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

    Dispute Over Islam Homework Assignment Raises Questions About Public School Curriculum

    A local dispute over a high school homework assignment made national headlines when parents in Virginia complained that a teacher was attempting to “indoctrinate” their children with the Muslim religion. “The sheet she gave out was pure doctrine in its origin,” Kimberly Herndon, mother of a 9th grade boy at the high school, told ABC affiliate…
    Kelsey Bolar
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    • News

    School District Casts Out Bible Verses From ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’

    Elementary school students in Johnson County, Ky., performed a version of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” purged of Bible verses after the school district barred religious references in holiday programs. School district officials censored the Thursday night performance of the play at W.R. Castle Elementary School, along with other Christmas productions, after receiving a lone complaint about mentions of religion in…
    Natalie Johnson
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    • Opinion

    Should Religious Schools Be Allowed to Enforce Their Religious Mission?

    Wheaton College is a private college in the suburbs of Chicago with the following mission statement: Wheaton College serves Jesus Christ and advances His Kingdom through excellence in liberal arts and graduate programs that educate the whole person to build the church and benefit society worldwide. When a professor wore a hijab to show solidarity…
    Andrew Kloster
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    • News

    Liberty University Allows Concealed Carry in Student Dorms

    A revision to Liberty University’s weapons policy will allow concealed carrying of firearms in dorms—the only area on campus where concealed carry wasn’t already permitted. Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr. said students of the Christian university in Lynchburg, Va., will be required to have a concealed carry permit and obtain approval from the university’s police department. He announced…
    Joshua Gill
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    • Opinion

    Study Finds School Choice Increases Integration in Schools

    After decades of initiatives in American public schools to close the achievement gap, the gap between low-income and non-minority students persists. A new study by the Friedman Foundation suggests that school choice may be our best tool for narrowing gaps and increasing integration in schools. In the study, titled “The Integration Anomaly: Comparing the Effects of…
    Blair Kacynski
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    • News

    Two Christian Schools Denied Prayer Over PA System at State Football Championship

    Representatives of two Christian high schools in Florida were not allowed to say a prayer over a loudspeaker before a state championship game. Cambridge Christian School in Tampa and University Christian School in Jacksonville agreed to have a public prayer said before their 2A state championship game kickoff Friday in Orlando. Florida’s high school athletic association, the host…
    Leah Jessen
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    • News

    College President Tells Students to ‘Grow Up’ Because Campus Not Meant to Be ‘Safe Space’

    As debate heats up over “safe spaces” at campuses across the United States, one college president is standing up to students who claim they’re victims when their opinions are challenged. Everett Piper, president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, called on students to “grow up” after he got a complaint from an undergraduate who felt “victimized” following an on-campus sermon on love. In a letter…
    Natalie Johnson
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    • Opinion

    Federal Intervention in Schools Looks to Remain in Force Through Possible No Child Left Behind Deal

    House and Senate proposals to rewrite No Child Left Behind are set to head into conference early next week, and details about an agreement struck between House and Senate offices have begun to emerge. As expected, the proposal adopts many of the priorities of Senate policymakers, further weakening any efforts to limit federal intervention in…
    Lindsey Burke
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    • Opinion

    Can Opposing Same-Sex Marriage Get You Fired at Marquette University?

    MADISON, Wis.—John McAdams remains in professional limbo at his Jesuit school. The long-time Marquette University political science professor at the center of one of the most controversial academic freedom cases in higher education continues to wait for a faculty hearing committee’s decision on his professional fate. Marquette has said it intends to fire McAdams because of his blog post a…
    M.D. Kittle
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    • Opinion

    How a 1800s Anti-Catholic Law Is Ruining Kids’ Chance at a Quality Education

    “Dismal.” “A train wreck.” That’s how people have characterized the results of this year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress. The NAEP assesses fourth and eighth-graders’ performance in reading and math every other year. Test results had been trending upward since the early 1990s, but the results released last month indicated a drop in both math…
    Mary Clare Amselem
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    • News

    They Claimed Giving All Students Free School Lunches Would Raise Test Scores. Here’s What Happened.

    In 2014, education leaders ranging from the U.S. secretary of education down to local school officials promised that kids would do better if districts adopted a federal program that provides no-cost lunches to students regardless of financial need. It hasn’t worked out that way in Chattanooga, Tenn. Board members in charge of the Hamilton County School System voted…
    Chris Butler
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    • News

    As School Meals Have Gotten Healthier, 1.4 Million Students Drop Out of School Lunch Program

    Michelle Obama’s healthy school meal standards have scored not too tasty. Over a span of three school years, 1.4 million children dropped out of the National School Lunch Program, reports the Government Accountability Office (GAO). While the first lady’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act has brought healthier items to lunch trays, sugary and salty foods that…
    Leah Jessen
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    • News

    How Dennis Prager’s Conservative Online University Reaches Millions

    Radio host Dennis Prager and his business partner Allen Estrin had a big problem on their hands. It was October, 2013. Several years earlier, the duo—friends for decades—co-founded PragerU, a small digital university for conservatives with a modest audience. Now, a stranger was suing them. The man, a photographer in Ireland, alleged through a Houston…
    Madaline Donnelly
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    • Opinion

    Is Planned Parenthood Targeting Schoolchildren?

    Why is Planned Parenthood interested in a local school board election in the battleground state of Colorado? That is what parents and voters are asking themselves in Jefferson County, Colo., this week after Planned Parenthood waded into a local recall election aimed at ousting three Republican school board officials in the middle of their terms….
    Jennifer Kerns
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    • Opinion

    This School District Is Standing Up to the Federal Government’s Bullying Over Transgender Students and Locker Rooms

    When it comes to locker rooms, does a public school have the right to say it should be restricted to of the students of the same physiological sex? Right now, a school district north of Chicago is squaring off with the federal government on that question. Township High School District 211, like many school districts,…
    Katrina Trinko
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    • News

    Boehner’s D.C. School Choice Program Passed by House: ‘We Owe the Kids in This City a Chance’

    Speaker John Boehner cinched victory Wednesday as House Republicans smoothly extended his linchpin private school voucher program for low-income students through 2021. The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program provides students in Washington’s struggling school districts with federally backed vouchers to attend a private school of choice. The House confirmed its reauthorization Wednesday evening in a near…
    Natalie Johnson
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    • Opinion

    It’s Time for a Change in Education Funding

    “We must provide a good education for every boy and girl—no matter where he lives,” President Lyndon B. Johnson declared in 1964. President Johnson sought and ultimately secured passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which would be a major element of the education component of his War on Poverty. Ineffective Title I…
    Blair Kacynski
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    • Opinion

    Cementing a School Choice Legacy in the Nation’s Capital

    I spend an enormous amount of time thinking (and worrying) about the children of Washington, D.C. Advocating for quality educational opportunities for them has been a priority in my life since the late 1990s. With Speaker John Boehner’s announcement of his decision to step down, I automatically began to reflect on the 10-plus years we…
    Virginia Walden Ford
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    • Opinion

    ‘You’re It’: School District Bans Tag During Recess

    Update: According to The Seattle Times, “[t]he Mercer Island School District reinstated the game of tag following an outcry from parents” on September 25, 2015. A school district in Washington state has banned tag, the popular game, because it’s too violent for today’s children. School district officials told a local television station that students are…
    Eric Boehm
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    • Opinion

    Boehner’s Final Push for Parental Choice in Education

    Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, who will retire at the end of October, will not be leaving office without one final push for parental choice in education. Boehner has been a strong supporter of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP), which was the first bill he presented to Congress as Speaker of the…
    Mary Clare Amselem
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