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.
Filter articles by
  • news

    Ohio Conservatives Celebrate State’s F Grade in Sex Ed
    An “F” is not normally worth celebrating, but that’s exactly what Ohio conservatives are doing after the state received that grade from the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States. John Stover with Ohio Value Voters, Inc., and Aaron Baer with the Center for Christian Virtue are actually thrilled with the rating and…
    Rebecca Downs
    Read More
  • news

    Ohio Serves as Model for Trump Education Reform
    Ohio remains a model for school choice and promoting better education, often in a Christian school setting. The Center for Christian Virtue says there’s plenty of reason to celebrate the state’s ongoing commitment to improving education for the next generation. When Trump administration officials on Thursday issued proposed regulations for the Education Freedom Tax Credit, one…
    Rebecca Downs
    Read More
  • opinion

    What Texas’ New High School Civics Requirements Get Right
    The American system of government and way of life depend on an educated citizenry. Our Constitution ensures that the people are trusted with political power, and its system is centered around rights, checks and balances, and limitations on government. But those protections mean little if citizens do not understand civics.   Forty-three percent of Americans cannot…
    Kaden Mattingly | Mary Elizabeth Castle
    Read More
  • opinion

    Children Should Not Be Trained to See Parents as the Enemy
    A parent’s first duty is not complicated. It is to love a child, form a child’s character, and prepare that child to be a productive member of society.  Schools exist to help with that work by teaching children. They do not exist to replace it. That distinction is now under pressure. In some academic circles,…
    Catalina Stubbe
    Read More
  • opinion

    Education Department Reinstates Title IX Regulations Protecting Women’s Sports and Rejecting Gender Insanity
    Supporters of women’s sports and sex-based protections have reason to celebrate. The Department of Education announced Sept. 28 that it is formally rescinding the Biden administration’s 2024 Title IX rule and reinstating the 2020 Title IX regulations promulgated under the first Trump administration. Ongoing litigation has prevented the Trump administration from being able to formally…
    Madison Marino Doan | Jonathan Butcher
    Read More
  • exclusive

    What’s Behind Leftist Opposition to Cost-Cutting Education Reform?
    FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The Department of Health and Human Services has received 13,000 comments on its rule to deregulate the federal low-income childcare program, Head Start, many of which bemoan the move to no longer set student-to-teacher ratios. Early childhood education nonprofits have also criticized the decision to remove “evidenced-based student-teacher ratios.” However, there…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
    Read More
  • analysis

    Texas Lawmaker Who Struggled With Dyslexia Wants to Take His Fight to Congress 
    Texas Congressional candidate Steve Toth says his personal experience with dyslexia has shaped his efforts to improve literacy and support for students with learning disabilities.
    Emily Medeiros
    Read More
  • opinion

    Are Colleges Finally Admitting Standardized Tests Aren’t Racist?
    Did you know that the SAT is racist? During Woke I, as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez now calls it, “antiracists” said the SAT’s creators “were avowed eugenicists.”    No wonder black people get lower scores. Even if the test isn’t racist today, it still gives unfair advantages to white kids because their parents are more likely to…
    John Stossel
    Read More
  • analysis

    Can Ohio’s New Law Help Improve Math Rankings?
    An important law for education and the future of Ohio was signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine in June and is about to make an impact on the new school year. Senate Bill 19, sponsored by state Sen. Andrew Brenner, a Republican, passed overwhelmingly. The law is meant to improve math rankings, which have…
    Rebecca Downs
    Read More
  • opinion

    Arizona Schools Build Fields of Taxpayer Nightmares, but There Is a Solution
    In the 1989 film “Field of Dreams,” an Iowa corn farmer named Ray heeds an unseen voice telling him, “If you build it, they will come,” and builds a baseball stadium. Ray lived happily ever after in this fantasy sports movie, but heeding this advice has not worked out for taxpayers financing dubious school projects….
    Matthew Ladner
    Read More
  • opinion

    Hollywood Is Protecting Its Children. Why Aren’t We?
    Hollywood is limiting screens. As ironic as it may seem, the Los Angeles Unified School District, which encompasses Hollywood, will limit student screen time in schools this academic year. More schools need to follow suit and implement policies aimed at reducing children’s screen time—even for educational purposes. In its announcement earlier this year, the LAUSD’s…
    ​​​​Emma Maslar | Annie Chestnut Tutor
    Read More
  • news

