Education Policy & School Reform News

In March, school shutdowns around the globe caused 1.5 billion children to begin schooling from home, representing over 91% of children, UNESCO estimates. Here in the U.S., conversations about the state of school reopenings have hit a fever pitch as August quickly approaches. Many parents—some 71% in Education Next’s 2020 poll—feel their children learned less…

Parents looking for a national consensus on whether schools should open in the fall won’t find one. But that’s OK. We don’t need one. As soon as President Donald Trump announced his support for reopening schools this fall, teacher unions said he was “brazenly making these decisions.” So much for consensus. And this despite the fact that both proclamations…

Most students around the country haven’t been to school since March, when large parts of the country began to lock down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the data increasingly suggests that reopening schools entails the least risks and should be a goal of every level of government. The early hope was that the…

School districts around the country have been announcing reopening possibilities for the upcoming school year. The options often include full-time virtual learning, two or three in-person days at school, or a combination of the two. In a few districts, I’ve seen four or five suggestions. Public schools in Fairfax County, Virginia, one of the wealthiest…

Thomas Sowell has just published “Charter Schools and Their Enemies.” He presents actual test scores of students in traditional public schools and charter schools on New York State Education Department’s annual English Language Arts test and its mathematics test. Sowell gives the results of student tests in charter schools such as KIPP, Success Academy, Explore…

One size does not fit all when it comes to education. The COVID-19 pandemic has made this education choice adage crystal clear. With schools shuttered nationwide since mid-March, millions of children became instant homeschoolers. For some students, like Veronique Mintz, remote learning was more effective than classroom experiences. Fewer disruptions from other students, dedicated office…

In a 5-4 decision Tuesday, the Supreme Court held that families have a right to seek the best educational opportunities for their children, by preventing states from blocking the participation of religiously affiliated schools in state school choice programs. In Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, the court ruled that the application of a “no-aid”…

Hillsdale College will be one of the only colleges, if not the only college, this year planning to hold an in-person commencement ceremony for its graduates. Larry Arnn, president of Hillsdale College and a trustee of The Heritage Foundation, joins The Daily Signal Podcast today to discuss why the college has chosen to take this…

We have a serious problem in this country with civics education and history. Not only are there widespread efforts to undermine the country’s founding principles, such as Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” and The New York Times’ “1619 Project,” but the prevalence of civics and history as subjects in schools has…

Homeroom has taken on a literal meaning over the past two months. Parents, while always their children’s first and foremost educators, have had to fully embrace homeschooling as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. And although that has been working great for many families – some 40% now say they’re more likely to continue homeschooling…

Black politicians, civil rights leaders, and their white liberal advocates have little or no interest in doing anything effective to deal with what’s no less than an education crisis among black students. In city after city with large black populations, such as Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., less than 10% of students…

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the problems of the modern education system home to families—literally. Traditional brick-and-mortar school buildings were abruptly emptied, and parents found themselves adjusting to a return to home education, in which children learned from Mom and Dad around the kitchen table. Three months ago, only 3% of families educated their children at…

A majority of parents now say they are “somewhat” or “much more” favorable to homeschooling, after experiencing it because of the recent coronavirus-spurred school closures.  Many parents likely think that the increased time with their children has been valuable in some way, but they are not prepared, for a variety of reasons, to become full-time…

An Ivy League professor says we need to end homeschooling, because parents who homeschool their children are “authoritarian.” In an article in Harvard Magazine‘s latest issue, Harvard law professor Elizabeth Bartholet, faculty director of the Law School’s Child Advocacy Program, blasts homeschooling as “dangerous” and appealing to those who seek “authoritarian control over their kids.”…

In what has to be one of the most outrageous, misguided—frankly, garbage—pieces of elitist propaganda this year, Harvard Magazine and Harvard Law School have teamed up to attack homeschooling, of all things, in a clearly coordinated one-two punch. Both attacks are baseless, stereotypical, and fundamentally flawed because they are rooted in the dangerous belief that…

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced public schools will be closed for the rest of the academic year due to the new coronavirus. More mayors and governors will likely make similar announcements, if they have not already done so. Rather than look upon this as a negative, I suspect some parents are…

Sam Sorbo wears a lot of hats: actress, radio show host, writer, wife, and homeschool mom. Famously known for her role in the 1995 TV show “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys,” Sorbo has stayed very busy over the past 25 years.  Not only has she continued to act, including recently starring in “Let There Be Light,”…