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

    About 1 Million Kids Are Now Eating Dinner at School
    First came lunch, then breakfast. Now, schools are serving dinner, too. Should schools feed students dinner before they go home? There’s a growing demand for schools to feed students dinner before they come home, according to the Associated Press. Many low-income students are already provided with breakfast and lunch while they are at school. As…
    Kate Scanlon
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  • opinion

    What Parents Really Think About Their Kids’ New School Lunches
    School lunch standards have changed—and not for the better. This was evident recently in a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #ThanksMichelleObama. Students took photos of their mostly inedible-looking lunch trays of food. >>> These Gross School Lunch Pictures Are Going Viral With the Hashtag #ThanksMichelleObama Yum school lunches #thanksmichelleobama pic.twitter.com/eS27j75Oae — Jess (@Jess_Sency) November 18, 2014…
    Ericka Andersen
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  • opinion

    Government Shouldn’t Force Religious Schools to Violate Religious Beliefs
    Just before the Christmas break, the D.C. City Council passed a law that could force pro-life organizations to pay for abortion coverage. But that wasn’t the only piece of bad legislation, violating religious liberty which came out of the D.C. Council in December. A new bill might force Christian schools to recognize an LGBT student…
    Ryan T. Anderson
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  • news

    Nation’s Eighth Largest School District Faces Big Questions
    This is could be a landmark year for Philadelphia schools. From the results of an anticipated state audit to the expansion of its charter program, the district faces important changes in 2015 that will affect the quality of education and help drive spending in the face of a massive deficit. Here are the five biggest…
    Evan Grossman
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  • news

    State-Run University Under Fire for Sloppy Fiscal Practices, Improperly Hiking Student Fees
    As if the University of Virginia didn’t have enough of a negative spotlight, a new audit finds Thomas Jefferson’s institution isn’t keeping tight reins on all of its money and property. The university, located in Charlottesville, improperly awarded no-bid contracts, eliminated competitive bids by separating purchases, nixed $72,0000 worth of forklifts from its asset records…
    Kathryn Watson
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  • news

    School Stops Seventh-Grader From Distributing Fliers for Religious Event
    A Kansas school blocked a seventh-grader from handing out fliers inviting students to join her in prayer at the school’s flagpole. Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano called the school’s ban “so obviously wrong and misguided,” noting that students “theoretically” have the same constitutional rights as anyone else. “Schools can restrain speech if the…
    Natalie Johnson
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  • opinion

    Former Catholic School Teacher Fired for Violating Catholic Teaching Awarded $1.95M, Mostly for Hurt Feelings
    It is no secret that the Catholic Church teaches that birth control, abortion and in vitro fertilization are morally wrong. It is also no secret that many Americans who self-identify as Catholic also see no moral problem with these things. While regulated, these things are legal throughout the United States. But can a Catholic diocese…
    Andrew Kloster
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  • opinion

    ‘Public Education’ Should Fund Any Education, Not Just Government-Run Schools
    “Are you saying public education is just a funding mechanism? … Is all education now public [and parents] can just choose?” asked Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Nancy Rice during oral arguments over the constitutionality of Douglas County’s Choice Scholarship Pilot Program. The case has brought forth a question that has been at the forefront…
    Brittany Corona
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  • news

    State-Run University Spent $96,000 on First-Class Airline Tickets
    LINCOLN, Neb. — The University of Nebraska has been dinged by the state auditor for allowing employees to spend nearly $96,000 on 20 first-class flights around the world, book $300-a-night oceanfront resort rooms for a week and get reimbursed for alcohol while traveling, in violation of state law. While digging through travel records, auditors found…
    Deena Winter
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  • news

    Watch This 10-Year-Old Explain Common Core to Her School Board: ‘It Stinks’
    Elizabeth Blaine, a 10-year-old from New Jersey, doesn’t like Common Core. Why? “Because it stinks,” the fourth-grader told school board members Monday night in Montclair, N.J., during a meeting on the national standards. Silencing everyone in the room, Blaine was critical of the assessment group known as PARCC, arguing that she should have the option…
    Kelsey Bolar
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  • news

