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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  • 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
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  • 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
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  • 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
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  • 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
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  • 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
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  • 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
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  • opinion

    The School Choice Momentum Continues Nationwide
    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…
    Jason Bedrick
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  • opinion

    Parents Get Back in Charge of Their Children’s Education
    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’…
    Adam Kissel
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  • news

    School Allows Reading of LGBT Book to Second Graders Despite State Law Requiring Parental Consent 
    A Missouri elementary school allowed a parent to read the transgender-promoting children’s book “I Am Jazz” to a second-grade class without first informing other parents, although state law requires school districts to notify parents beforehand about lessons on sexuality.   Webster Groves School District, located in the suburbs of St. Louis, allowed the parent to read…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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  • news

    4 Highlights From Teachers Union Head Randi Weingarten’s Testimony on School Lockdowns
    Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, fielded lawmakers’ questions Wednesday about her powerful union’s role in school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Weingarten, who leads the nation’s second-largest teachers union, testified before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on why the AFT pushed school lockdowns.  The New York Post reported…
    Fred Lucas
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  • opinion

    What Bud Light Scandal Could Teach Us About School Choice
    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. …
    Tony Kinnett
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  • opinion

    Marxian Education
    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…
    John Stossel
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  • opinion

    New Book Pulls Back Curtain on Public Schools’ ‘Mediocrity’ Sending Parents, Students to Exits
    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…
    Tony Kinnett
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  • news

    State Officials Share Wins on Life, Election Integrity, Education
    OXON HILL, Md.—After participating in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court case that overturned the Roe v. Wade abortion decision, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said the credit goes to the entire pro-life movement. “We did this together,” Fitch told the crowd at The Heritage Foundation’s 50th anniversary celebration event on Thursday….
    Fred Lucas
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  • news

    Education Reform Group, Communism Watchdog Receive Heritage Foundation Innovation Prizes, Among Others
    The Heritage Foundation awarded five organizations a prize for innovation on Thursday during its 50th anniversary celebration. The Heritage Innovation Prize is an annual award given to successful nonprofits in regard to research, litigation, education, outreach, or communications. Each year a group of recipients is selected and up to $1 million in prize money is…
    Jarrett Stepman
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  • opinion

    Opposing Porn in School Makes You Part of New ‘Uptown Klan,’ SPLC Researcher Says
    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…
    Tyler O’Neil
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  • opinion

    UN Population Panel Meeting Implodes Over Push for Radical Sexuality Education for Kids
    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…
    Rachana Chhin
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  • opinion

    Medical Schools Look for Activists, Not Healers
    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,…
    GianCarlo Canaparo | Duggan Foley | Joseph Sturdy
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  • opinion

    Media Watchdog Group Holds Stanford Law School Accountable After Students, Associate Dean Heckle Conservative Judge
    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…
    Virginia Allen
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  • news

    House Seeks Testimony From Teachers Union Chief  Weingarten on School Closures During COVID-19
    A House investigative panel wants to hear from Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, about her role in keeping schools closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, invited Weingarten on Tuesday to testify at a hearing scheduled…
    Fred Lucas
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