What changes at the Department of Education mean for the new school year

Here & Now Anytime

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4.1 • 953 Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

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Summary

As the Trump administration moves to dismantle the Department of Education, parents, students and teachers are wondering what it all means for them. Chalkbeat's Erica Meltzer explains how layoffs and funding changes could affect the new school year. And, with a median wage of $14 per hour, child care workers struggle to make ends meet as the cost of basics outpaces inflation. Here & Now's Ashley Locke discusses new data with researcher Ashley Anglin, with the group United for ALICE. She also talks with child care business owner Jocelyn Tomaszewski about how she's able to make ends meet. Then, 100 years ago, teacher John Scopes was convicted and fined $100 for violating a Tennessee law that banned the teaching of evolution because it contradicted the Bible. Professors Alexander Gouzoules and Harold Gouzoules join us to talk about their new book, "The Hundred Years' Trial."

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0:00.0	Support for here and now anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software for technical computing and model-based design.
0:09.2	MathWorks accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at Mathworks.com.
0:17.6	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:22.4	We are hearing reports of very long processing times on changing student loan plans.
0:30.8	How student loan borrowers could be impacted by the Supreme Court's Education Department ruling.
0:45.2	Thank you. could be impacted by the Supreme Court's Education Department ruling. It's Monday, July 21st, and this is here and now anytime from NPR and WBUR Boston.
0:52.8	I'm Ashley Locke, in for Chris Fenley.
0:57.2	Today on the show, child care educators play a fundamental role in shaping a child's earliest years,
1:04.9	but many struggle to support their own households financially. And why a trial that challenged the teaching of evolution in school a hundred years ago
1:14.6	still has relevance today.
1:16.7	A lot of schools following the media circus simply decided that evolution should be taught
1:22.7	less rather than risk another scope's trial.
1:33.7	Yeah. rather than risk another scope's trial. But first, there's a lot of confusion about what's going on at the Department of Education
1:39.2	as President Trump moves forward with his plans to dismantle it.
1:43.9	Last week, the Supreme Court gave Trump the green light to move forward with his plans to dismantle it. Last week, the Supreme Court gave Trump
1:46.4	the green light to move forward with mass layoffs. Then, a couple of days later, the administration
1:52.8	decided to release some federal funding for before and after school programs that was previously
1:59.2	frozen for weeks. The money was put on hold after the Trump
2:03.6	administration said it would review $7 billion that schools were supposed to receive at the beginning
2:09.1	of this month. For more on what all this means for students and teachers, Scott Tong speaks with
2:15.5	Erica Meltzer, a national editor at Chalkbeat, the
2:19.0	nonprofit education news outlet, and our editorial partner.
	...

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