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

    Why the Left Wants Twitter Over Tolstoy in Our Schools

    If one leftist teachers group gets its way, reading literature in school will be replaced by reading internet memes and Twitter posts.    A powerful group of educators called the National Council of Teachers of English recently released a statement calling on schools to “decenter book reading and essay writing as the pinnacles of English language…
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  • opinion

    Parents Are Going on Offensive to Fight Indoctrination in Education

    Across America, states have gone on the offensive, targeting the radical sex and “gender” curriculums in grade schools. These proposals follow increasing calls from parents to reject sexually explicit content unearthed in public school classrooms. The Parental Rights in Education law, recently signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, sparked heated conversations throughout the nation regarding…
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  • opinion

    Oral Arguments at Supreme Court Offer Glimmer of Hope for Praying Coach in First Amendment Case Against School District

    In 2008, when coach Joseph Kennedy knelt in silent prayer at the 50-yard line of the Bremerton High School football field after a game, he likely never anticipated his subsequent firing would take him all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.  And it’s been a long journey, to say the least.  First Liberty Institute,…
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  • opinion

    I’m a Full-Time Working Mom. Here’s Why I Love Homeschooling My Daughter. 

    Any working mom can attest that work never quite turns off.   We don’t necessarily get to sleep in on the weekends or kick back and sip wine when we get home from our jobs.   Most likely, we’re cooking dinner, giving baths, refereeing fights, negotiating on bedtime or television, reading stories, and trying to accomplish the…
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  • opinion

    Motherhood, Career, Homeschooling: Is It Possible to Do It All?

    Being a wife and mother while working full time is a lot. Add homeschooling to the mix? Now you have entered superhero status in our book.  Marguerite Bowling, a senior communications manager at The Heritage Foundation, is actually no superhero, but she and her husband are committed to their children’s education and upbringing. When Bowling…
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  • news

    School District Trains Teachers to Become ‘Anti-Racist,’ Subvert Curriculum ‘Rooted in Whiteness’

    A school district in Ohio instructed teachers on becoming “co-conspirators” in "anti-racism" while teaching a “curriculum rooted in whiteness,” according to a concerned resident's presentation to the group Parents Defending Education. Mentor Public Schools in Mentor, Ohio, told teachers in a training program, titled “Curriculum for Social Justice: Examining What We Teach and How to…
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  • opinion

    Political Deck Stacked Against Parents Running for School Board

    “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” Those were the famous words of Terry McAuliffe’s failed gubernatorial campaign in Virginia last fall. The past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic exposed just how little control parents have over their children’s public school education. And their powerlessness did not end when…
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  • opinion

    Fed Up, These Parents Sue Baltimore Public Schools

    As in so many other places around the country, the public education system in Baltimore is failing the city’s children. Public schools have been failing American students for decades, but the issue is pronounced in Maryland’s biggest city.  Stories abound of Baltimore’s momentous failures to teach its kids. One report details how a student graduated…
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  • opinion

    Youth Mental Health Crisis Gives More Urgency to School Choice Movement

    Parents have spent the last two years dealing with lawmakers’ and school officials’ indecisions about school reopenings, a nightmare for many. Public officials have constantly alternated between remote and in-person learning, masking and unmasking, social distancing and not. Now, many families are rejoicing as they see states lift their remaining COVID-19 restrictions. Getting their children caught…
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  • opinion

    No, School Boards Are Not ‘Banning Books’

    Accusations of left-wing free speech authoritarianism—whether through corporate restrictions, the state targeting “misinformation,” the shouting down of dissent in universities, or the canceling of dissenting voices—are well-documented. Attempting to even the ledger, liberals have begun alleging that conservatives are engaging in “book bans” in public school districts. The newest outrage on this front comes from…
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  • opinion

    The Consequences of Victimhood-Based Education Are Deadly

    Last month’s attempted assassination of a Jewish politician in Louisville, Kentucky, by a Black Lives Matter activist has gone largely unreported by the press. The incident and the general reaction to it speaks volumes about the relationship between the U.S. and Israel. The shooter, Quintez Brown, was open about his views. In an op-ed, he…
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  • opinion

    Yes, Schools Are Secretly Trying to ‘Gender Transition’ Kids, and It Must Be Stopped

    Abigail Martinez called the pain of losing her daughter a pain with no name. “Even when you breathe, it hurts,” she said during an event on radical gender ideology in schools. Her daughter, Yaeli, began struggling with depression in the seventh and eighth grades after classmates criticized her appearance. Abigail described her daughter as a…
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  • news

    Catholic School Parents Ask Archdiocese to Fight DC Mayor’s Masking Order

    More than 1,000 Catholic school parents and parishioners are pressuring the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington to fight D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s mask mandate for schools.  The group ADW Parents has existed for several months, but revamped its efforts in light of Bowser’s recent announcement removing mask mandates for many businesses and government offices but…
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  • opinion

    Christian-Based Credit Union Offers Alternative to Big Banks, Aid to School Choice Movement

    In this age of cancel culture, nothing is off limits for the woke left. Christians and conservatives increasingly find themselves on the defensive. Deplatforming and censorship are the norm on social media. In fact, it happened to The Daily Signal just last week for allegedly violating YouTube’s COVID-19 “misinformation” policy. And while having a video…
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  • opinion

    EXCLUSIVE: 15 Civics Education Programs, Ranked From Best to Worst

    Any parent with school-age kids knows they’re probably not getting the civics education they need. Teachers lack proper training or are increasingly pressured to embrace “action civics.” A new study from the Pioneer Institute and the National Association of Scholars, provided exclusively to The Daily Signal, offers a detailed ranking of 15 civics education programs offered for…
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  • news

    Maryland Public School District Announces ‘Anti-Racist System Audit’

    Maryland’s largest school district plans to issue an “anti-racist” survey to students to “address racial barriers” in the school district, according to an announcement from the district superintendent. Montgomery County Public Schools will issue an “Anti-Racist System Audit” to all parents, guardians, staff, and all fourth through 12th graders from March 1-31 to review “district…
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  • opinion

    Maryland Legislature Considers Creating ‘Advisory Council’ to Collect Data on Homeschoolers

    If we have learned anything about left-wing cultural revolutionaries over the past few years and decades, it’s that they insist that all conform to their view of “diversity.” All are welcome, except for those who disagree. That’s why it’s so troubling to see government authorities rope in, and attempt to control, people attempting to maintain…
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  • news

    YouTube Removes, Then Restores, Video of Mom Fighting Mask Mandates in School

    YouTube has reversed course after removing a video of a mom calling for the end of mask mandates in her children’s school district.  Virginia resident Merianne Jensen last week stood before her local school board and demanded that the elected leaders stop playing “politics with kid’s faces.”  “We are forcing healthy children home for exposure…
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  • opinion

    We Hear You: Do Catholic Schools Really Embrace Gender Ideology?

    Editor's note: The Daily Signal's audience reacted passionately to a mother's commentary about how a Catholic high school encouraged her daughter's attraction to transgenderism rather than helped the girl's parents respond with facts and faith. Below is a generous sampling of opinion from the mailbag at [email protected].—Ken McIntyre Dear Daily Signal: Charlie Jacobs' commentary article…
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  • news

    ‘You Are on the Losing Side of History’: Meet Mom Fighting Schools’ Mask Mandates

    Watch the video, above, of Virginia mom Merianne Jensen, whose powerful speech about masks at a school board meeting went viral, or read the lightly edited transcript below. To see somebody, just a plain old simple mom, getting up and calling out the superintendent, I think that resonated with parents. People all over the country…
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