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

    Left Barely Masks Its Contempt for Parents’ Involvement in Education

    As a rule, leftists are pretty stealthy about expressing their true feelings, preferring to pose as “moderates” until the time comes to actually impose their radical agendas. That results in a good deal of dishonesty when it comes to their message, but every so often a whiff of candor does leak out—only to be quickly…
    Jeff Rhodes
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    • Opinion

    Education Is Not One-Size-Fits-All

    Jan. 23-29 is National School Choice Week. This is the fourth of a five-part series of commentaries exploring the successes and challenges of educational choice and the people fighting to make it available to all American schoolchildren.  All children in the United States should have access to a quality education, no matter their race, gender,…
    Susan Kay Moses
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    • Opinion

    Mask Mandates in School: Should Parents Have That Choice?

    A new Republican governor is trying to return power to the hands of parents in his state.  On his first day in office on Jan. 15, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order giving parents the choice about whether or not their child should wear a mask at school. Now, seven Virginia school districts…
    Virginia Allen
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    • Opinion

    In Kentucky, Education Opportunity Accounts Can Give Students Chance to Overcome Hardship

    Jan. 23-29 is National School Choice Week. This is the second of a five-part series of commentaries exploring the successes and challenges of educational choice and the people fighting to make it available to all American schoolchildren.  In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kentucky lawmakers seized the opportunity to pass the state’s first significant…
    Heather Huddleston
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    • Opinion

    As I Found Out With My Daughter, Not Even Catholic Schools Are Safe Havens From Gender Ideology

    My husband and I looked to a Catholic school to be an ally in our fight to break our daughter free from the grip of gender confusion. We were naive. Our daughter, now 15, was 13 when she was coached into believing that she was born in the wrong body and could change to be…
    Charlie Jacobs
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    • Opinion

    For Parents, School Choice Provides Hope

    Jan. 23-29 is National School Choice Week. This is the first of a five-part series of commentaries exploring the successes and challenges of educational choice and the people fighting to make it available to all American schoolchildren.  There’s a local coffee shop that has become a hub for people working from home who also want…
    Jenny Clark
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    • News

    Parents Group Claims Saint Paul School System Indoctrinates Preschoolers on Transgender Issues

    A parents group claims that a Minnesota school district is indoctrinating toddlers about pride and other “equity” agenda items. Saint Paul Public Schools is partnering with two organizations, AMAZE and OutFront Minnesota, to purportedly push materials discussing gender identity on children as young as 3, according to a release by Parents Defending Education. One document released by Parents…
    Harold Hutchison
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    • News

    State Superintendent Won’t Approve Curriculum Telling Disabled Preschoolers to ‘Deconstruct Whiteness’

    North Carolina's school superintendent walked back plans to implement a statewide curriculum that would teach disabled preschoolers to “deconstruct whiteness,” according to a report from Education First Alliance. Catherine Truitt, North Carolina’s superintendent of public instruction, said she “will not sign” a contract proposal that would teach disabled preschoolers that “we are all products of a racialized society” and…
    Kendall Tietz
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    • News

    GOP Lawmakers Demand Ouster of Education Secretary Over Reported Role in Targeting Parents

    More than 40 House Republicans are calling for the ouster of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona after a report of his apparent role in a national schools group’s calling some concerned parents “domestic terrorists,” while 24 GOP senators are asking the nation’s top education official for answers.  The push comes after Fox News reported earlier this…
    Fred Lucas
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    • Opinion

    It’s Time for Parents to Lead on Education Because They ‘Know Their Children Best’

    When it comes to children’s education, parents know best, Laura Zorc says.  As the mother of four kids herself, Zorc has been fighting for education reform since 2013, when her home state of Florida began adopting Common Core education goals. She successfully rallied a group of parents to stand against the federally funded learning standards….
    Virginia Allen
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    • News

    Oklahoma Proposes Bill That Would Allow Parents to Remove Sexually Graphic Books From School Libraries

