Author: Matt

Across the country, some teachers are deciding not to return to the classroom this September. The pandemic didn’t create the problem of teacher burnout, but it made a bad situation worse. Fed up with low pay, hampered by partisan politics intruding in the classroom, and shaken by the recent Uvalde shooting, many say they have reached their breaking point.

Teacher vacancies have left school districts across the U.S. scrambling to find enough qualified faculty for the fall. In some areas, competition for teachers is fierce, and schools are finding creative ways to hold on to existing teachers and attract new talent.

Host Don Gonyea speaks with John Kuhn, Superintendent of Mineral Wells Independent School District in Texas, about the bold changes he made to retain teachers.

President Biden’s plan to forgive federal student loan debt – up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients and up to $10,000 for others who qualify – leaves millions of borrowers with unanswered questions.

NPR’s Sequoia Carrillo and Carolina Rodriguez of the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program in New York, examine the new plan and help answer some of the frequently asked questions about how it would work.

This episode features reporting from NPR’s Scott Horsley.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

For nearly four decades, Dr. Anthony Fauci has been leading the fight against infectious diseases in America – including AIDS and COVID-19. Now, he’s stepping away.

Earlier this week, Dr. Fauci announced he would retire as the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the end of the year. In this episode, we’ll talk with Dr. Fauci about his decision to leave, and take a look at the twists and turns of his long – and sometimes controversial – career.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

The soldiers known as the Azovstal defenders are heroes in Ukraine. They held out for months against the Russians, fighting from a bombed-out steel plant in the southern port city of Mariupol.

When the city fell, the Ukrainian soldiers were taken captive by Russia.

Last month, the prison where they were being held was rocked by an explosion. More than 50 people died according to Russian sources, and both Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the attack.

NPR’s Joanna Kakissis and producer Iryna Matviyishyn spoke to some of these soldiers’ families as they waited to find out whether the men were dead or alive.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Gas prices are down. Inflation is dropping ever so slightly. But the cost of food is going up. The price of food in America rose more in the past year than it has at any time since 1979.

We’ll explore the ways that high food prices are affecting consumers and small businesses alike, and see what inflation means for those who are most vulnerable to food insecurity.

This episode features reporting from NPR’s Asma Khalid, Scott Horsley and Ari Shapiro, along with Stephan Bisaha from our Gulf States Newsroom.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

One year after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, the lives of women and girls have changed dramatically.

Girls are no longer permitted to attend secondary school. Women are blocked from working in most sectors. And they are under orders to cover themselves in public.

Rangina Hamidi was the acting minister of education when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. We hear about her decision to leave the country and her yearning to return.

Additional reporting in this episode comes from NPR’s Steve Inskeep and Diaa Hadid.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

It’s the kind of captivating, complex story that’s hard to forget once you hear it. In 2012, star Notre Dame linebacker Manti T’eo’s grandmother died. Just hours later, his girlfriend died of leukemia. Rising above the tragedy he seemed unstoppable on the field as Notre Dame went on to a winning season.

But the girlfriend was a hoax. Te’o was the victim of catfishing. He had fallen in love with a fake Facebook profile. In the media frenzy that followed, he went from the golden boy of Notre Dame football to the target of ridicule and attack. In a new documentary on Netflix, Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist, Manti Te’o gets the opportunity to tell his full story for the first time in nearly ten years.

Host Michel Martin speaks with Te’o about the scandal and how he overcame it.

President Biden had the narrowest possible Democratic Majority in the Senate when he took office. Yet the Biden administration’s legislative successes continue to pile up.

He signed the American Rescue Plan just a couple months after taking office, followed by a major infrastructure bill last fall. Most recently, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. These three legislative packages total up to around $4 trillion.

NPR’s Ari Shapiro talks with journalist Michael Grunwald, author of the book, “The New New Deal”, about what it all means for the country.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

75 years ago this week, British colonial rule ended in India. Two new nations emerged – Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India.

But that freedom was followed by chaos and bloodshed. Partition triggered a mass migration across a shared border, as millions of Muslims fled to Pakistan and millions of Hindus and Sikhs fled to India.

Violent attacks happened on both sides of the border. An estimated one million people were killed.

Pakistan and India still grapple with the repercussions of Partition and the effects are still felt today.

NPR’s Lauren Frayer tells us about an effort to heal some of those old wounds by reconnecting elderly survivors of Partition with the homes and villages they haven’t seen in decades.

Additional reporting in this episode from NPR’s Diaa Hadid.

You can read more about Diaa and Lauren’s reporting on this story here.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

A key primary this week in Wyoming re-affirmed Donald Trump’s hold on the Republican party.

As expected, Republican Representative Liz Cheney lost her race in a landslide, defeated by attorney Harriet Hageman, a Trump-endorsed political newcomer.

Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, came to office five years ago as a Republican darling. But everything shifted when she voted to impeach Trump after the January 6th insurrection. She then took center stage in the January 6th hearings, speaking out against Republicans that continued to defend Trump’s stolen election lie.

With Cheney’s time in Congress coming to an end, Political journalist Jodi Edna has been thinking about what Cheney might do next — and what it means for the future of the GOP.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.