Education Policy & School Reform News

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A California mom's lawsuit against the school district that helped her daughter identify as a boy without her knowledge could block the enforcement of a new California law that mandates schools hide students' so-called gender identities from parents.   The Center for American Liberty first filed a lawsuit against Chico Unified School…

In herdlike fashion, the media describe Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as “folksy,” suggesting that he is just a regular guy with whom Middle America can identify easily. Supporters on social media liken the Democrat to a cool grandpa. Judging from his education policies, however, Walz would be like your folksy grandpa only if you are…

Back-to-school season is here, and with the recent examples of race-based classroom activities and sexually charged curriculum in schools nationwide, parents are right to wonder what their students will be taught this fall. A recent commentary by an education reporter about his own children revealed that last year his sixth grader had no homework, spelling…

It may still be the dog days of summer, but parents, students, and educators everywhere are already looking to the start of the school year. And this year will bring one massive change to schools and colleges across the country. On Aug. 1, President Joe Biden’s Department of Education is set to enforce its massive…

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A Denver high school allows students to take classes such as Queer Literature and Gender Studies to earn a “Seal of Diversity” award. Students can submit a short, five-minute application to be part of the program, then take “diversity, equity, and inclusion”-related classes and engage with a DEI-related club or organization…

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Students in a Southern California school district could be forced to choose between rooming with a transgender-identifying student or missing out on an overnight school field trip.  If parents complain about their child rooming with a transgender-identifying student of the opposite biological sex, staff in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District listen…

A Virginia court ruled Wednesday that students can challenge unconstitutional “transgender” pronoun and bathroom policies. “We are pleased with the court’s decision recognizing that students can, in fact, challenge unconstitutional policies implemented by school boards in Virginia,” America First Legal attorney Andrew Block told The Daily Signal. Fairfax County Public Schools in Northern Virginia requires…

A congressional committee’s recent vote should be a message to taxpayers: Yes, it is possible to close the U.S. Department of Education. The House Appropriations Committee approved a proposal to cut an entire program from the agency, demonstrating how lawmakers can downsize and then eliminate the department. The Appropriations Committee voted to defund Title II,…

Party platforms are a way of signaling to voters the policies that politicians are likely to pursue if they’re elected to office. But platforms also send a message to a party’s candidates about what policy positions the party expects them to support. If elected officials go against their own party’s platform, they might expect to…

Rep. Byron Donalds made a case for school choice in a speech Monday on the opening night of the Republican National Convention.  The Florida Republican talked about his own story of growing up poor, while his mother pushed to ensure he had a good education. But he said too many children today are trapped in…

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A Southern California school district trains counselors to help students hide their transgender identity from their concerned parents, according to documents obtained by The Daily Signal. Capistrano Unified School District in southern Orange County, California, allows students to change their name and gender in school records without parental permission. The Individual…

Parents Defending Education filed a lawsuit on April 29 against the Biden administration’s reinterpretation of Title IX allowing males in female sports and private spaces. The parental rights organization joined the Independent Women’s Forum, Speech First, and the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina in challenging President Joe Biden’s rule change to the 1972 federal law that prohibits…

The Founding Fathers recognized that an educated citizenry was vital to the survival of our republic. Thomas Jefferson, for example, saw education as essential to giving every citizen the opportunity to participate meaningfully in a free society. Writing in 1818, our third president described public education as “the means to give every citizen the information he…

As we celebrate our independence on the Fourth of July, Americans would do well to reflect upon what’s necessary for a nation conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, to long endure. A free people requires an education in the civic knowledge and virtues necessary to preserve liberty….

The editor-in-chief and publisher of the Tennessee Star was ordered to appear in court last week and threatened with charges of contempt after his news website reported on an anonymously leaked collection of documents authored by Nashville mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale. Michael Patrick Leahy was joined by his attorneys in court on Monday for…

School choice should empower parents to select education options that align with their values, but many charter schools fail in this regard, experts warn. “School choice should yield schools with values that are aligned with those of parents,” Jay Greene, senior research fellow in the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, told The Daily Signal…

A parental rights group successfully helped delay a Colorado school board’s vote on what parents call a radical transgender policy for students. The Colorado Parent Advocacy Network and its allies gathered 335 signatures in only six hours on its petition to delay the Douglas County Board of Education’s vote on the proposal to classify female-only…

The San Francisco public schools allow students to change their preferred name and pronouns at school without the knowledge or consent of their parents.  San Francisco United School District’s LGBTQ Student Services department offers guidance on “Changing Your Name and/or Gender” in the district’s systems. The document offers a note “for students to think about,”…

A Colorado school district uses a form asking staff whether a student’s parents know their child identifies as transgender and support that decision. St. Vrain Valley Schools, in a Denver suburb, developed a so-called Gender Identity Guidance form for “counselors, interventionists, and administrators to support students dealing with issues related to gender identification.” The document,…

A Catholic school’s ability to operate in accord with its faith is in jeopardy.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit heard oral arguments June 11 in St. Joseph Parish v. Nessel. The case involves St. Joseph Catholic School in Saint Johns, Michigan, which is asking the court to protect its ability to…