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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  • news

    Betsy DeVos Urges Americans to Embrace ‘Education Freedom’
    Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is calling on Americans to embrace a vision of “education freedom” that empowers students and parents with a “multitude of pathways” toward new opportunities. DeVos, speaking during a question-and-answer session Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, said one such pathway would be educational savings accounts to benefit military families who…
    Kevin Mooney
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  • news

    Education Department Won’t Investigate Transgender Bathroom Complaints
    After much speculation pertaining to the Trump administration’s official policy on transgender restroom policies, a White House spokeswoman indicated that the U.S. Department of Education won’t investigate any complaints regarding transgender restroom policies. Spokeswoman Liz Hill told BuzzFeed News that specific kinds of  transgender complaints may be investigated, but no bathroom complaints will garner the Department of…
    Grace Carr
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  • news

    Georgetown University Pro-Family Group Gets Back Money Wrongly Given to LGBT Organizations
    A pro-family student organization at Georgetown University has received its donations back after an investigation of faculty and others who the group accused of misappropriating funds contributed to it. The group, Love Saxa, said that Georgetown officials had taken private donations intended for it and deposited them into other student organizations’ accounts. The organizations who…
    Chrissy Clark
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  • opinion

    School Loses Dad-Daughter Dance Because of Gender-Neutral Policies
    Kids see plenty of offensive things at school—but when did fathers become one of them? Ask New York’s Department of Education. As far as its officials are concerned, nothing can damage a child more than hosting a special event for dads. And now, with the state’s “gender nonconforming” guidelines on the books, they can put…
    Tony Perkins
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  • opinion

    Puerto Rico’s Bold School Choice Plan Mirrors New Orleans’
    In the months following the devastation of Hurricane Maria in September, Puerto Rico has struggled to find its footing and rebuild. Unfortunately, dysfunction was already rampant in the debt-ridden territory before the storm. Now things are worse, but perhaps there is an opportunity to finally make some badly-needed changes. Bailouts and federal meddling are unlikely…
    Jarrett Stepman
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  • opinion

    Podcast: Why School Choice Matters
    Lindsey Burke, an education expert at The Heritage Foundation, joins us to discuss why parents love school choice options like education savings accounts, and her push to allow military families to choose their children’s education. Plus: As the good news about tax reform keeps coming, liberals are saying $1,000 isn’t that much.
    Katrina Trinko | Daniel Davis
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  • opinion

    Red States Drop the Ball on School Choice. Here’s Why That Needs to Change.
    Fixing our country’s system of education needs to be a priority, especially for those who have an opportunity to do something about it. In a speech Monday proclaiming National School Choice Week, President Donald Trump said, “By giving parents more control over their children’s education, we are making strides toward a future of unprecedented educational…
    Jarrett Stepman
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  • opinion

    School Choice Helped This Girl Escape a Broken School, Then Become Valedictorian
    The right to choose where your kids attend school should be common sense. But for too long, it’s something too many parents have been denied for their children. Thankfully, we live in a day when access to education choice is gaining ground. More kids across our country are now being freed from broken schools and…
    Virginia Walden Ford
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  • opinion

    Public School Assembly Tells Kids That Sex Changes Are Perfectly Normal
    A Northern Virginia public school held a school-wide assembly before Christmas break featuring transgender crusader Amy Ellis Nutt. George Mason High School in the city of Falls Church brought in Nutt, a Washington Post reporter, to lecture students on her book “Becoming Nicole,” about a boy who “identified” as a girl as a toddler, had…
    Cathy Ruse
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  • opinion

    Here’s How Bad Left-Wing Antics on Campus Were in 2017
    A frequent point I have made in past columns has been about the educational travesty happening on many college campuses. Some people have labeled my observations and concerns as trivial, unimportant, and cherry-picking. While the spring semester awaits us, let’s ask ourselves whether we’d like to see repeats of last year’s antics. An excellent source…
    Walter E. Williams
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  • opinion

