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

    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
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    • 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
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    • 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
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    • 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
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    • 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
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    • 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
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    • 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
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    • 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
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    • News

    Summit for High Schoolers Aims to Inspire ‘Leaders of Tomorrow’

    Conservative high schoolers learned how to “go out and speak their mind” during a summit in Washington designed to groom them for leadership roles, a young proponent of the Second Amendment who helped organize the gathering told The Daily Signal. “The sheer intensity and numbers that we have been able to get is a representation…
    Ginny Montalbano
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    • Opinion

    Podcast: A High Schooler Goes to Washington

    On today’s edition of The Daily Signal podcast, Rob Bluey and Ginny Montalbano interview high school student Genna Montalbano (Ginny’s younger sister) about her experience at Turning Point USA’s High School Leadership Summit. Genna reveals her favorite conservative speakers and what advice she’ll share with her peers. We also have: Clips from Attorney General Jeff Sessions,…
    Rob Bluey
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    • News

    Sen. David Perdue to High Schoolers: ‘Don’t Be Embarrassed to Be Conservative’

    The only Fortune 500 CEO currently in the U.S. Senate, David Perdue, told a gathering of conservative high school students Tuesday not to be embarrassed because of their views. “You do not have to be embarrassed to be conservative,” Perdue, R-Ga., said. “This agenda works, what we believe in works.” The world “is changing dramatically,”…
    Jeremiah Poff
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    • News

    ‘A Threat to Our Freedom’: Jeff Sessions Warns of Hostile Environment on College Campuses

    Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke to students Tuesday at the Turning Point USA High School Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. He also joined The Daily Signal for an exclusive interview about his views on free speech and the Department of Justice's recent actions on the issue. An edited transcript of the interview is below. Rob Bluey: Attorney General…
    Rob Bluey
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    • News

    Liberal Groups Get 160 Times More Money Than Conservative Ones at This School

    Left-wing student groups at the University of Oregon receive over 160 times more money than conservative groups, a new study reveals. Funds distributed by the student government of the University of Oregon to campus groups come partially from mandatory student fees paid by the students, The College Fix reported. “Student groups are allocated money through the…
    Rob Shimshock
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    • News

    Citizenship Is No Longer Required to Vote in San Francisco School Board Elections

    Noncitizens can vote in San Francisco’s Board of Education elections after the city’s Department of Elections ruled Monday to do away with citizenship requirements. Noncitizens seeking to vote in San Francisco’s Board of Education elections must be at least 18 years old and residents of the city, CBS SF Bay Area reported Monday. They must also…
    Grace Carr
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    • News

    Freedom From Religion Foundation Tries to Bully School Into Removing Prayer From Graduation

    The Freedom From Religion Foundation accused a Tennessee school of violating constitutional law by allowing prayer at its graduation ceremony, but the school won’t budge. Christopher Line, legal fellow with FFRF, wrote in a letter to Catoosa County Schools district that Ringgold High School should not have permitted public prayer at their May graduation ceremony, claiming…
    Joshua Gill
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    • Opinion

    Eliminating Identity Politics From the Schools and the US Census

    Just in time for the Fourth of July, the Trump administration announced it is rescinding Obama administration policies that directed universities to use racial preferences in the admissions process. Because this type of discrimination is the gateway drug of the identity politics balkanizing America, Tuesday’s decision is a boost for unity and a setback for…
    Mike Gonzalez
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    • News

    Legal Group Appeals Ruling That Backed Opening School’s Restrooms, Locker Rooms to Transgender Students

    A conservative legal organization is asking the full 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the May ruling of a three-judge panel against school privacy in upholding a Pennsylvania school’s opening of its locker rooms, showers, and restrooms to students of the opposite sex. “The U.S. Supreme Court has already spoken: The real differences…
    Rachel del Guidice
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    • Opinion

    Against Parents’ Wishes, School District on the Radar of LGBT Group Imposes New Sex Ed

    Most Americans have probably never heard of Fairfax County, Virginia—but their children could be the next victims of its latest policy. That’s because the 10th-largest school district in the country rewrote the rules on sex ed—and the LGBT activists who helped are about to take the model everywhere. It was one of the fiercest debates…
    Tony Perkins
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    • Opinion

    Court’s Janus Ruling Is a Win for Teachers’ Rights and School Choice

    In a win for individual liberty, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled, in a much-anticipated decision in Janus v. AFSCME, that public employees will no longer be required to pay involuntary agency fees to special-interest groups. The 5-4 decision overturns the 1977 Supreme Court ruling in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, which upheld agency…
    Jude Schwalbach
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    • News

    University Settles Lawsuit After Discriminating Against Republicans

    A Washington university is shelling out big bucks to settle a dispute with a Republican student group that filed a lawsuit alleging the school discriminated against it by charging exorbitant security fees for speaker events. The University of Washington settled with the university’s College Republicans Monday, agreeing to pay $122,500 to make the lawsuit go away….
    Grace Carr
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