Education News
Reports on education reform, school choice, and classroom policies. The Daily Signal provides conservative commentary and opinion alongside education news.
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news
Legal Issues Cloud Missouri School District’s Race-Based Hiring
A Missouri school district intends to double its percentage of minority teachers even as the state’s attorney general has warned that private companies that racially discriminate in hiring face legal action. Webster Groves School District’s teaching and administrative staff should match the racial demographics of its student body, according to the Missouri school system’s strategic… -
news
EXCLUSIVE: Mom Sues School District For Socially Transitioning 12-Year-Old Girl Without Parental Consent
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A New York school district socially transitioned a girl without her mother’s consent, repeatedly lying to the mother about the child’s mental health and social struggles, according to a new lawsuit. Represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, Jennifer Vitsaxaki of New York filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Skaneateles Central School District… -
news
New Jersey Dad Sues School Over Daughter’s Secret Gender Transition
A father is suing a Garden State school district after his daughter’s gender transition was allegedly kept a secret from him. The father, who is remaining anonymous to protect his daughter’s identity, found that New Jersey’s Delaware Valley Regional High School had been calling his daughter by a male name and male pronouns for at least two… -
opinion
Virginia May Be a Purple State, but Many of Its Colleges Are ‘Social Justice’ Blue
Virginia is a very purple state, evenly divided between conservatives and liberals, but its universities are not equally balanced ideologically. A simple way to gauge how “woke” universities are is to search for certain terms in their course catalogs. The more “woke” words that appear in the titles and descriptions of courses and programs, the… -
opinion
School Choice Revolution Empowers Homeschoolers, Too
A school choice revolution is sweeping the nation. Ten states have passed universal education choice initiatives in the past two years. In addition to private school tuition, most of these new programs allow families to use their children’s taxpayer-funded education dollars to cover certain homeschool expenses. The loudest and most influential pushback against school choice comes from… -
news
Florida University System Removes ‘Left-Wing’ Sociology Course From Core Requirements
The 17-member board of governors of the Florida University System decided Wednesday to eliminate a sociology course from the core requirements to graduate and to replace it with an American history class, according to a press release. The new class, Introductory Survey to 1877, will introduce students to America’s founding, slavery, the Civil War, and… -
news
New School Choice Program Launches in South Carolina. Parents are Winning.
Despite the most well-funded efforts to stop education reform, the school choice movement still clearly has momentum. The fruits of those efforts can be seen during this year’s National School Choice Week (Jan. 21-27), which saw a new program just launched in South Carolina. School choice programs got a huge boost during the COVID-19 lockdowns…. -
opinion
Charter School Authorizers Need a New Association Focused More on Students, Innovation
Charter schools, which are public schools authorized by state laws, differ from traditional public schools, primarily because they enjoy exemptions from most of the state’s educational bureaucracy and regulations in exchange for accountability to parents and authorizers. The authorizers negotiate the charter contract, under which the school promises to operate in certain ways, and those… -
opinion
EXCLUSIVE: This Jewish Cancer Counselor Got Fired For Objecting to an Anti-Trump DEI Assignment. Now, She’s Suing.
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A veteran social worker who says she was fired for expressing concern over racial harassment against her as a Jewish woman and political harassment over her ties to the Trump administration is suing for wrongful termination. Tammy Weitzman last week sued her former employer, the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, now known… -
opinion
This National School Choice Week, Let’s Celebrate Return to Founding Principles
The school choice policies sweeping the nation may be among the most innovative—and promising—enacted in recent memory. Yet they also embody a return to principles first enshrined in American law nearly 400 years ago. In 1642, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony crafted the nation’s first education law, its objective was clear: Parents must educate their… -
opinion
The Empire Strikes Back During National School Choice Week
National School Choice Week begins Sunday after the school choice movement’s most successful year ever and with the promise of more momentum going forward. But not everyone is celebrating. A highly organized, well-financed coalition of two dozen national and local left-wing advocacy organizations, teachers unions, and associations of government bureaucrats have teamed up to fight… -
opinion
Moms for Liberty Hosted a Town Hall in NYC About Its Failing Schools. Here’s What I Saw.
Moms for Liberty held an event in New York City on Thursday night to discuss and diagnose the woeful state of education in the Big Apple. Residents and local representatives were invited to take part in the education organization’s town hall on the Upper East Side and the follow-up discussion. Moms for Liberty has been… -
opinion
State Lawmakers Are Freeing Colleges From DEI’s Racial Bias
State lawmakers continue to unravel the thread of discrimination leading to university bureaucracies committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. This spring, prepare for more legislators to cobble together provisions that protect students and college employees from DEI’s racial bias. Last year, public officials in five states—Florida, Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin—adopted proposals that put university… -
opinion
Will Education Choice Momentum Continue in 2024?
National School Choice Week begins on Sunday, and this year, there’s much to celebrate. In 2023, the school choice movement made more progress expanding education options than ever before. The Year of Education Freedom saw seven states pass new education choice policies and nine states expand existing choice policies. There are now nine states with… -
news
EXCLUSIVE: Majority of Americans Oppose Using Preferred Pronouns in Schools, Report Finds
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL: A majority of Americans oppose the use of preferred pronouns in schools, according to a report released Tuesday by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The Becket Fund’s Religious Freedom Index findings revealed a reversal in attitudes toward leftist school pronoun policies requiring that children and school employees address each… -
opinion
Can Higher Education Be Rescued From Grip of DEI?
Claudine Gay resigned Jan. 2 as Harvard’s president following outrage over antisemitism at the Ivy League school and amid claims that Gay plagiarized in her academic writings. Her resignation provides higher education institutions an opportunity to reconsider the leftist agenda-laden waters most “elite” colleges and universities swim in. As more people realize the true agenda… -
news
EXCLUSIVE: Overnight School Program Accused of Assigning Boys to Sleep With Girls
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL: Joe and Serena Wailes revealed last month that their 11-year-old daughter was assigned to share a bed with a boy who identifies as a transgender girl on an overnight school trip. Their story has led to more parents coming forward with similar allegations, according to a new demand letter first obtained… -
opinion
How to Get Better Teachers in America’s Schools
Twenty years ago, when I was hiring teachers for the private K-12 school I founded, I knew better than to recruit certified teachers. From my previous work as a college history professor, I know that the people least prepared to teach a subject are education majors. Requiring an embarrassingly low minimum of credit hours to be certified… -
opinion
DEI Is Alive and Well, America. Don’t Think Gay’s Resignation at Harvard Means Battle Over.
Harvard University’s embattled president resigned Tuesday, but it would be a mistake to think that the troubles of that school or higher education in general are over. Harvard President Claudine Gay’s disastrous testimony and serial, blatant plagiarism were certainly good reasons to give her the boot. The Harvard Corporation Board, which decides who will be president of… -
opinion
EXPOSING DEI: Inside the Pressure Campaign That Finally Ousted Claudine Gay as Harvard’s President
Claudine Gay ended her tenure Tuesday as the shortest president in the history of Harvard University, yet her resignation statement didn’t acknowledge the scandals that led to her ouster—instead suggesting that racism was to blame. The incident arguably illustrates the effectiveness of conservative critics in drawing attention to Gay’s many scandals, and the fecklessness of…