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
  • 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
    Read More
  • 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
    Read More
  • 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
    Read More
  • 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
    Read More
  • 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
    Read More
  • 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
    Read More
  • 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
    Read More
  • news

    LifeWise Academy Brings Bible-based Education to Public School Students During School Hours
    Bethany Sanidad, a mom from Ohio, credits LifeWise Academy with changing her son Christian’s life—and by extension her whole family’s outlook on faith. “I imagine Christian and his family sitting in church one day and thinking it all started with LifeWise,” Sanidad told The Daily Signal. “If we didn't have LifeWise offered, we wouldn't be…
    Robert B. Bluey
    Read More
  • news

    North Carolina’s Democrat Governor Declares Emergency Over School Choice ‘Scheme’
    North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, declared a state of emergency Monday because the state Legislature is expected to override his veto of a school choice bill. “I’m declaring the state of emergency because you need to know what’s happening,” Cooper said during an address in the state capital of Raleigh. “If you care…
    Tony Kinnett
    Read More
  • opinion

    Why Junior ROTC Programs in US High Schools Are Needed Now More Than Ever
    Based on allegations of sex abuse at the hands of instructors, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., late last year called on the Pentagon to “shut down” the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) program. That sentiment is echoed by critics who further claim JROTC “brainwashes” students with militarism and violence. By way of background, JROTC is…
    Thomas Spoehr | Isaac Tang
    Read More
  • news

    ‘I Would Like to Have My Job Back’: School Counselor Sues After Being Fired for Disagreeing With Transgender Policy
    PENDLETON, Ind.—An Indiana school district violated a guidance counselor’s right to free speech by retaliating against and ultimately firing her for saying parents should know about their teenage children’s interest in “transitioning” to the opposite sex, the former counselor argues in a lawsuit filed Thursday.   Alliance Defending Freedom, a law firm that protects religious liberty…
    Tony Kinnett
    Read More
  • news

    Democratic Attorney General Targets School for Policy Notifying Parents If Their Child Tries to Change Their Gender
    New Jersey’s attorney general filed a civil rights complaint Wednesday against Hanover Township Board of Education challenging a policy that advises educators to notify parents if their child is transitioning genders at school. The Hanover Township Board of Education adopted a “Parental Notice of Material Circumstances” policy on Tuesday that requires educators to “say something to the…
    Reagan Reese
    Read More
  • news

    This School District Teaches Middle School Sex Ed Based on Planned Parenthood Guide
    Warning: This report includes graphic language and references to such language, which some readers may find offensive. A Virginia school district is using a teacher’s guide for middle school sex education, co-sponsored by Planned Parenthood, that promotes student “role-plays,” urges normalizing of certain behavior, and refers to sterilization as “permanent birth control.”  The teachers guide…
    Fred Lucas
    Read More
  • opinion

    School System’s Decision Against Flying ‘Pride’ Flags Outside Buildings Angers LGBTQ+ Activists
    School board meetings in one New Jersey district have turned into a toxic fiasco as LGBTQ+ protesters screamed and cursed at board members over a policy to fly only the American and New Jersey flags in front of schools. The last two scheduled school board meetings of the Westwood Regional School District in Bergen County,…
    Tony Kinnett
    Read More
  • opinion

    School Choice Chalking Up More Wins Across Country
    The momentum for school choice is continuing to build nationwide. Eight states have enacted new education choice policies or have expanded existing ones so far this year, including Indiana, Montana, and South Carolina earlier this month alone. Of the eight, four states—Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, and Utah—enacted school choice policies that will be available to all…
    Jason Bedrick
    Read More
  • opinion

    Are School Libraries Banning Thousands of Books? Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Trust the Left’s Narrative
    “What we’re seeing here is a resurgence of widespread censorship in America,” Nadine Farid Johnson recently told The Wall Street Journal. Johnson is the Washington director of PEN America and co-author of its report claiming to identify 2,532 books banned in public schools during the 2021-2022 school year. PEN America advocates on behalf of poets,…
    Jay Greene | Madison Marino Doan
    Read More
  • opinion

    Biden’s ‘Transgender’ Rule Mandating Schools Treat Biological Males as Females Gets Tested
    Just when you thought Virginia’s Loudoun County Public Schools could not get any worse. Now, Biden’s Department of Education has launched an investigation into how the school system handled two 2021 sexual assaults against girls by a boy claiming to be “transgender.” Its investigation of those complaints will force the department to come to terms…
    Sarah Parshall Perry | Caroline Heckman
    Read More
  • opinion

    It’s a Problem When the Goal of School Meals Is No Longer Just to Serve Students in Need
    The White House wants every K-12 student to be part of the welfare system. And in its zeal to achieve that goal, pesky things like Congress or the risk of expanding already poorly performing programs pose no obstacles. President Joe Biden’s administration is continuing the work of President Barack Obama’s team and trying to put…
    Jonathan Butcher | Lindsey Burke
    Read More
  • opinion

    ‘He’s Wrong,’ Expert Says as Education Secretary Implies Book Banning Responsible for Falling Civics, History Scores
    The test results are in, and America’s children are failing history and civics. According to the “Nation’s Report Card,” just 13% of eighth graders are proficient in U.S. history, and only 22% are proficient in civics. Every four years, the National Assessment of Educational Progress captures how well America’s students are performing in major subjects….
    Virginia Allen
    Read More
  • opinion

    Red States Ban Destructive Transgender Treatments as K-12 Schools Funnel Children to Dangerous Path
    Citing “very serious side effects” and a “lack of reliable scientific evidence for their efficacy and safety,” Missouri is clamping down on chemical and surgical gender transition interventions for both children and adults. The move comes as public schools across the nation push children toward transgenderism with organized efforts and intentional tactics that leave children’s…
    Keri D. Ingraham
    Read More