    In a Harsh New Hampshire Winter, Passage of Education Savings Accounts Is a Breath of Spring
    As New Hampshire hunkers down for another brutal January, lawmakers are giving families something to look forward to once the snow melts: namely, more opportunities. The state House of Representatives on Jan. 3 voted in favor of an education savings account proposal, which would give families and students more options for where and how a child…
    Jonathan Butcher
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  • news

    University Offers ‘Problem of Whiteness’ Class, Again
    The University of Wisconsin-Madison will reintroduce a class this spring that teaches students why being white is a bad thing. The “Problem of Whiteness" course—part of the African Cultural Studies program—makes its mission to help students “understand how whiteness is socially constructed and experienced in order to help dismantle white supremacy.” The class will  investigate how white…
    Grace Carr
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  • news

    College Republicans Say Conservative Speaker Was Treated ‘Unfairly’ at Southern New Hampshire University
    Conservative activist Matt Walsh came to Southern New Hampshire University at the request of the SNHU College Republicans and the Young America’s Foundation, but Walsh and College Republicans believe his speech was not treated fairly. Walsh is a conservative columnist for the Daily Wire, a news website run by Ben Shapiro. As the day of…
    Joshua Israel
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  • opinion

    House Proposal Would Bring Needed Reforms to Higher Education. Here’s Where It Can Still Improve.
    The House Committee on Education and the Workforce introduced a bill last week, formally known as the Promoting Real Opportunity, Success and Prosperity through Education Reform (PROSPER) Act, which would reauthorize the Higher Education Act of 1965. While the bill has much to praise, it leaves significant room for improvement. Here are some of the…
    Mary Clare Amselem
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  • opinion

    Why Black Kids Get Trapped in Failing Schools
    The educational achievement of white youngsters is nothing to write home about, but that achieved by blacks is nothing less than disgraceful. Let’s look at a recent example of an educational outcome all too common. In 2016, in 13 of Baltimore’s 39 high schools, not a single student scored proficient on the state’s mathematics exam….
    Walter E. Williams
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  • news

    Portland Schools May Require Teachers Side With Transgender Students Against Parents
    Public schools in Portland, Maine, may adopt new transgender policies requiring teachers to support the wishes of a transgender student if they are at odds with those of their parents. The Portland school board was scheduled to vote Tuesday to determine whether to adopt a comprehensive policy, called the “transgender and gender expansive student policy,"…
    Grace Carr
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  • opinion

    School Worker Was Told She Could Be Fired If She Offered to Pray for Someone Again
    It was a small sentence—”I will pray for you”— but it meant big trouble for Cony High School technician Toni Richardson. When Richardson offered that comfort to another Christian on staff in private, she was hauled before school officials and warned not to utter a word about her faith again. District officials kicked off the controversy…
    Tony Perkins
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  • news

    School Choice on the Front Line for Military Families
    Men and women of the armed forces worry about their children’s education while deployed overseas, says Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Congress can do something about it. “Most people don’t realize that our national security and military readiness is significantly affected by the quality of education made available to children of service members,” Banks said…
    Casey Ryan
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  • opinion

    Hollywood Actress: Why I Homeschool My Kids
    My name is Sam Sorbo. I’m a mom to three wonderful children, and the author of “They’re YOUR Kids: An Inspirational Journey from Self-Doubter to Home School Advocate.” Home schooling seems like a radical idea—but only because we are conditioned to think of it that way. Why? Because most of us attended school. But after…
    Sam Sorbo
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  • news

    Stanford Hiring Microaggression and Implicit Bias Staffer for Medicine School
    Stanford University is hiring an employee to teach its medical school faculty about microaggressions and implicit bias, according to a Monday report. The university is hiring a “Manager of Inclusion and Culture Strategy” to host social justice trainings for its medical school faculty, as well as investigate and emphasize diversity and inclusion, reported Campus Reform. “Design training opportunities for leadership,…
    Rob Shimshock
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