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Elaine Korry

Elaine Korry is an NPR contributor based in San Francisco. From August 2004-June 2007 she worked as an NPR senior reporter covering social policy for NPR, with a focus on education, and on the lives of the nation's most vulnerable citizens — the homeless, those living in poverty, working in low wage positions, and trying to find their way to a more stable life.

In 2007, she reported on hospitals struggling to serve chronically homeless people in Los Angeles; the debate over pulling welfare mothers out of school in favor of low-wage jobs; working families with children driven from San Francisco because of the spiraling cost of housing; and proposed budget cuts to literacy programs for immigrant families.

Prior to covering social policy issues, Elaine covered business and economics for NPR for 14 years. She has been awarded numerous reporting fellowships in social policy and education from the Hechinger Institute, Casey Journalism Center, and Wharton School of Business. She attended Rider University in New Jersey, and worked in public radio for 10 years prior to coming to NPR.

  • For thousands of nervous parents, a popular college guide listing little-known, but highly-regarded, campuses has attracted a cult following. The Evergreen State College outside Olympia, Wash., is one of the schools listed in Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools You Should Know About Even If You're Not a Straight-A Student.
  • A Government Accountability Office report finds oversight problems in the Bush administration's handling of community services block grants. The GAO said that the Department of Health & Human Services had failed to adequately monitor the program.
  • President Bush is expected to announce a large increase in funding for the study of foreign languages considered critical to national security such as Arabic, Korean and Chinese. Much of the money reportedly will go to the Pentagon, to beef up language training at military schools. A big chunk of the funding should also flow to colleges and universities.
  • The University of California system, the nation's largest, has announced a tuition hike for the fifth year in a row. Students are angry, and some educators are beginning to question whether the costs of a college education in California are getting out of reach. California's state system was once the most affordable in the nation.
  • In Oakland, Calif., hunger shows up where it's least expected: in upscale Oakland Hills, where Brian Donaldson and his wife, Tina, share an apartment that some would call luxurious. But at 52, Donaldson is jobless and his skills are outdated.
  • In February, 21-year-old Matthew Carrington collapsed in a frat house basement at Chico State University, dying several hours later. Five of his fellow students pleaded guilty in his death; one will serve a year in jail. Carrington's parents are among those who want penalties for hazing toughened.
  • A new government mandate requires schools and colleges that receive federal funding to provide some sort of educational program on Constitution Day. That's the day of the Constitution's signing in 1787. The date is Sept. 17, which falls on a Saturday this year, so they're allowed to plan their events for Friday or early next week.
  • For low-income families, keeping babies clean and dry can be an expensive obstacle. A program in Boston that offers working poor families free diapers is easing some of the frustrations of parents.
  • The No Child Left Behind Act requires low-income schools that haven't met performance targets for three years in a row to provide tutoring services to their students. The tutoring industry is benefiting from the influx of federal money, but critics worry about the quality of the services. In our second and final story on the rise of tutoring, Elaine Korry reports.
  • Kids around the country are trying to make sense of the results of their SATs, which were changed this year. What once was a perfect score is no longer so.