Education Policy & School Reform News

This section covers K12 policy, school board elections, curriculum transparency, parental rights, school choice, charter and voucher programs, and state and federal rules that shape classrooms. The Daily Signal includes news reports, analysis, commentary, and opinion pieces to explain how these decisions affect students, families, and educators.
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    • News

    Ohio’s School Choice Program Moves Through the Courts

    The 10th District Court of Appeals this week heard arguments regarding Ohio’s school voucher program, EdChoice, and will decide whether to uphold a judge’s ruling that that the program is unconstitutional. A decision from Common Pleas Court Judge Jaiza Page was appealed last July by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who has defended school choice….
    Rebecca Downs
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    • Opinion

    Fairfax Schools’ Response to Financial Scandal: Denial, Deflection, and Spin

    Fairfax County Public Schools’ superintendent, Michelle Reid, refuses to let facts get in the way of her finely tuned narrative. Last Friday afternoon, as the public was growing increasingly aware that district leaders are shuffling resources from classrooms to administrative bloat, she sent an email to the district’s employees, assuring them that FCPS remains a…
    Stephanie Lundquist-Arora
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    • Opinion

    When Educational Institutions Drift, Build New Ones

    Recently, comedian Rob Schneider posted on X: “I would like to start a CONSERVATIVE TEACHERS UNION as an alternative to the WOKE EMOTIONAL LUNATICS in the @NEA Teacher’s Communist Union…” While those are not the words I would have used, the underlying point resonates: Many educators and parents feel that the nation’s largest teachers unions…
    Paul Runko
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    • Opinion

    Self-Censorship and the Silenced Generation

    Are America’s college students doing to themselves what the Chinese Communist state does to its citizens? An Ivy League professor—an old-fashioned liberal who actually cares about free speech—recently warned me about what’s happening in classrooms like his. He encourages class discussion of the great books he teaches in class—but students are afraid to speak, not…
    Daniel McCarthy
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    • Exclusive

    ‘HYPOCRITES’: Top Ed Official Slams Democrats for Opposing Rule to Lower College Costs

    Undersecretary of Education Nicholas Kent slammed congressional Democrats for attempting to block a rule that would lower higher education costs for Americans. “Democrats are hypocrites,” Kent told The Daily Signal in an exclusive interview. “For years, they have purported to care about student debt, but now they’ve reaffirmed what we’ve all been saying, which is,…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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    • Opinion

    Top Research University Skirts Civil Rights Laws, Pushes DEI

    Carnegie Mellon University is skirting civil rights laws, making the university ripe for investigation. Pennsylvania lawmakers and the U.S. Department of Education should use CMU as an example to demonstrate that private schools are not above the law. CMU, which has had contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense totaling some $2.8 billion since 2008,…
    Jonathan Butcher
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    • Opinion

    President Trump Proposes Meaningful Cuts to the Education Budget

    President Donald Trump’s administration is closing the U.S. Department of Education, and his latest budget proposal is a step in that direction. This month, Trump released his fiscal year budget request for 2027, proposing approximately $76.5 billion in funding for the Education Department, a 3% cut from one year ago. Top-line funding levels do not…
    Madison Marino Doan
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    • Opinion

    School Choice Demands Improved Student Transportation

    School choice and student transportation have a lot of Venn diagram overlap. A 2009 survey of parents in Denver and Washington, D.C., found that more than a quarter of respondents reported not enrolling their child in the school they preferred due to transportation difficulties.  The Heritage Foundation recently released a report on modernizing student transportation for an era of school choice. Currently,…
    Matthew Ladner
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    • News

    Question After Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting: Is California an Incubator for Leftist Violence?

