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

    I Was Thrown Out of a School Board Meeting for Asking a Question

    PENDLETON, Ind.—I was kicked out of a public school board meeting Thursday night in this Indiana town because I asked a board member to provide details concerning a claim he made about a source in my prior article.  The board of the South Madison Community School Corporation held a public meeting to vote on the…
    Tony Kinnett
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    • Opinion

    BREAKING: Indiana Student Counselor Fired for Condemning School District’s Hidden Transgender Policy

    PENDLETON, Ind.—An Indiana school district fired a student counselor Thursday night for confirming and condemning the existence of a secret transgender policy that keeps parents in the dark about their children’s “gender transitions.” Kathy McCord worked as a counselor at Pendleton Heights High School for 25 years before the school board voted unanimously to terminate…
    Tony Kinnett
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    • News

    BREAKING: Yard Signs Supporting Pro-Parent School Counselor Stolen

    Police in Pendleton, Indiana, have confirmed that they are investigating the theft of several signs from the yards of community members in support of a suspended counselor. These signs, which say “Keep Kathy” (pictured below) indicate community support for Kathy McCord, a counselor who is currently suspended and facing termination by the South Madison Community…
    Tony Kinnett
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    • Opinion

    Fighting Back Against the ‘School-to-Scalpel Pipeline’ With Ian Prior

    OXON HILL, Md.—America First Legal filed a lawsuit last week demanding documents from the Food and Drug Administration regarding how strictly the FDA monitors the use of so-called puberty blockers and other hormone drugs for so-called gender-affirming care. Ian Prior, the legal organization’s senior adviser, explained his group’s efforts against the transgender movement in an…
    Tyler O’Neil
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    • News

    Schools Are Pushing Gender Pronouns and Hiding It From Parents

    A new report reveals students in the nation’s largest school districts are encouraged to change their names and pronouns without parental knowledge, even though those same schools require parental approval for over-the-counter medicine. The report, released by the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies, found that “eight of the nation’s 20 largest school districts allow students…
    John Ransom
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    • Opinion

    How One Conservative Governor Can Raise His Grade on School Choice

    You’d think that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp would be getting more national attention, given his solid record of conservative accomplishments. But if he wants to be touted as an exemplar of conservative governance, he needs to fill one gaping hole in his otherwise sterling résumé: school choice. Since he was elected governor in 2018, Kemp…
    Jason Bedrick
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    • Opinion

    While ‘WWIII’ Trends on Twitter, God Moves on College Campuses

    Russia is suspending the last nuclear arms treaty with America. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin are preparing to meet. North Korea is again testing its ballistic missiles. Ukraine has been at war with Russia for a year now. Meanwhile, “WWIII” was trending on Twitter earlier this week.  The millennial generation, of…
    Virginia Allen
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    • Opinion

    State Legislative Push for School Choice Gains Momentum Nationwide

    Two years ago, 2021 was declared “The Year of Education Choice,” when 19 states enacted 32 new or expanded education choice policies. This year could be even bigger, as more states consider making choice policies available to all K-12 students. In 2021, West Virginia became the first state to enact a publicly funded education choice…
    Jason Bedrick
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    • News

    ‘Truth Will Win Out’: Fox’s Hegseth Poses Classical Education as Cure for Public School Indoctrination 

    Parents should recognize classical education as an alternative to critical race theory-ridden public schools, says Pete Hegseth, “Fox and Friends” TV co-host and author of the 2022 book “Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation.”  In a conversation with the president of The Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, on “The Kevin Roberts Show” podcast, Hegseth explained…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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    • News

    Loudoun County School Board Shoots Down Motion to Release Rape Investigation

    The school board in Loudoun County, Virginia, voted on Tuesday night to keep the findings of an independent report on sexual assault private. The report, compiled by the law firm Blankingship and Keith, focused on how the district responded to two sexual assault incidents at Stone Bridge High School in May 2021. The 15-year-old “gender…
    Tony Kinnett
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    • News

    Black Lives Matter at School Brings ‘Trans Affirmation,’ ‘Restorative Justice’ Training to Elementary Classrooms 

