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.
Filter articles by
    • News

    UNC Chapel Hill Suggests Moving Toppled Confederate Statue Inside Campus Building

    The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is considering a relocation for a Confederate statue that was toppled and vandalized to an indoor on-campus location. Silent Sam could be moved into a new $5 million campus building if the proposal is approved by the board of governors, The Associated Press reported Monday. The board,…
    Neetu Chandak
    Read More
    • Opinion

    Podcast: The Importance of Civics Education

    On today’s show, we’re talking about civics. At a time when students across the country lack a basic understanding of government and economics, one university is doing something about it. We’ll feature an interview with Paul Carrese, founding director of the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University. We’ll also…
    Robert B. Bluey
    Read More
    • Opinion

    Students’ Safety Is No Small Consideration in Parents’ Private School Choice

    It goes without saying that parents are more concerned than anyone else for their children’s well-being. So, no one is surprised, as The Daily Signal has noted, when parents hesitate to send their children to schools where “violence and intimidation were so bad that eight police officers patrolled the school every day, yet kids were…
    Jude Schwalbach
    Read More
    • Opinion

    Podcast: A Homeschooling Mom Shares Why, and How

    Where do you begin if you’re thinking about homeschooling? Can you do it if you’re not a teacher? And how can you make sure your kids get enough socialization? We’re joined by a special guest, Colleen Trinko—yes, Kate’s mom! Colleen, who is a teacher, homeschooled her five children for many years, and now works with…
    Katrina Trinko
    Read More
    • Opinion

    DeSantis Gets Unexpected Boost From African-American ‘School-Choice Moms’

    Conservative Republican Ron DeSantis and progressive Democrat Andrew Gillum presented voters with starkly different choices on an array of issues, none more distinctively polar than their plans for charter schools. In short, DeSantis proposed expanding them while Gillum espoused “siphoning them off” as drains on the public school system. That distinction—rather than the personalities and…
    John Haughey
    Read More
    • Opinion

    Micro-Schools Offer Kids a Customized, Hands-On Education

    There’s a world of difference between telling kids what they are supposed to know and teaching them how to learn. As parents look for more and better education options, the up-and-coming phenomenon of micro-schooling aims to bridge the gap between facts and experience with project-based learning. Although the micro-school movement launched in the U.S. and…
    Emily Maxson
    Read More
    • Opinion

    Regulations Threaten to Limit Best Schooling Options for Children

    What is the measure of a good school? And who is best positioned to decide what works? For decades, policymakers and education officials have attempted to bolster school “accountability” by increasing regulations on schools across the board—public, charter, and private. They have tried to do so at the federal level for half a century, with…
    Lindsey Burke
    Read More
    • News

    4 in 10 College Students Say It Is OK to Disrupt a Speaker on Campus, Survey Finds

    An overwhelming majority of American college students say they support the First Amendment, yet more than 4 in 10 think it’s OK to disrupt a speaker on campus. That’s according to findings released Thursday from the 2018 Buckley Program Survey sponsored by the William F. Buckley Jr. Program at Yale University. The survey shows that…
    Tristan Justice
    Read More
    • Opinion

    How School Choice Is Lifting Up Puerto Rico’s Children After Hurricane Maria

    Thirteen months ago on Sept. 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria slammed the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, devastating homes and infrastructure and leading to loss of life across the island. The storm greatly exacerbated the problems of a school system already in crisis: Puerto Rican fourth- and eighth-graders, for example, are roughly five grade levels behind…
    Jude Schwalbach
    Read More
    • Opinion

    Problematic Women: Meghan Markle Says University Education Is a ‘Right’

    The Trump administration proposes changes to Title IX, Meghan Markle says university education is a “right” in her first royal tour speech, and Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court, reveals that she has been diagnosed with dementia. O’Connor was named to the highest court in the land by…
    Kelsey Bolar
    Read More
    • Opinion