    Following the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump over the weekend, some Americans have begun to posit a connection between the alleged shooter’s actions and the incubation of radical beliefs in California’s education system. On Monday, Cole Tomas Allen, a resident of Torrance, California, was charged with attempting to kill the president after being taken…
    Angelina Delfin
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    • Opinion

    Corruption Is Part of Why School District ‘Democracy’ Is Rigged and Wasteful

    In 2019, the Scottsdale Unified School District in Arizona spent over $20 million to tear down and completely rebuild a school named Pima Elementary. This year, it voted to close the school. Pima Elementary, designed for up to 840 students, reopened at less than 60% of that capacity, and it continued to decline. This fall,…
    Matthew Ladner
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    • Opinion

    SCORE Act Offers Permanent Fix to College Sports Disorder

    College sports generate excitement and bring communities together in a unique way. They inspire pride in our schools, create lifelong memories, and enable young Americans to pursue education while excelling in sports. But the future of this prized institution is far from guaranteed and requires legislative action to permanently fix long-standing issues. New uncertainties took…
    Chrissy Clark
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    • Opinion

    Schools Should Celebrate Title IX Month—Not Pride Month

    Every June, schools across America fill their bulletin boards with rainbows, host Pride events, and encourage elementary school children to participate in LGBTQ-themed activities. Whether it’s teachers in New Jersey posing on social media in shirts that suggest non-gender-affirming parents are not loving, or an Oregon school district planning a Pride-themed field day for young students, the emphasis is…
    Paul Runko
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    • Opinion

    Classic Learning Test Challenges SAT and ACT Dominance

    The Classic Learning Test, an alternative to standardized tests like the SAT and ACT, has scored recent legislative victories in Texas and Oklahoma, with another win expected in Louisiana. These changes allow students to use their CLT score when applying for college. Jeremy Tate, a former schoolteacher who created the CLT in 2015, spoke with…
    Philip Roberts
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    • Opinion

    A Victory for Sororities: Education Department Rules Sororities Are for Women Only

    It turns out, sororities are for women after all. The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights just affirmed what every sorority woman in America knew the first time she walked into her chapter—a sorority is for women. In a statement that would’ve been self-evident five minutes ago—just as it was over a century…
    Lesley Davis
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    • News

    Teen Suspended and Dubbed a Racist for Saying ‘Illegal Alien’ Wins $20K, Apology From School

    There’s justice for a North Carolina teen wrongly suspended and branded a racist for using the phrase “illegal alien.” Last year, 16-year-old Christian McGhee of Central Davidson High School in Lexington, North Carolina, was given an English assignment: Write about aliens. Being an intelligent lad, Christian asked the teacher a logical question: “Like space aliens…
    Al Perrotta
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    • News

    Education Department to Launch Title IX Investigations to Mark Law’s Anniversary

    To mark the 53rd anniversary of Title IX, the Department of Education is announcing investigations into two apparent violations of the federal law protecting women’s spaces and sports. Title IX was enacted into law on June 23 in 1972, so President Donald Trump’s Department of Education will celebrate June as Title IX month. Secretary of…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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    • Opinion

    Higher Education Faces an Existential Crisis of Its Own Making

    Harvard University is having a rough time. I know, how tragic, right? On Monday, President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that his administration was considering giving $3 billion in grant money initially slated for Harvard to trade schools. This comes right after he tried to block foreign students from attending the school. That move was initially…
    Jarrett Stepman
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    • News

    Bills Allowing Prayer, Bible in School, Ten Commandments Head to Abbott’s Desk

    THE CENTER SQUARE—With days left in the legislative session, the Texas House passed bills authorizing prayer and Bible reading in public schools and requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in classrooms. Democrats opposed them, citing biblical references to slavery that teachers are not qualified to teach or shouldn’t be discussing. SB 10, filed by…
    Bethany Blankley
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    • Opinion

    The School Choice Tide Lifts All Students

    Now that Texas and South Carolina have passed school choice bills, parents will be able to choose the best school for their kids in 17 states. Why not all states? After all, competition improves services. The Post Office couldn’t get it there overnight. Then FedEx showed it can be done. Quickly, UPS and DHL did it, too,…
    John Stossel
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    • News

    WHO VOTED AGAINST? Supreme Court Splits 4-4 on Catholic Charter School

    In a tied decision, the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday allowed an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision to stand, disqualifying a Catholic charter school from receiving state funding. Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the ruling, resulting in the 4-4 decision. The court did not issue an opinion, only stating, “The judgment is affirmed by an…
    Tyler O’Neil
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