    Black Lives Matter at School is using Black History Month to teach children about gender ideology, critical race theory, and reparations.   Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action—Feb. 6-10 this year—began in 2016 to teach “people of all ages to engage with issues of racial justice.” Events and curriculums promote Black Lives Matter's 13 guiding principles…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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    • Opinion

    EXCLUSIVE: Indiana Lawmakers Fight Back Against Schools’ Hidden Transgender Policies

    At least four school districts in Indiana have flooded their communities with controversy in the past year by pushing radical transgender agendas. Now, state lawmakers are fighting back to clearly outline and protect parental rights.  Indiana state Rep. Jake Teshka and state Sen. Jeff Raatz, both Republicans, have introduced two bills that would forbid any…
    Tony Kinnett
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    • Opinion

    Childhood Obesity Epidemic Calls for Cutting Screen Time in Schools

    As the American Academy of Pediatrics issues new guidelines recommending the radical solutions of weight-loss drugs and even surgery for curbing childhood obesity, it’s worth revisiting an obvious but largely ignored treatment for poor health: turning off the screens. Screen time skyrocketed for children during the COVID-19 pandemic—by 52% according to some studies and closer…
    Rachel Alexander Cambre
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    • News

    Major Standardized Testing Org Used by Catholic Schools Promotes Gender Ideology, Drag Queens, ‘Trans Kids’

    The NWEA, which says it provides map-testing assessments to Roman Catholic dioceses and almost two thousand Catholic schools across the country, features articles on its website encouraging educators to help students to "come out" and promoting gender ideology to children. Formerly known as the Northwest Evaluation Association, the NWEA boasts of developing Pre-K through 12th…
    Mary Margaret Olohan
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    • News

    Missouri Schools Took Kids to a Drag Show Without Informing Parents. AG Bailey Is Working to Prevent It From Happening Again.

    FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Missouri's attorney general sent a letter to the state's association of school boards, urging it to adopt a resolution mandating that parents and guardians receive advance notice and the ability to opt their children out of sexual instruction, following news that a middle school took students to a drag show without…
    Tyler O’Neil
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    • Opinion

    For National School Choice Week, Sen. Lee Wants to Empower Parents, not Educrats

    Teachers unions have long opposed efforts to give parents more choices in education. But parents today should quote something from Samuel Gompers, who founded the American Federation of Labor in the 19th century, to union members: “Doing for people what they can and ought to do for themselves is a dangerous experiment.” That surely applies…
    Jonathan Butcher
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    • Opinion

    Iowa Marks National School Choice Week by Enacting Students First Act

    Jan. 22 to Jan. 28 is National School Choice Week, and what better way to highlight the fact that parents today have more choices for their children’s education than ever before than by celebrating Iowa’s Students First Act being signed into law on Tuesday? The year 2011 was deemed “the year of school choice” after…
    Madison Marino Doan
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    • Opinion

    Iowa and Utah Lead States on School Choice Progress in the New Year

    As America celebrates National School Choice Week, two states—Iowa and Utah—have made the first moves this year to empower families with a greater say in how their children are educated. Additionally, the evidence from states with robust school choice policies is debunking opponents’ charges that choice harms rural students and homeschoolers. Last week, the education…
    Jason Bedrick
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    • News

    Blake Masters Slams Tucson School District for SPLC Curriculum, Warns About ‘Left-Wing Power Grabs’ in Education

    Blake Masters, the former Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Arizona, slammed his Tucson school district for its curriculum's reliance on the Southern Poverty Law Center, a leftist activist group known for branding conservative organizations "hate groups" on a map with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. "The SPLC is as extreme as it is dishonest….
    Tyler O’Neil
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    • Opinion

    Iowa Governor Leads on Ambitious School Choice Initiative

    Iowa came very close to enacting an expansive education choice policy last year. This year, after supporting school choice advocates who successfully primaried incumbents from her own party opposed to reform, Gov. Kimberly Reynolds is determined to see her ambitious education agenda over the finish line. Her proposal is a package of reforms that includes…
    Jason Bedrick
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