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

    Ruling Against Middle Schooler Punished for Wearing ‘There Are Only 2 Genders’ T-Shirt to Be Appealed

    The Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a “notice of appeal” after a federal district court in Massachusetts ruled that a middle school in Middleborough, Massachusetts, has the right to prohibit a student from wearing a “There are only two genders” T-shirt to school.  “We look forward to showing the court how this isn’t just about…
    Gigi De La Torre
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    • News

    Coach to Return to High School Football Field After 7-Year Court Battle Over Prayer There

    After a seven-year legal battle that ended with a victory at the Supreme Court, Joe Kennedy will be back on the field Sept. 1 coaching football and taking a knee in prayer.   “I have been looking forward to this since the 2015 season,” Kennedy told The Daily Signal Tuesday. “I am praying for a fantastic…
    Virginia Allen
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    • News

    Federal Judge Dismisses Parents’ Lawsuit, Lets School Allow Boys to Use Girls’ Bathroom

    A federal judge ruled Monday that an Ohio school district’s policy that allows students to use the bathroom on the basis of gender identity rather than biological sex may stand. In 2022, a coalition of parents, represented by America First Legal, sued Bethel Local Schools, alleging that the district’s policy was enacted without community input…
    Reagan Reese
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    • Opinion

    Milton Friedman’s Vision in Education Becomes Reality

    On the occasion of his “eleventy-first” birthday, the hobbit Bilbo Baggins famously disappeared. On July 31, we celebrate what would have been the 111th birthday of another man who was diminutive in size but larger than life in spirit: Milton Friedman. Were he to reappear today, he would likely marvel at how much progress has…
    Jay Greene
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    • News

    ‘GENERATIONAL LEARNING LOSS’: Experts Reveal the Full Extent of COVID-19 School Closures

    A generation of American students has fallen behind academically in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the forced school closures that took place during that time. A subcommittee of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce addressed the problems created by school closures Wednesday in a panel called “Generational Learning Loss: How Pandemic…
    Jarrett Stepman
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    • News

    Pro-LGBTQ Radicals Threaten to Kill, ‘Dismember’ School Board Chief Over Parental Rights Policy

    A local school board president in California has been inundated with threats that left-wing activists will dismember her, kill her children, and slaughter her pets. Her crime? Saying that teachers should not keep parents in the dark if their children begin to “identify” as transgender. The new Chino Valley (California) Unified School District Board of…
    Ben Johnson
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    • News

    ‘Unacceptable and Irresponsible’: GOP Congresswoman Raps NYC Mayor’s Plan to House Illegal Aliens in Schools

    New York City Mayor Eric Adams is under fire after announcing tentative plans to house illegal aliens in public schools over the summer.   “Our schools and educational resources should be dedicated to our children, not diverted to support unvetted migrants who are entering our country illegally,” Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., told The Daily Signal….
    Virginia Allen
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    • Opinion

    New Book Details Teachers Union Internal Document Pushing Critical Race Theory in K-12 Schools

    Editor’s note: The following excerpt is from a new book detailing the rise of government unions, their stranglehold over public policy, and how to defeat them. Aaron Withe’s “Freedom is the Foundation” explains why every American should be concerned about government unions using our tax dollars and union dues to push their radical ideology on…
    Aaron Withe
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    • Opinion

    Ohioans Declare Independence From the District School Monopoly

    Just in time for Independence Day, Ohio families can finally declare independence from the district school monopoly. Over the weekend, Ohio lawmakers passed a state budget that expands eligibility for the state’s EdChoice Scholarships to all K-12 students. Gov. Mike DeWine signed the bill into law on Monday, making Ohio the eighth state in the…
    Jason Bedrick
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    • News

    Canadian Province Bars Planned Parenthood From Schools Over Graphic ‘Sex: From A-Z’ Cards?