    Texas Approves Classic Learning Test for Public College Admissions
    The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has approved the use of the Classic Learning Test, or CLT, for admissions at Texas public colleges and universities. In a July 23 letter to university chancellors and presidents, Commissioner of Higher Education Wynn Rosser informed them that institutions may consider the CLT as a factor when admitting students….
    Emily Medeiros
    Read More
  • opinion

    Florida Takes Bolds Step in Teacher Preparation Standards
    Eight months after becoming the first state in the nation to formally adopt the Phoenix Declaration, Florida’s State Board of Education has taken its most concrete step yet toward turning that document’s seven guiding principles into classroom practice. At its July 22 meeting, the board approved sweeping revisions to the state’s teacher preparation framework—amending the…
    Jason Bedrick
    Read More
  • opinion

    The American Bar Association’s Not-So-Separate Law School Accrediting Council
    The American Bar Association president, Michelle Behnke, gave a disastrous performance at a House Oversight Committee Task Force hearing last week. She doubled down on DEI and couldn’t answer even straightforward questions. In one emperor-has-no-clothes moment, she refused to answer what her implicit biases might be—even though the ABA proclaims that everyone has them. In…
    Zack Smith
    Read More
  • opinion

    Why Is Virginia’s Largest Public School District Spending so Much on Lawyers?
    In just seven years, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) has spent nearly $60 million on lawyers. During fiscal year 2026 alone, the district set a new record, spending $14.4 million on legal fees. Fiscal Year Legal Fees 2020 $6,401,078 2021 $5,066,049 2022 $6,312,989 2023 $6,925,475 2024 $11,619,332 2025 $7,656,968 2026 $14,440,784 Total $58,422,675 Source: Freedom…
    Stephanie Lundquist-Arora
    Read More
  • opinion

    What the Nation’s Report Card Teaches Us About Repairing the Human Soul 
    Stories bemoaning U.S. student test scores have become a bromide. But some reports on student achievement offer a glimpse into the reasons why achievement is so poor. So it is with the latest Long Term Trend report from the Nation’s Report Card, the National Assessment of Education Progress.   First, the results: Reading and math scores among 9-year-olds improved slightly over scores from 2022,…
    Jonathan Butcher
    Read More
  • opinion

    Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders Shows Education Can Be Fixed 
    Amid celebrations of our nation’s 250th birthday, Gallup serves up a sobering portrait of general dissatisfaction with our nation’s core institutions.  “Confidence in U.S. institutions Remains Near All-Time Low,” reports Gallup.   Of 14 core institutions—banks, big business, labor, the presidency, Congress, schools, health care, etc.—only 27% say they have “a great deal/quite a lot of…
    Star Parker
    Read More
  • opinion

    Want to Rebuild Higher Education? Here Is the Guidebook
    The rise of the Democratic Socialists of America—a boom in its boom-and-bust cycle, as my colleague Robert Stilson calls it—has many political observers on the right and the left analyzing the conditions that led to an embrace of that group’s radicalism. And it is radical. As Stilson points out, “[i]n its newly updated platform, the DSA…
    Sarah Lee
    Read More
  • news

    Democrat Gov. Denied: Kids’ Educational Scholarships Are Saved 
    Pennsylvania’s Republican-led Legislature has successfully pushed back against Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposal to cut two scholarship programs from the 2026–27 budget. Shapiro’s original budget proposal, HB 2632, called for eliminating two programs: the Educational Improvement Tax Credit and the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit.  The Pennsylvania Legislature successfully amended the budget to maintain the original scholarships and…
    Karly Tucker
    Read More
  • opinion

    New Kentucky Audit Shows Why Families Need Education Freedom
    Kentucky State Auditor Allison Ball’s recent report on Jefferson County Public Schools should alarm every taxpayer and parent in the state. Not only because of the report’s contents, but also because JCPS is the state’s largest school district, serving 1 in 7 students in Kentucky. The audit not only highlights the dire financial situation the…
    Madison Marino Doan
    Read More