Education Policy & School Reform News

The Senate last week rejected a $500 billion “skinny stimulus” proposal addressing the coronavirus pandemic that included $105 billion in new federal education spending. The latter is a sum double what is spent annually by the federal Education Department on K-12 schools. The proposal would have continued a failed legacy of ever-increasing federal education spending….

A new podcast from The New York Times suggests that “Nice White Parents” are the reason for failures in the education system. The podcast, according to The Heritage Foundation’s Mary Clare Amselem, cites “examples of parents getting involved in the day-to-day operation of the school, and paints this involvement as an affront to public schooling,”…

This article is an excerpt from the "2020 Mandate for Leadership: A Clear Vision for the Next Administration." It looks back at policy decisions made by the Trump administration over the past four years. You can purchase your copy of "Mandate 2020" here. Since publication of the last Mandate for Leadership, the Trump administration has…

For many children living in the District of Columbia, the new school year begins much like the last one ended—at home. The unexpected onset of the coronavirus pandemic initiated an abrupt transition to crisis online learning. While some children perform well in their virtual classrooms, not all children respond the same. For instance, although D.C….

Six months into the pandemic, some traditions will still not be upset by a virus. As approximately half of K-12 schools are only offering online instruction, parents will still know little, if anything, of what their children are being taught in school except by accident—or  unless they ask. Recent fallout from such asymmetric information comes…

Entrepreneur and civil rights movement veteran Robert L. Woodson Sr. believes that American civics can help save our country—and that’s the mission of 1776, a major initiative launched earlier this year by the Woodson Center, which Woodson founded to give local leaders the training they need to improve their communities. Featuring essays by notable scholars and writers…

Returning from a sabbatical in my 21st year at Ohio’s Shawnee State University, I resumed teaching my regular political philosophy course. Taking questions in one such class at the end of my first day back, I acknowledged a male student with a “Yes, sir?” (It’s my practice to address my students in this way and…

School choice was a policy star this week at the Republican National Convention. President Donald Trump capped off the week by stating his desire to “expand charter schools and provide school choice for every family in America” during his speech Thursday night, the final night of the convention. A slate of speakers throughout the week…

The coronavirus pandemic might permanently affect American education. Lindsey Burke, director for the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation, says “the pandemic has just completely upended education.” But some of the changes might actually be a good thing. Burke joins “Problematic Women” to discuss how COVID-19 could bring about needed education policy reform…

Is patriotism dying? Are there any good Americans left? Over the past few months, Americans may have begun to wonder about those questions, and both will be on the minds of conservative students as they return to school this fall. It has been a long time since colleges were the refuges of free thought and…

Normally when a business shuts its doors, it doesn’t still get to charge its customers for a product they can no longer access. It certainly doesn’t get to charge its customers twice for the privilege. Yet, that’s exactly what we’re seeing from some public school districts. They refuse to open their doors for in-person learning—citing…

For many families, home has become both office and school during the coronavirus pandemic. Parents across America are facing the challenge this fall of managing a full-time job with their child’s education. Memories of a chaotic spring have driven moms and dads to find creative solutions. Education pods are one way families can ensure their…

Progressive activists seek to expand sex education in schools across America to include topics such as sexual orientation and gender identity. Their proposed curriculum also promotes abortion. On today’s episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast,” we listen in on The Heritage Foundation’s virtual event Wednesday, the Protecting Children in Education Summit. Participants break down proposed…

Some schools are reopening this fall. COVID-19 is still going around, so parents have a lot of questions about what this means for their kids, their families, and their extended families. Here’s our take on the top questions we’re hearing.  1. If my child returns to school, should I expect my child to contract COVID-19? If so,…

Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia last week sued the Trump administration in federal court over the president’s rollback of transgender health care. The lawsuit, filed in New York, includes more traditionally “conservative” states such as Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. That Wisconsin’s attorney general would participate in this lawsuit is surprising, given the controversy…

The rise of “pandemic pods” over the past two weeks in response to public school shutdowns is a real-time, large-scale demonstration of community responsiveness in a crisis. Pandemic pods are the education version of “little platoons” first mentioned by Edmund Burke. They prove that the “spirit of association”—which Alexis de Tocqueville identified as a defining…

President Donald Trump announced at the White House his unequivocal commitment to getting America’s schools back open. “So, what we want to do is, we want to get our schools open,” he said. “We want to get them open quickly, beautifully, in the fall.” When the COVID-19 crisis was just beginning to grip the nation…