Corey Turner

Last March, the administration tried to fire some 300 attorneys and staff from the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights.

Their work is to investigate families' complaints of school-based discrimination related to sex, race, disability, and more.

The courts paused the firings, so the Trump administration then made a choice.

For nearly nine months, it kept these staff on paid leave instead of letting them work.

Now, the U.S.

Government Accountability Office says the cost of that lost work in salary and benefits was between $28.5 and $38 million.

The administration pushed back, saying since these staff were finally allowed to work in December, it considers the issue moot.

Corey Turner, NPR News.

The L.A.

Yeah, I think dire is pretty fair.

Although I want to start with a glimmer of hope or at least some good news.

You know, some kids with disabilities, for example, are benefiting from AI improvements to things like text-to-speech programs.

Or imagine being in science class, right?

And because of AI, you're able to visually adventure inside a cell or zip around the solar system.

The problem here is that these tools are really the exception right now because they're complex and they can cost a lot of money that many schools just don't have.

And what kids are far more likely to be using in school and at home are these free, easily accessible chatbots.

Yeah, exactly.

The report lays out really two big buckets of risk here.

So first, young people who use this kind of AI aren't learning how to think for themselves.

And it's because most of these common chatbots don't actually supplement kids' learning, right?