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

    Seattle School District Concedes to Union, 53,000 Kids Return to School

    After a two-week standoff, Seattle Public Schools and the teachers union reached an agreement on a contract, putting an end to a strike that left 53,000 students out of class for six days. “This agreement signals a new era in bargaining in public education,” Jonathan Knapp, president of the Seattle Education Association, said in a…
    Kelsey Bolar
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    • Opinion

    Ahmed’s Clock and the Hysteria of American Schools

    Social media are ablaze with the story of 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, a student at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas. On Monday morning, the amateur inventor brought a home-made clock to school to show to a teacher. Shortly later, he was led out by the police in handcuffs. I expect they will have more to…
    William Gribbin
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    • News

    Nonprofit Health System Executive Brings After-School Chess Program to Ferguson-Florissant Schools

    An after-school chess program for 20 elementary and middle schools in the Ferguson-Florissant school district started with a simple conversation between a father and his 10-year-old son. Nick Ragone, senior vice president and chief communications and marketing officer at Ascension, the nation’s largest Catholic nonprofit health system, says the idea came to him eight weeks…
    Leah Jessen
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    • News

    Report: Four-Day School Week Leads to Improved Academic Performance

    As Labor Day abruptly marked the end of summer, arguments for a four-day workweek roiled across the Internet as a conduit to improved health and a greater quality of life. But the question of students enjoying a shorter school week has remained largely off the table because of concerns that an extended weekend would hurt…
    Natalie Johnson
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    • Opinion

    This Case Could Open Up School Choice Options for 37 States

    On Sept. 2, the Douglas County School District Board of Education filed a request for extension to the Supreme Court of the United States asking for review of the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling on its scholarship program earlier this summer. In June, the Colorado Supreme Court struck down the educational choice program on the state’s…
    Brittany Corona
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    • Opinion

    5 Worrisome Back to School Numbers

    It’s back to school time again, but before you start helping your kids out with their math homework, let’s look at some numbers that may be easier to digest—but difficult to believe: 53,000: Number of students in Seattle who did not go back to school on Wednesday as public school teachers voted to strike. This…
    Mary Clare Amselem
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    • News

    1,300 Students at Risk After State Court Invalidates Charter School Law

    A ruling by the Washington State Supreme Court overturning a 2012 voter-approved charter school law could leave about 1,300 students without a school next year. The ruling came Friday, just before Labor Day weekend. For now, the students are attending classes, but the fate of the schools is unclear. The Washington State Charter School Association has said it will find a…
    Mary Tillotson
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    • Opinion

    The Idiocy of the ACLU’s Lawsuit Against a New School Choice Option

    Another school year is underway, and more parents than ever are using school choice to ensure the best education for their children. Or should I say trying to use it? Some groups, after all, are trying to thwart them. Who, you ask? Just ask parents in Nevada. The Silver State is one of five nationwide…
    Ed Feulner
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    • News

    San Francisco Elementary School Creates ‘Gender-Neutral’ Bathrooms

    A San Francisco elementary school has created gender-neutral bathrooms for its students in kindergarten and first grade, the “Today” show reported Friday. Miraloma Elementary School decided to transform two single-stall facilities that had been divided by gender in the classroom into two gender-neutral facilities. Now, any student can use either bathroom.   School officials defended the…
    Kate Scanlon
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    • News

    Does This School’s Transgender Bathroom Policy Violate Student Privacy?

    A Missouri school district is under fire for allowing students to use restrooms and locker rooms designated for the opposite sex. Alliance Defending Freedom has sent a letter to the Hillsboro R-3 School District asking the board of education to change its recent decision.  “Protecting students from inappropriate exposure to the opposite sex is not only perfectly legal, it’s a school…
    Kate Scanlon
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    • News

    How One Catholic School Found Faith in the Floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina

    NEW ORLEANS—When Hurricane Katrina left Mount Carmel Academy under 10 feet of water, many thought the school would be gone forever. Located in the Lakeview neighborhood, among the hardest hit areas in New Orleans, the all-girls Catholic high school was trapped between two breaks in the levees that were supposed to protect the city. The…
    Kelsey Bolar
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    • News

    Here’s How Hurricane Katrina Changed Schools in New Orleans

    NEW ORLEANS—For all its devastation, Hurricane Katrina swept into this city an opportunity to embark on one of the greatest education experiments in America. In the aftermath of the 2005 storm, instead of rebuilding a public school system where roughly two in every three schools were deemed “failing,” the city transformed almost all of its…
    Kelsey Bolar
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    • Opinion

    Hope for Education in America: “Disruptive Innovation” and Education Savings Accounts

    How exactly does a new and innovative product, perhaps dismissed at first as marginal or impracticable, become a major player in a market? It doesn’t tend to happen the same way that established products gain market share. So-called sustaining innovations occur within a market’s established competitors and make existing products more effective (and sometimes more…
    Molly Field
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    • News

    Father Forced to Quit His Job Says School Voucher ‘Got Me My Son Back’

    For years, Kirk and Tanya White thought New Orleans public schools didn't work for their two sons. They got their eldest son, Geno, into a private school under a city education initiative, but his father says it turned out the new school also was failing by Louisiana's own standards. Then Geno hit a low point when he was…
    Kelsey Bolar
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    • News

    A Big Week in Education: Congress Considers No Child Left Behind Rewrites

    Eight years after the program technically expired, Congress is finally debating an update of the contentious No Child Left Behind Act, which poured an avalanche of federal programs and testing standards on public schools across the U.S. The House’s update of No Child Left Behind, called the Student Success Act, will be the topic of…
    Natalie Johnson
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    • News

    Why ‘Cookie Cutter’ Public Schools Don’t Cut It For This Mom of Seven

    Liz Robbins was caught off-guard when a Washington, D.C., area code appeared on her phone. “I apologize,” she said. “With the surgery … I had been emotional right before you called.” Robbins was answering the phone from Henderson, Nev., a short drive from Las Vegas. When the 202 area showed up, she thought it was…
    Kelsey Bolar
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    • Opinion

    How to Make the Government Pay for the Perfect Education for Your Kid

    Imagine being able to create a tailored, made-to-order education for your child. Perhaps you know that the private school one neighborhood over has an excellent high school mathematics program. It allows students who don’t attend full time to take individual courses there, so your daughter takes an Algebra II class there three days a week….
    Lindsey Burke
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    • News

    Chris Christie: ‘There Are Solutions’ to Education Reform

    AMES, Iowa—New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie laid out his education platform at Iowa State University this morning. If America wants to remain a force in education, Christie told a crowd of about 200 people, policy should be centered on three things. Christie said: “We need accountability. We need competition. And we need choice.” Christie, who…
    Leah Jessen
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    • News

    Eyeing Supreme Court Gay Marriage Case, Mike Lee Unveils Bill Protecting Religious Schools

    In anticipation of the Supreme Court’s impending decision on the gay marriage case, Sen. Mike Lee is attempting to protect religious non-profits by passing legislation that would prohibit the federal government from “discriminating” against faith-based institutions. “Discrimination by private parties against private parties—that’s one issue,” Lee told a small group of reporters today in a…
    Kelsey Bolar
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    • News

    These 4 Graphics Tell the Story of School Choice

    Earlier this week, professor Patrick Wolf of the University of Arkansas made the case for school choice in Washington, D.C. Based on his research, The Daily Signal pulled out data to tell the story visually.
    Kelsey Lucas
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