    A Better Way to Spend Our Education Dollars

    With the recent release of a study on education spending, many are reiterating a hackneyed conclusion: that the U.S. needs to funnel more money into schools. The study, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, compared human capital, or the quality of a country’s workforce, in different developed countries….
    Kristiana Bolzman
    Read More
    • Opinion

    The Daily Signal Podcast: Betsy DeVos on Giving States More Power in Education

    Betsy DeVos received heaps of scorn from the left when she became education secretary, but since taking office last year, she’s accomplished much—and given a good deal of power back to the states. In this episode, Rob Bluey, our editor-in-chief, sits down with DeVos to talk about the progress being made. We also talk to…
    Daniel Davis
    Read More
    • Opinion

    Segregation Is Back With a Vengeance on Campus. Academic Liberals Made It Happen.

    I’m thankful that increasing attention is being paid to the dire state of higher education in our country. Heather Mac Donald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, has just published “The Diversity Delusion.” Its subtitle captures much of the book’s content: “How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture.” Part of…
    Walter E. Williams
    Read More
    • Opinion

    Federal Education Programs Are Bloated and Failing. Now, Congress Wants to Give Them More Money.

    Here we go again. Congress plans to ignore the glaring education policy errors of the past five decades—and, worse, spend even more money on them. As policymakers place the finishing touches on the Labor-Health-Education bill—a spending measure that funds education programs at the departments of Education and Health and Human Services—Americans stand to have more…
    Jude Schwalbach
    Read More
    • News

    By Any Other Name: White Students Get Safe Space at This University

    Use of terms such as “safe space” and “white privilege” is increasingly common on college campuses, but when the University of Maryland at College Park announced creation of a weekly “safe space for white students” called White Awake, the negative response quickly prompted the school to change the name. Campus Reform reported the renaming Friday,…
    Troy Worden
    Read More
    • Opinion

    School Disciplinary Policies Must Be Local

    The Trump administration is considering rescinding a “Dear Colleague” letter sent in 2014 to public school administrators nationwide, providing guidelines regarding school discipline policies consistent with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. According to Title VI, racial discrimination at institutions receiving federal funds is illegal. The letter was sent to public school officials by…
    Star Parker
    Read More
    • Opinion

    School Discipline Policy Belongs at the Local Level, Not Washington

    Teacher unions and progressive special-interest groups cried foul earlier this year when the White House suggested that federal directives on school safety could be rescinded. But if a recent hearing held by the Federal Commission on School Safety is any indication, state and local policymakers don’t need Washington to micromanage student discipline policies. These state…
    Jonathan Butcher
    Read More
    • Opinion

    We Hear You: Bringing Discipline Back to the Nation’s Public Schools

    Editor’s note: As children return to school, discipline and safety are on many parents’ minds. One idea about how Education Secretary Betsy DeVos can make a difference drew responses from our audience. Be sure to write us at [email protected].—Ken McIntyre Dear Daily Signal: Efficient and excellent teaching and learning cannot happen in a classroom without strict and…
    Ken McIntyre
    Read More
    • News

    What These 6 University of Iowa Students Say About Mollie Tibbetts’ Death

    IOWA CITY, IOWA—For students who attend the University of Iowa, the beginning of the school year brought the tragic news of their classmate Mollie Tibbetts’ death. Tibbetts’ body was found Tuesday in a corn field in Poweshiek County, Iowa. Tibbetts, a 20-year-old psychology major who would have begun her junior year this fall, was last…
    Rachel del Guidice
    Read More
    • News

    K-12 Schools Bringing in Drag Queens to Teach Gender Ideology

    K-12 schools are bringing drag queens into the classroom to teach gender ideology, a Thursday video revealed. Teachers are praising “Drag Queen Story Hour,” according to a clip released by videographer Sean Fitzgerald and the David Horowitz Freedom Center. The program “captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and…
    Rob Shimshock
    Read More