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

    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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    • Opinion

    Here’s the Data to Prove School Choice Is Working

    Private school choice initiatives have become increasingly common across the United States. Far from being rare and untested, private school choice policies are an integral part of the fabric of American education policy. In the United States today, 56 different school choice policies exist in 28 states plus the District of Columbia, and the number of…
    Patrick Wolf
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    • News

    Congress Goes to High School: Students Get a Firsthand Look at Debate Over School Choice

    Archbishop Carroll High School, a private Catholic school about four miles north of the U.S. Capitol, today took center stage in the debate over school choice. “When parents have better choices, their kids have a better chance,” says @SenatorTimScott More than 100 students joined teachers and parents in the high school’s auditorium to watch members…
    Robert B. Bluey
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    • News

    Should Religious Organizations Be Allowed to Worship in Schools? NYC Mayor Reconsiders City’s Policy

    The same week a national debate swept through the nation surrounding Indiana’s decision to adopt a religious freedom law, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a historic lawsuit regarding a New York City policy that plaintiffs say is discriminatory toward religious organizations. The case, Bronx Household of Faith v. Board of Education…
    Kelsey Bolar
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    • Opinion

    Education Savings Accounts Sweep the Nation

    Education savings accounts (ESAs) have become the way forward for states wishing to adopt innovative school choice measures. ESAs enable parents to completely customize their child’s education to his individual needs. According to the Foundation for Excellence in Education, 22 state legislatures are considering ESAs for the 2015 school year. That is serious traction for…
    Lindsey Burke
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    • News

    Should Catholic Schools Be Forced to Fund LGBT Student Groups?

    Religiously affiliated schools in the nation’s capital could soon be forced to formally fund and recognize student groups like LGBT organizations, whose mission conflicts with the schools’ religious beliefs. The measure in question, called The Human Rights Amendment Act of 2014, is one of two pieces of legislation passed by the D.C. Council that supporters…
    Kelsey Bolar
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    • Opinion

    This 11-Year-Old Boy Was Suspended … for Bringing a Leaf to School

    A school in Virginia suspended an 11-year-old boy for 364 days after he brought a leaf to class that resembled marijuana. One problem: It was not marijuana, and the school knew this—but still suspended him for almost a year anyway. The sixth-grade son of Bruce and Linda Bays attended Bedford Middle School and was in…
    Jordan Richardson
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    • Opinion

    What This Homeschool Mom Thinks About How the Government Regulates Homeschooling

    If millions of Americans are doing it, the conventional wisdom among government bureaucrats is that somebody ought to regulate it. Look no further than the growing movement known as homeschooling. It’s estimated that upwards of 3 million school age children in America are now foregoing the traditional schoolhouse, public or private, and getting their education…
    Genevieve Wood
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    • News

    An Education Issue That Has the NAACP and Republicans Working Together

    Conservatives in Virginia have teamed up with an unlikely ally to lobby for legislation that would allow parents of disabled children to design an à la carte education tailored for their child’s specific needs. The bill, proposed by Delegate David LaRock, a Republican representing Virginia’s 33rd District, has the backing of the NAACP Virginia State…
    Kelsey Bolar
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