    Pakistani Nation Must Unite Against Terrorists Following Attack on Schoolchildren
    Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership must do what is necessary to rid the nation of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, the Pakistani Taliban), the group claiming responsibility for today’s abominable attack on a Pakistani school that left more than 100 children dead. Nine TTP gunmen stormed the Army Public School and Degree College in Peshawar Tuesday…
    Lisa Curtis
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  • news

    How Savings Accounts Are Providing a Tailor-Made Education for Students
    Kami Cothrun was a frustrated public school teacher when she decided to open a school of her own. She “saw a need” and decided to act. What started out as a small endeavor with just six students has blossomed into three Arizona campuses with 200 special-needs students. "I really wanted to offer something different to…
    Kate Scanlon
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  • news

    This State Made It Legal to Say ‘Merry Christmas’ in Public Schools
    Merry Christmas, Texas! A Texas lawmaker wants to remind students and teachers in the state’s public schools that they may wish others a “Merry Christmas” or a “Happy Hanukkah” without fear of legal ramifications. State Rep. Dwayne Bohac, R-Houston, the author of the Merry Christmas Law, held a joint press conference with state Rep. Richard…
    Kate Scanlon
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  • news

    Minn. Schools Held GMO Awareness Day
    MINNETRISTA, Minn. — Just when the backlash over First Lady Michelle Obama’s school lunch menu leveled off, students in a handful of Twin Cities schools got a taste of what could be another controversial food fad. The main course? Non-GMO (genetically modified organisms) meals. “Having the GMO awareness day for our district was to really…
    Tom Steward
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  • opinion

    In 9 States, Legislators Consider Making High School Students Pass Citizenship Test
    Should high school students have to pass the citizenship test? The Civics Education Initiative, an Arizona-based non-profit group, is pushing for legislation in Arizona, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico,  North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah that would require all high school students to pass the same test that immigrants applying for U.S. citizenship…
    Heath Hansen
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  • news

    School Lunches Evoke Strong Feelings: Here’s What You Had to Say
    Schools across America are celebrating Thanksgiving with their annual feast of turkey and vegetables. And this year, students are giving thanks in another way—with a touch of sarcasm. First lady Michelle Obama, champion of healthy eating, was on the receiving end of the "thanks" when students shared photos of their unappetizing lunches and skimpy servings. my school lunch…
    Robert B. Bluey
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  • news

    Study: Kids Don’t Eat Much of Healthy School Lunches
    Healthier lunches have become available in schools across the nation. But students aren’t eating them. According to a new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study, “Nearly 6 in 10 [students] put a vegetable on their tray, but only a quarter actually eat even a single bite.” The researchers observed the eating habits of…
    Kate Scanlon
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  • news

    Mom Questions School for Portraying Muslims as More Faithful Than Christians
    Is the faith of most Muslims “stronger” than that of the typical Christian? That’s what one public high school in North Carolina apparently is teaching students. Outraged over the “correct” answers to her son’s ninth-grade assignment about Islam, a mother in Union County, N.C., turned to local news reporters to shed light on his school’s…
    Kelsey Bolar
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  • news

    High School Bans Students From Holding Prayer Group in Free Time
    A Colorado high school banned a group of students from praying, singing Christian songs, and discussing religious topics in their free time. Citing “separation of church and state,” officials at Pine Creek High School told Chase Windebank, a senior, that he and his classmates no longer were allowed to use an unoccupied choir room for…
    Kelsey Bolar
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  • news

    Groups Ask School Districts to Reconsider Transgender Restroom Policies
    MADISON, Wis. — Sparta Area School District Superintendent John Hendricks has had little to say about his proposal to allow transgender students to use school restrooms of the gender with which they identify. When asked why he proposed gender identity guidelines for his district, Hendricks said only that he thinks “it’s always advisable for an…
    Adam Tobias
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