Education Policy & School Reform News

Education choice is on the march. So far this year, four states have enacted education choice policies that will be available to all K-12 students. Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, and Utah have now joined Arizona and West Virginia in making every child eligible for education savings accounts or ESA-like policies that allow families to choose the…

Parents in the pandemic era have asserted themselves with new vigor for the sake of their children. Parents no longer presume that the zoned public school is the right fit, or that the school puts students first. Nor do parents presume that most teachers wish to reproduce the values of the community. Since 2020, Americans’…

One of the most effective levers of influence in a free market system is the ability for consumers to take their business elsewhere.  When Gillette released a marketing campaign in 2019 designed around criticizing “toxic masculinity,” alienating millions of men around the country, consumers responded by taking their business (about $5 billion of it) elsewhere. …

Some schools are ditching traditional grading. Instead, they use “labor-based grading,” an idea promoted by Arizona State University professor Asao Inoue. Labor-based grading means basing grades more on effort than the quality of work. In addition, Inoue lectured a conference of rhetoric professors “stop saying that we have to teach this dominant English. … If…

Connor Boyack and Corey DeAngelis’ new book, “Mediocrity: 40 Ways Government Schools Are Failing Today’s Students,” provides a concise explanation for why Americans have begun abandoning the woefully inept public school system. Forty chapters rife with examples of failure paint the American public school system as a catalyst for the exodus to alternative options. Case…

Do you think parents should have a say in their children's education, that kids shouldn't be judged according to the color of their skin, that parents should know if their children say they identify as transgender, or that books with explicit sexual images should be removed from school libraries? If so, you represent a threat…

A major United Nations meeting has collapsed because of its promotion of radical sexuality education for children. The 56th session of the Commission on Population and Development concluded April 14 with no negotiated outcome between governments, resulting in the failure of yet another multimillion-dollar U.N. session as a result of vociferous opposition to extreme ideological…

What qualities should medical schools look for in future doctors? Probably academic excellence, experience in the medical sector, loyalty to medical ethics, and good interpersonal skills. These are all characteristics that future doctors should have, but they’re not what medical schools now emphasize. Medical schools are looking for social justice zealots to advance the diversity,…

Judge Kyle Duncan, a conservative on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, arrived on the Stanford Law School campus on March 9. He was there to deliver remarks to students at an event hosted by the campus Federalist Society group, but Duncan never had the opportunity to deliver his talk.  Upon entering the lecture…

Last week, I had the honor of helping pass HR 5, the Parents Bill of Rights Act, in Congress. Parents have a right to guide their child’s education and to know what’s being taught in the classroom, as moms and dads are reminding school boards across the country. Our legislation puts parents in the driver’s…

American interests require experts on international subject matter. We need diplomats, analysts, and spies with expertise in particular languages and cultures. But Congress made a mistake when it entrusted U.S. universities with millions of dollars to produce these experts—people who are supposed to be trained to serve U.S. interests but who often end up working…

America’s schoolchildren suffered grievously from prolonged school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. That was a rare point of consensus at the March 28 hearing of the newly created House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, transcending the standard, tiresome, and transparently partisan criticisms of the Biden and Trump administrations’ pandemic performance. To improve America’s response…