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

    Question After Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting: Is California an Incubator for Leftist Violence?
    Following the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump over the weekend, some Americans have begun to posit a connection between the alleged shooter’s actions and the incubation of radical beliefs in California’s education system. On Monday, Cole Tomas Allen, a resident of Torrance, California, was charged with attempting to kill the president after being taken…
    Angelina Delfin
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  • opinion

    Corruption Is Part of Why School District ‘Democracy’ Is Rigged and Wasteful
    In 2019, the Scottsdale Unified School District in Arizona spent over $20 million to tear down and completely rebuild a school named Pima Elementary. This year, it voted to close the school. Pima Elementary, designed for up to 840 students, reopened at less than 60% of that capacity, and it continued to decline. This fall,…
    Matthew Ladner
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  • opinion

    SCORE Act Offers Permanent Fix to College Sports Disorder
    College sports generate excitement and bring communities together in a unique way. They inspire pride in our schools, create lifelong memories, and enable young Americans to pursue education while excelling in sports. But the future of this prized institution is far from guaranteed and requires legislative action to permanently fix long-standing issues. New uncertainties took…
    Chrissy Clark
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  • opinion

    Schools Should Celebrate Title IX Month—Not Pride Month
    Every June, schools across America fill their bulletin boards with rainbows, host Pride events, and encourage elementary school children to participate in LGBTQ-themed activities. Whether it’s teachers in New Jersey posing on social media in shirts that suggest non-gender-affirming parents are not loving, or an Oregon school district planning a Pride-themed field day for young students, the emphasis is…
    Paul Runko
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  • opinion

    Classic Learning Test Challenges SAT and ACT Dominance
    The Classic Learning Test, an alternative to standardized tests like the SAT and ACT, has scored recent legislative victories in Texas and Oklahoma, with another win expected in Louisiana. These changes allow students to use their CLT score when applying for college. Jeremy Tate, a former schoolteacher who created the CLT in 2015, spoke with…
    Philip Roberts
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  • opinion

    A Victory for Sororities: Education Department Rules Sororities Are for Women Only
    It turns out, sororities are for women after all. The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights just affirmed what every sorority woman in America knew the first time she walked into her chapter—a sorority is for women. In a statement that would’ve been self-evident five minutes ago—just as it was over a century…
    Lesley Davis
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  • news

    Teen Suspended and Dubbed a Racist for Saying ‘Illegal Alien’ Wins $20K, Apology From School
    There’s justice for a North Carolina teen wrongly suspended and branded a racist for using the phrase “illegal alien.” Last year, 16-year-old Christian McGhee of Central Davidson High School in Lexington, North Carolina, was given an English assignment: Write about aliens. Being an intelligent lad, Christian asked the teacher a logical question: “Like space aliens…
    Al Perrotta
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  • news

    Education Department to Launch Title IX Investigations to Mark Law’s Anniversary
    To mark the 53rd anniversary of Title IX, the Department of Education is announcing investigations into two apparent violations of the federal law protecting women’s spaces and sports. Title IX was enacted into law on June 23 in 1972, so President Donald Trump’s Department of Education will celebrate June as Title IX month. Secretary of…
    Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
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  • opinion

    Higher Education Faces an Existential Crisis of Its Own Making
    Harvard University is having a rough time. I know, how tragic, right? On Monday, President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that his administration was considering giving $3 billion in grant money initially slated for Harvard to trade schools. This comes right after he tried to block foreign students from attending the school. That move was initially…
    Jarrett Stepman
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  • news

    Bills Allowing Prayer, Bible in School, Ten Commandments Head to Abbott’s Desk
    THE CENTER SQUARE—With days left in the legislative session, the Texas House passed bills authorizing prayer and Bible reading in public schools and requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in classrooms. Democrats opposed them, citing biblical references to slavery that teachers are not qualified to teach or shouldn’t be discussing. SB 10, filed by…
    Bethany Blankley
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  • opinion

    The School Choice Tide Lifts All Students
    Now that Texas and South Carolina have passed school choice bills, parents will be able to choose the best school for their kids in 17 states. Why not all states? After all, competition improves services. The Post Office couldn’t get it there overnight. Then FedEx showed it can be done. Quickly, UPS and DHL did it, too,…
    John Stossel
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  • news

    WHO VOTED AGAINST? Supreme Court Splits 4-4 on Catholic Charter School
    In a tied decision, the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday allowed an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision to stand, disqualifying a Catholic charter school from receiving state funding. Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the ruling, resulting in the 4-4 decision. The court did not issue an opinion, only stating, “The judgment is affirmed by an…
    Tyler O’Neil
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  • news

    Union ‘Payoffs Will Continue’ Until the Department of Education Is Closed, Betsy DeVos Says
    The Department of Education under President Joe Biden loosened requirements for a student loan program specifically for public servants and nonprofit employees a few months after unions that stood to benefit from the change sent a letter to then-Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. The watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust, which obtained the letter via a Freedom…
    Tyler O’Neil
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  • opinion

    Judge Blocks School Board From Removing Explicit Books, Saying It’s Unconstitutional to Follow ‘Conservative Values’
    A school board in Colorado cannot remove sexually explicit, profane, and “transgender” books from school libraries because the school board is conservative, according to a federal judge touted as the first openly lesbian judge west of the Mississippi. The ACLU’s Colorado chapter filed a suit on behalf of two minors, the NAACP Wyoming State Area…
    Tyler O’Neil
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  • opinion

    The Left Ignores ‘the Science’ on Federal Education Programs
    Why do the folks who shout about “following the science” repeatedly object when decisions are made to shutter federal education programs that rigorous research—i.e., “the science”— has shown to be ineffective? A prime example of this selective embrace of “the science” can be heard in the howls of protest to proposed cuts in the Trump…
    Jay Greene | Lindsey Burke
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  • opinion

    From School Board Mom to National Leader: Tiffany Justice’s New Mission for Parental Rights
    The rise of parental activism in education has transformed America’s political landscape since COVID-19 lockdowns exposed what was happening behind classroom doors. Now, one of the movement’s most influential voices is taking on a new role to champion parental rights at the national level. Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, recently joined The Heritage…
    Robert B. Bluey
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  • news

    Supreme Court Considers Whether the First Amendment Allows ‘Religious Charter Schools’
    One of the Supreme Court’s last argued cases of the 2024-25 term may turn out to be one of its most significant. On Wednesday, the court heard arguments over whether states may insist that charter schools, which they all define as public schools, be nonsectarian. Nearly every state offers charter schools to provide an alternative…
    Thomas Jipping
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  • opinion

    Ketanji Brown Jackson Makes a Powerful Argument for School Choice
    During oral arguments in the case of Mahmoud v. Taylor, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson unintentionally made a practical and convincing case for universal school choice. A few years back, the Montgomery County, Maryland, school board instituted an “LGBTQ-inclusive” curriculum that included storybooks for kids as young as prekindergarten. The books are ostensibly part…
    David Harsanyi
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  • news

    Heritage Foundation Unveils Classical School Database
    The Heritage Foundation has compiled a searchable Classical Schools Database featuring nearly 900 schools across the United States that say they are “committed to offering a classical liberal arts education to their students.”  The guide allows parents to search by state, city, county, and ZIP code for their ideal school from 894 options. It also…
    Jacob Adams
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  • news

    Catholic Charter School Funding Fight Heads to Supreme Court
    Oklahoma consistently ranks among the worst states in the country for public school outcomes. In an effort to improve educational options, the state’s official charter school board and an online Catholic charter school are fighting what they say is religious discrimination all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.   Charter schools in Oklahoma are run…
    Moira Gleason
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