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

    We Hear You: Black Lives Matter Threatens Our Schools

    Editor's note: Jarrett Stepman's commentary on a Black Lives Matter curriculum infiltrating public schools struck a chord with The Daily Signal's audience. Here's a sampling of the response. Remember to write us at [email protected].—Ken McIntyre Dear Daily Signal: I am concerned that the doctrine of Black Lives Matter in schools, described by Jarrett Stepman in…
    Ken McIntyre
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    • Opinion

    Rep. Andy Biggs Says Follow the Science, Open Schools

    It’s past time to open schools, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., says. “The percentages for teachers or students is really, really low,” Biggs, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, says of the risk of contracting COVID-19. “In Florida, they’re playing sports.” “The flip side of it, of course, is this isolation, this online learning, this basic…
    Rachel del Guidice
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    • Opinion

    It’s Open Enrollment at the Border While Schools Remain Closed

    I recently had to cancel a long-planned trip to South America, either because the countries I wanted to enter are closed or required up to a two-week quarantine in a hotel. It doesn’t matter that I have been vaccinated and have repeatedly tested negative for COVID-19. Several countries in Europe I would like to visit…
    Cal Thomas
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    • Opinion

    Most American Schools Are Damaging Your Child

    I have been telling parents for decades that sending a child to almost any college is playing Russian roulette with his or her values. But it is a different version of Russian roulette. In the traditional version, only one of the gun’s six chambers contains a bullet. In the college version of Russian roulette, five…
    Dennis Prager
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    • Opinion

    Amid School Closures, Dr. Seuss Is Needed More Than Ever

    The cancel culture phenomenon literally hit home for me last week when a neighboring school district in Northern Virginia announced it would no longer associate March 2’s annual Read Across America Day literacy event with the beloved Dr. Seuss. Why? Because the overlords of Loudoun County Public Schools decided that six early Dr. Seuss books…
    Jacolyn Bastasch
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    • Opinion

    LA School Board Has No Excuse. Kids Should Be Back in Classroom, Father Says.

    The Los Angeles school board keeps moving the goalpost for when students will be allowed to return to the classroom for in-person learning, says the founder of L.A. School Uprising. Ross Novie, the father of two school-age children, founded the coalition of parents and students calling for Los Angeles schools to reopen for optional, in-person instruction….
    Virginia Allen
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    • News

    Viral Video Shows Little Girl Bursting Into Tears of Joy When Her Mom Reveals School Is Open

    Viral video footage shows a little girl bursting into tears when she discovers that she can finally return to the classroom. The account Reopen California Schools posted a video Wednesday showing a little girl sobbing in happiness when her mother tells her that she can go back to school next week. Reopen California Schools Director…
    Mary Margaret Olohan
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    • Opinion

    It’s Time to Hold School Boards Accountable, This Father Says

    All parents want their children to receive a good education and in Fort Worth, Texas, John Pritchett is working hard to ensure that desire becomes a reality.  Pritchett has helped organize the Focus on Students PAC, a group of parents who are working to bring more accountability to their local school board. Pritchett joins the…
    Rob Bluey
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    • Opinion

    School Choice Provides Opportunity for All of America’s Kids to Have Better Life

    Tiffany Dunston is the epitome of an education opportunity success story. She grew up in a poor neighborhood in Washington, D.C., and became motivated in her own educational journey after her cousin—who was going to be the first in the family to attend college—was fatally shot at the age of 17. But after starting out…
    Lindsey Burke
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    • News

    Petition Calls on San Francisco School Board to Focus on ‘Improving Schools, Not Renaming Them’

    A petition being circulated online in San Francisco is demanding that the city’s Board of Education focus on “improving schools, NOT renaming them.” The petition calls on San Francisco’s school board to rescind its decision late last month to rename 44 schools in the city that bear the names of former presidents and other historical…
    Steven Hall
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    • Opinion

    Why Civil Discourse Should Be Fruit of Liberal Arts Education

    Even in the midst of a global pandemic with many college students off campus in virtual classrooms, debates about free speech in higher education remain a hot topic. The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments regarding free speech at public university campuses this year. And last year, the U.S. Department of Education opened investigations into…
    Jude Schwalbach
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    • Opinion

    San Francisco School Board Cancels Lincoln, Washington for ‘Dishonorable’ Legacies

    Editor’s note: The San Francisco school board voted Tuesday to rename 44 public schools in the school district. Among the figures with “dishonorable” or racist legacies, according to the school board, were Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. In December, Jarrett Stepman wrote about how the war on history has even come for Lincoln and what…
    Jarrett Stepman
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    • Opinion

    Here’s How Some States and Families Are Taking Back Control Over Their Children’s Education

    When schools closed last March due to the coronavirus pandemic, no one expected them to still be closed nearly a year later. The image projected by the public education system as a reliable and stable fixture of society has waned as classrooms remain empty. At the same time, teachers unions—who have long tried to claim…
    Jude Schwalbach
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    • Opinion

    Military Families Deserve More School Choice for Their Children

    I was disturbed to read a 2017 Military Times survey that found that 35% of service members pointed to dissatisfaction with their children’s education as a “significant factor” in deciding whether to continue their military service. A big part of the military’s readiness is its retention rate. If more service members stay enlisted for longer,…
    Rep. Jim Banks
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    • Opinion

    Amid Shuttered Schools, 7 Days of Hope for Educational Freedom

    Hope is a powerful, uniquely human concept. Hope is also a necessity to persevere through the trials and tribulations, the ups and the downs, of the human experience that all of us inevitably will face. Hope is especially important as the country approaches what is, hopefully, the twilight of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hope is exactly…
    Garrett Ballengee
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    • News

    EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans Offer 6 School Choice Bills

    The Republican Study Committee plans to introduce six school choice measures in the House on Thursday in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has shuttered schools across the country.  “These [committee] members recognize that if Congress had placed a greater emphasis on school choice, parents and students could’ve been freer to avoid the debacle…
    Rachel del Guidice
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    • Opinion

    National School Choice Week 2021 Is an Opportunity to Reexamine Our Children’s Education

    As we prepare to celebrate National School Choice Week, so many things come to my mind. The months of the COVID-19 pandemic have caused parents everywhere to look at how their children are being educated.   I think back to a time when we became so concerned about our children and began looking for ways to help them…
    Virginia Walden Ford
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    • News

    Minnesota Law School Students Aim to ‘Cancel’ Alumna Rep. Fischbach

    Some students at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, are asking the school’s administration to ban an alumna and newly elected congresswoman because of her stance on voter fraud and support for President Donald Trump.  “Rep. Michelle Fischbach (MN-8), an alumna of one of Mitchell Hamline’s predecessor institutions, directly contributed to…
    Rachel del Guidice
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    • Opinion

    Time to Heed the Science and Reopen Schools

    There’s no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted childhood education. In many countries, kids have physically returned to school. In others, schools were never closed. Yet in the United States, many public schools have been closed since March, yielding disastrous results for millions of kids. While scientific data say it’s safe to bring them…
    Veronique de Rugy
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    • Opinion

    How to Stop Schools From Parenting Your Children

    I’m tired of schools trying to play the role of surrogate parents. Like too many parents across our nation, I’ve become increasingly concerned about the radical social and political ideas that are being forced upon our children in public schools. While I’m raising my children with biblically-based morals and values at home, schools are undermining…
    Stephanie Curry
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