    An Oklahoma bill introduced on Dec. 16 may allow parents to seek the removal of books that they deem inappropriate from school libraries. The bill, Senate Bill 1142, would give parents a right to ask for the removal of “books that are of a sexual nature that a reasonable parent or legal guardian would want to…
    Kendall Tietz
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    • News

    1619 Project Creator: I Don’t ‘Understand This Idea That Parents Should Decide What’s Being Taught’ in School

    The creator of The New York Times' 1619 Project said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday she doesn’t understand the argument “that parents should decide what’s being taught” to their children in school. The 1619 Project was created by Nikole Hannah-Jones, a writer for The New York Times, and it promotes the idea that America’s "true…
    Kendall Tietz
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    • Opinion

    A Glimpse Into Homeschooling Through Holidays

    Homeschooling during the holidays is a meaningful time in my family’s homeschool. Since my husband and I started homeschooling our children, we have taught them year-round. This means we don’t take summer breaks. That’s not to say that we don’t take breaks at all. It means we have more flexibility to choose when and how…
    Eve Deborah
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    • News

    Parents ‘Furious’ Over School Board’s Decision to Give Teachers More Time Off to Relieve Stress

    A Maryland school board approved a calendar change to provide teachers more time off, which infuriated parents over concerns that it will set their children back academically. On Dec. 7, the Montgomery County Public Schools' school board approved a calendar change for the 2021-22 school year that will give Montgomery County Public School staff and…
    Kendall Tietz
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    • News

    Saint Louis University Threatens to Expel Student for Posting Flyers Promoting Conservative Speaker’s Event

    Saint Louis University is threatening to expel or suspend a student for posting flyers advertising the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh’s off-campus speaking event, according to the Young America’s Foundation. The student, James Dowling, was told in a Dec. 9 videoconference with school administrators that he could face expulsion for his “inappropriate conduct” and “failure to…
    Bryan Babb
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    • Opinion

    We Hear You: Parents Must Fight to Save Public Schools

    Editor's note: The Daily Signal's audience sounds like it's had enough with parents being marginalized or criminalized as the left seeks to transform public schools. Here's a sampling from the mailbag at [email protected].—Ken McIntyre Dear Daily Signal: It was appropriate for conservative congressmen such as Rep. Jim Jordan to grill Attorney General Merrick Garland during…
    Ken McIntyre
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    • Opinion

    Students at Maryland High School Shown Thanksgiving Video Depicting Pilgrims as Oppressors

    The Howard Zinn-ification of American history has now been fully embraced by America’s institutions. It’s not just on college and university campuses where the late Marxist professor’s anti-American history is popular.  An anonymous tip to The Daily Signal on Monday revealed that a video depicting the Pilgrims as one-dimensional oppressors was shown to students at…
    Jarrett Stepman
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    • Opinion

    Parents Across Country Sue Schools Over Clandestine Gender Transitions

    The lawsuit filed Nov. 17 by two public interest law firms against the Kettle Moraine School District in Wisconsin over the clandestine social transition of a 12-year-old girl marks the latest in a series of cases where school officials allegedly initiated social gender transitions without parental consent. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, one…
    Harold Hutchison
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    • News

    ‘Education Lifted Me Out of Poverty’: Winsome Sears Wants to Reform Schools, Empower Parents

    Winsome Sears made education a centerpiece of her successful campaign for lieutenant governor in Virginia. Now, as she prepares to take office, the mother and Marine Corps veteran is promising to challenge the status quo and advocate for parents and children. “Education lifted me out of poverty and education will lift everybody,” Sears, a Republican,…
    Robert B. Bluey
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    • News

    Catholic University Celebrates Painting of George Floyd as Jesus Christ, Releases Report on Racism

    A painting depicting George Floyd as Jesus Christ hangs in two locations at The Catholic University of America, The Daily Signal has learned. The artist repeatedly has indicated that his painting depicts both Floyd and Jesus.  “It is just another symptom of the liberalization and secularization of our campus,” a junior at Catholic University tells…
    Mary Margaret Olohan
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