Our 2025 Year in Review in the Education & Work Programs

This was a tough year for public education. The new administration took office with plans to shut down the U.S. Department of Education. New America’s Education and Work programs immediately stood up in opposition. We believe that giving all students the opportunity to learn is a national priority requiring more strong leadership, not less.

At the same time, we continued our work to improve policy and practice in schools, colleges, and the workplace. Our early learning experts worked to seamlessly connect families with infants in neonatal intensive care units to early intervention programs that help children with disabilities. We created model policies for teaching English learners and coordinated two dozen national policy and research organizations to make sure public-school teachers are talented, well-trained, and well-paid.

Team members were a regular presence on Capitol Hill, testifying about consumer protection and accreditation in higher learning, helping community college students get good jobs, and improving career and technical education. We partnered with the National Governors Association to help six states—Maryland, Montana, North Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and Washington—build new pathways for high school students to use apprenticeships to learn, make money, get college credit, and obtain valuable job skills and credentials. We also worked closely with the National Science Foundation to make sure new jobs in the information economy are available nationwide.

Some of our work laid the foundation for long-term change. We published a groundbreaking analysis of school district boundaries showing how new district configurations could cut racial segregation by half, increase economic integration by 65 percent, and cut tax-base inequality by two-thirds. We also focused on people in the here-and-now by improving child care services for the many college students who are also parents of young children. Our technology experts helped teachers and parents navigate the fast-moving world of screens, phones, and AI.

As a nonpartisan organization, we spoke out against harmful ideas when we saw them, providing quick, detailed analysis of how billions of dollars in proposed federal cuts would have hurt local schools. We also worked closely with lawmakers from both parties to make college financial aid more legible and transparent, and to help student borrowers in danger of financial default.

The highlights in this report show only a small sample of the projects our staff worked on this year and how many people we helped. We finish the year grateful for our supporters, our colleagues, and, most of all, the students we serve.

Download the full year in review here.