    Is this what Planned Parenthood means when it says it provides more than just abortions? Planned Parenthood of Regina, Saskatchewan, in Canada brought "SEX: From A-Z" sexual topics cards to ninth graders there last week as part of a presentation about sexually transmitted diseases, contraception, and more. The sexually graphic cards had not been approved…
    Elise McCue
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    • Opinion

    1 Lesson for Juneteenth: ‘Teach Your Own Kid. Schools Can’t Do It Alone.’

    After years of teaching, Arianne Craig Jolla says parents, not just educators, need to teach their children. And as the nation celebrates Juneteenth on Monday, Craig Jolla says parents have a wonderful opportunity to educate their children on the history behind the day and the joy of freedom.  Juneteenth celebrates the emancipation of the last…
    Virginia Allen
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    • Opinion

    The Uprising: Families Clash With Schools Over LGBTQ Propaganda

    In a June like none other, where the LGBTQ agenda has been crammed at increasing velocity down the throats of unwitting Americans, everyday folks are reaching their limits. With two more weeks to go in “Pride Month,” this is bad news for the rainbow mafia. But it’s a sign of character and courage that the…
    Sarah Parshall Perry
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    • News

    Tim Scott EVISCERATES Attack on Moms Who Want Education to Focus on ‘ABCs, Not CRT’

    Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., who is running for president, defended Moms for Liberty and condemned the Southern Poverty Law Center for using “race as a weapon” in putting the parental rights group on a map with Ku Klux Klan chapters. “The provocative history of race in this country should not be weaponized against moms who…
    Tyler O’Neil
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    • Opinion

    Far-Left Jurisdiction Appalled When Middle Schoolers Revolt Against Pride Day

    Two hundred and fifty years after the Boston Tea Party, middle schoolers in a Boston suburb channeled its spirit against a new form of tyrannical oppression, LGBTQ+ Pride. Teachers, parents, and even administrators of the far-left jurisdiction were “shocked,” “horrified,” and “extremely disheartened” by these middle schoolers’ solid grasp of basic biology, and naturally they…
    Joshua Arnold
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    • Opinion

    No Time to Let Up on School Choice and Education Reform

    In 1988, as an Arizona State Senate candidate, I explained to a PTA group my proposal to allow students to cross K-12 school attendance boundary lines, space permitting. They would then no longer be forced to attend their assigned school if their families thought a different one was better for them. My opponent countered that…
    Tom Patterson
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    • News

    CAUGHT: Top Education Publisher Deletes ‘Woke’ Evidence After Release of Heritage Foundation Report

    After Heritage Foundation scholar Jonathan Butcher began looking into the racially and sexually charged practices of publishing and education behemoth Pearson, links and videos started to disappear from the corporation's website and YouTube channel. Butcher’s new report for Heritage, released Wednesday, shows that the largest education corporation on the planet has made a considerable commitment…
    Tony Kinnett
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    • News

    Elementary School Holds Pride Month Celebration For Little Kids

    An elementary school in Charlottesville, Virginia, encouraged fourth graders to lead a pride month celebration of LGBTQ+ gender ideology during a schoolwide monthly meeting, video obtained by The Daily Signal shows. Video shows a little girl at Johnson Elementary School speaking into a microphone and telling a crowd of assembled children, who are all sitting…
    Mary Margaret Olohan
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    • Opinion

    Law School Commencement Speech Is No Place for Far-Left Diatribe 

    Education ought to be the bedrock for fostering critical thinking and providing a landscape for the exploration of diverse perspectives, rather than serving as an incubator for extremist ideologies. That essential ethos of education, unfortunately, is under threat, exemplified recently by the graduation speech of City University of New York law graduate and soon-to-be lawyer,…
    Armstrong Williams
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    • Opinion

    What Education Should Look Like: Master and Apprentice

    Over the past several months, I’ve been pelted with the same question over and over again: “If America’s public education system is broken, what should our education system look like?” In the education reform and school choice movements, we often reply that education is “whatever you as the parent want it to look like,” yet…
    Tony Kinnett
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    • News

    Parents Take School Board to Court for Assigning LGBTQ Books Without Their Consent

    Six Maryland parents of different religious backgrounds are suing the Montgomery County Board of Education for forcing their children to read LGBTQ “pride” books without parental knowledge or consent.  The federal lawsuit comes after the school board in the affluent Maryland county created a list of 13 newly approved “LGBTQ-inclusive” books and informed parents that…
    Gigi De La Torre
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