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

    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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  • opinion

    These Small Changes to the PROSPER Act Could Unlock Higher Education Accreditation Reform
    “Underwater Basket Weaving,” “Tree Climbing,” the “Art of Walking.” Believe it or not, those are all courses taught at accredited colleges and universities in the United States. The modern system of accreditation, codified in the Higher Education Act of 1965, supposedly exists to ensure that taxpayer dollars do not go toward courses of questionable value….
    Mary Clare Amselem
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  • news

    Northeastern University Professor: ‘Why Can’t We Hate Men?’
    A Northeastern University professor’s Washington Post op-ed “Why Can’t We Hate Men?” has received a flood of negative feedback. Northeastern sociology professor Suzanna Danuta Walters, also director of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, authored the article published Friday, which appears to advocate contempt toward individual men, instead of institutions, and instructs men to relinquish their grasp on power. “Pledge to vote…
    Rob Shimshock
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  • news

    Kentucky Board of Education to Keep God and the Bible in Schools
    Kentucky will keep God and religion in schools after its education leaders approved a Bible standard that all public schools in the state must meet. The Kentucky Board of Education approved "Bible literary" standards in a unanimous affirmative vote that allow students to take religion and Bible classes as electives, The Associated Press reports. The classes…
    Grace Carr
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  • opinion

    We Hear You: Poor School Discipline, Hard-to-Fire Bureaucrats, Obstructive Democrats, and ‘Colluding’ Green Groups
    Editor's note: Some personal chords were struck by  Kelsey Harkness'  video report on one Maryland family's bad brush with the nation's lax school discipline policy. Their responses lead this week's roundup of comments. Write us at [email protected]—Ken McIntyre Dear Daily Signal: Bullying is a bigger problem than school officials know or will admit, as indicated…
    Ken McIntyre
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  • news

    School Board Fights to Preserve Bathroom Policy After Judge OKs Trans Student’s Lawsuit
    A Virginia public school district will pursue an appeal after a federal judge ruled that a transgender student can challenge the district’s bathroom access policies under federal civil rights law and the Constitution. Gloucester County Public Schools asked U.S. District Court Judge Arenda Wright Allen to allow its appeal on Friday. Allen’s late May decision allowing the student…
    Kevin Daley
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  • opinion

    Why There’s an Increased Interest in Homeschooling
    There’s a lot to dislike about many public schools—and right now, student safety is at the top of the list. “After a gunman opened fire on students in Parkland, Florida,” a new Washington Times feature explains, “the phones started ringing at the Texas Home School Coalition, and they haven’t stopped yet.” Like so many state organizations,…
    Tony Perkins
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  • news

    San Diego Parents Pulling Their Kids From School Over Inappropriate Sex-Ed Curriculum
    San Diego parents pulled their kids from school and rallied outside the district’s headquarters Tuesday, expressing anger and frustration over a sex-ed curriculum they allege is completely inappropriate for their young children. The sixth grade curriculum includes lessons on gender identity, birth control, the stages of sex, STDs, HIV, and pregnancy. Parents are calling the material “too much,…
    Grace Carr
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  • opinion

    Why It’s OK for This School Choice Program to Underperform on Standardized Tests
    K-12 education in the nation’s capital has struggled for decades. Yet since 2003, the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program—a voucher program open to low-income children in the District of Columbia—has been a bright spot for educational opportunity. But a new report by the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education, released Tuesday, found…
    Lindsey Burke
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  • news

    School Can Force Students to Share Bathrooms With Transgender Students, Federal Court Rules
    A Pennsylvania student said Thursday that her school opening its locker rooms, showers, and restrooms to students of the opposite sex is unfair and wrong. “There are good ways to make room for everyone, without letting a boy into the girls’ locker rooms, shower areas, or restrooms,” said Alexis Lightcap, a senior at Boyertown Area…
    Rachel del Guidice
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  • news

    Federal Court Sides With Trans Student Barred From Preferred School Bathroom
    A federal judge in Newport News, Virginia, ruled Tuesday that federal law allows a transgender teenager to sue his school district for barring his access to the bathrooms of his preference. Though the ruling is not a decision on the merits of the controversy, U.S. District Court Judge Arenda Wright Allen’s decision is a boon to the…
    Kevin Daley
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  • opinion

    Only in America’s Schools Could ‘Partying Like It’s 1776’ Be Offensive
    At the rate we are going, saying “good morning” might become offensive. The principal of Cherry Hill High School East in New Jersey issued an apology after some students deemed the public school’s prom theme, “Party Like It’s 1776,” to be insensitive. “I am writing to apologize for the hurt feelings this reference caused for…
    Jarrett Stepman
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  • news

    ‘Party Like It’s 1776’ Theme Too Offensive for New Jersey School Prom
    A New Jersey high school principal apologized Friday for a “Party Like It’s 1776” theme at prom. Dennis Perry, principal of Cherry Hill High School East, posted on his Twitter feed an apology for the theme printed on prom tickets, calling the decision “insensitive and irresponsible,” reported Fox News. “I especially apologize to our African-American students,…
    Rob Shimshock
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  • news

    Remembering Meadow: Her Family Hopes to Prevent More School Massacres
    Julie Pollack, who lost her 18-year-old stepdaughter Meadow in the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, is taking steps she hopes will prevent other students from dying in similar mass murders. Meadow Pollack, a senior, died during the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in which a 19-year-old former student with a rifle…
    Ginny Montalbano
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  • opinion

    We Hear You: Betsy DeVos ‘Headed in Right Direction’ at Education Department
    Editor's note: The Daily Signal's audience sees Betsy DeVos as a stronger champion of improved public education than her predecessors in the Obama administration, judging by reaction to our recent interviews. We begin with that topic. Don't forget to email us: [email protected].—Ken McIntyre Dear Daily Signal: Thanks for Rob Bluey's interview with Education Secretary Betsy…
    Ken McIntyre
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  • opinion

    How Homeschoolers Defeated California’s Push to Take Power From Parents
    They came by the hundreds, one newspaper said—“perhaps thousands.” Some traveled hours, others waited hours, all for the opportunity to protest one of the most outrageous homeschooling bills ever introduced: California’s AB 2756. Spilling out into crammed hallways and overflow rooms, families poured into the Statehouse just for the opportunity to spend a few minutes speaking…
    Tony Perkins
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  • opinion

    New National Test Scores Show Betsy DeVos Was Right About Public Schools
    Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ recent interview with Lesley Stahl on “60 Minutes” caused quite a bit of backlash from critics. As my colleague Jonathan Butcher has written, “60 Minutes” ignored many of the facts about the state of education in America. Response to the interview drew quite a bit of criticism of DeVos and her…
    Mary Clare Amselem
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  • news

    Purdue University Just Froze Tuition for the 7th Straight Year. Mitch Daniels Explains How.
    Purdue University President Mitch Daniels, the former governor of Indiana and director of President George W. Bush’s Office of Management and Budget, spoke exclusively to The Daily Signal’s Rob Bluey at the Reagan Institute Summit on Education on Thursday. Daniels explained how Purdue has been able to freeze its tuition for seven consecutive years and…
    Robert B. Bluey
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