Education Policy & School Reform News

An Oklahoma student has sparked outrage about federal school lunch guidelines after taking a picture of her meager lunch. Kaytlin Shelton’s lunch consisted of a few slices of lunch meat, a slice of cheese, two small packages of crackers and two pieces of cauliflower. The lunch is particularly small for Shelton, 17, who is eight…

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Students attending Sarasota County public schools might be wondering, “Where’s the beef?” The answer won’t be found between two buns, at least not on Mondays. Sarasota County Schools kicked off a Meatless Monday campaign last week, nixing traditional protein-packed food items for vegetarian substitutes. The program is part of “a popular international movement … to promote…

High school students in Long Island, N.Y., were recently denied the right to establish a club for Christian students by their school administrators. This marks the second time they’ve run into trouble. Last year, John Raney, a 17-year-old student at Ward Melville High School, created Students United in Faith as an extracurricular club where Christian…

LINCOLN, Neb.—A middle school employee gave teachers training documents advising them not to use “gendered expressions” by calling students “boys and girls” or “ladies and gentlemen,” but to instead use more generic expressions such as campers, readers, athletes or even purple penguins to be more “gender inclusive.” A handout called “12 easy steps on the way…

Post by Donald Zolan. An atheist group has demanded that an Oklahoma school remove a poster from its main office–but the school district said “no.” For the last 18 years, a poster based on a painting, “Faith in America” by Donald Zolan, has been displayed in the main office of Kenneth Cooper Middle School in…

Seventh grader Kayla Gillman loves math. She doesn’t love Common Core math. Thanks to Common Core, her Sacramento, Calif., middle school, Turlock Junior High, only offers one one math course for seventh grade students and one math class for eighth grade students. Gillman says it’s not challenging enough, and parents are requesting additional classes that…

Officials at Western New Mexico University say a controversial questionnaire that sparked complains elsewhere in the country because it asked students about their sex lives and drinking habits will be administered only after it’s been vetted by WNMU’s administration. “We are going to review the questions more carefully going forward,” WNMU public information officer Abe Villareal said Tuesday after…

Administrators at a South Carolina high school confiscated American flags from students’ trucks on 9/11 as part of a rule preventing students from calling “an unusual amount of attention to oneself.” On the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, four students at Woodruff High School arrived at school with large American flags propped…

Five years ago, a group of atheist and agnostic students launched a campaign to hire a nonreligious chaplain at Tufts University. With the recent addition of a university-funded “humanist in residence,’ it appears their prayers—or lack thereof—have finally been answered. The new position is believed to be the first-ever university-funded campus chaplain catering to atheist,…

If the world does not destroy the terrorist group ISIS, former British Defense Secretary Liam Fox said today, “they will become the University of Jihad, ready and willing to export their graduates to wherever they can do the greatest damage.” Fox, speaking at The Heritage Foundation, also addressed global economics, Russian aggression in Ukraine and…

This year, more than 50,000 unaccompanied children have crossed the southern border into the U.S. If you’re wondering where they’ve gone, you may need to look no further than the classrooms of your local public school. On May 8, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to local…

MADISON, Wis. — School choice in Wisconsin now has a big voice advocating for it. The American Federation for Children, “the nation’s voice for educational choice,” this week announced the launch of Wisconsin Federation for Children. Officials of AFC, which has been active in Wisconsin for a decade, say the launch of the local campaign…