Corey Turner

The reviews stopped early last year as the administration began cutting the student loan office by nearly half.

Corey Turner, NPR News.

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The data comes from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and shows that in the last quarter of 2025, roughly a million federal student loan borrowers plunged into default.

And researchers say they expect that number to keep growing.

Older federal data shows millions of borrowers on a downward escalator toward default, missing month after month of payments.

As of the end of September, nearly 9 million borrowers were either already in default or on the last step.

That's roughly one in five Americans with a federal student loan.

The Trump administration has said it won't garnish the wages of these borrowers just yet, preferring to wait until Republicans' new repayment assistance plan is available this summer.

Corey Turner, NPR News.

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.

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