration forgave their loans — or are angry, knowing it didn’t.

There’s probably some truth to all of these theories.

In a story you’ll find only on NPR, the education team’s Cory Turner dug into new federal data that offers another explanation: Many borrowers who are late on their payments attended private, for-profit colleges where short-term career training often doesn’t lead to a better job or better pay — only federal loans that need to be repaid. According to this data, 1 in 3 recent borrowers who attended a for-profit college is late on their loan payments. And the overwhelming majority of schools with the highest nonpayment rates in the nation — think 40%, 50%, even 60% of recent borrowers not repaying their loans — are private, for-profit colleges.

Compared to recent borrowers at public universities and private nonprofit colleges, nonpayment rates at for-profit schools were, on average, twice as high.

Student loan experts across the political spectrum described the findings as “jaw-dropping” and “shocking.”

His story includes a deep-dive into the data with a visualization you can navigate yourself, scrolling through the 500 named schools with the highest nonpayment rates. You’ll also hear from a former student of one of the largest schools on the list, as she shares her story of arriving on campus with high hopes and leaving with nothing but debt. The radio and digital versions of the story are rich with distinct details.

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TaNisha Thomas found herself and her young son homeless after she lost her job a few years ago. Head Start provided childcare that allowed her the space and time to find a new job and go to college.Center for Transforming Lives

Head Start changes could cut out homeless kids: A new proposal by the Trump administration for changing Head Start would eliminate a rule allowing centers to set aside spots for homeless students and those in the foster care system. For now, Head Start centers can reserve up to 3% of slots for families who are homeless or for children in foster care, and about 60,000 babies and toddlers in the early education and childcare program are homeless, federal data shows. NPR Ed’s Sequoia Carrillo spoke to one mom who said access to Head Start when she was homeless changed her life, and her son’s.

Who decided the SAT was the best way to filter students for higher education? Throughline host Rund Abdelfatah asks that very question in a recent episode looking at the history of the test, which turned 100 in June. And perhaps unsurprisingly, the answer is complicated. Take a listen.

An antidote for the “anxious generation”: Giving them a lot more independence. That’s according to Peter Gray, a research professor at Boston College and author of the upcoming book, Restoring Childhood: How To Set Kids Free in the Age of Anxiety. He spoke to Here & Now host Indira Lakshmanan. Research shows that overprotective parenting is linked to rising rates of anxiety and depression in children and teens, but some parents have been investigated or arrested for allowing their kids to play outside unsupervised. Here’s what Gray had to say about that.

Florida is recasting climate change in its textbooks: Ken Miller, a professor emeritus of biology at Brown University, has been publishing one of the nation’s most popular biology textbooks for nearly 30 years. But two years ago, something shifted. “The Florida Department of Education was pressuring publishers to reduce or eliminate coverage of climate change as a condition for getting on the approved list,” Miller told NPR member station WUSF reporter Jessica Meszaros and The Hechinger Report.

He struggled to find belonging. A fellow student changed that: When Teyu Chou was 11, he and his family moved from Taiwan to the United States. He was excited about his new life, but also scared about not fitting in. When he started school, Chou realized the transition was going to be much more difficult than he expected. Chou's primary difficulty was that he didn't know much English. Eventually, the school paired him with another student, NPR’s Autumn Barnes reports, a boy Chou remembers as being around 11 or 12 years old. He's now fluent in English, with children of his own. When his kids are struggling, he thinks of the boy who helped him.

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40 years of Stacey, Kristy, Claudia and Mary Anne...

Ann M. Martin, at her home in New York state. She is the author and creator of the Baby-Sitters Club series, which turns 40 this year, as well as numerous award-winning standalone novels.DeSean McClinton-Holland for NPR

And later came Dawn, Mallory, and Jessi, too.

Those are the girls at the heart of The Baby-Sitters Club books by Ann M. Martin, which launched in 1986, NPR’s Barrie Hardymon and Samantha Balaban report. "Mary Anne is based on me. She's the shy one," Martin said during a visit to her house in upstate New York in July. And indeed a true Mary Anne, Martin has a designated craft room where she's sewn handmade dresses and clothing for the children and grandchildren of her friends for years.

But the idea for a series about a babysitters club initially came to Martin from an editorial director at Scholastic. "She just said, 'I have a title in mind, The Bab