Education News
Reports on education reform, school choice, and classroom policies. The Daily Signal provides conservative commentary and opinion alongside education news.
-
opinion
Teacher Shortage? For Decades, Public Schools Have Enjoyed Hiring Sprees
Pop quiz time. “Teacher shortages have gotten worse.” True or false? False. And yet, that sentence was part of a recent Washington Post headline. And it’s far from uncommon. In fact, public schools have been on a hiring spree for decades. It began with President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society and has continued to the present… -
opinion
Lawmakers Are Checking on School Libraries. Here’s What Parents Need to Know.
In a nationally televised face-off, Govs. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., and Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., on Thursday night debated, among other things, whether school libraries should carry explicit content on their shelves. When two high-profile state officials spar over an issue on prime-time TV, policies related to that issue are likely to be a topic for other… -
news
EXCLUSIVE: School Assigned Girl to Sleep With Boy Who Identifies as Trans Without Parental Notification
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL: An 11-year-old girl was assigned to share a bed with a male student who identifies as a transgender girl while on a cross-country school trip, according to a demand letter sent Monday. That girl’s parents are now calling upon the public school system to provide answers and clarification of its… -
opinion
Progressive Public High School Offers Race-Segregated Classes
Diversity, equity, and inclusion policies have grown so diverse that they now include policies reminiscent of the Jim Crow era. A Chicago-area school district is attempting to boost academic achievement among black and Latino students by offering blacks-only and Latino-only classes. The segregated classes are called “affinity” classes, and they aim to reduce the so-called academic achievement… -
news
‘GAY IS SLAY’: Seattle Public School Teacher Sends Moms for Liberty Hate Mail
A Seattle public school teacher sent the parental rights group Moms for Liberty a packet with “hate letters” reading “Gay is Slay,” “Grow up,” and “Stop bullying and excluding LGBTQ youth and families.” “Public school administrators should put our public taxpayer dollars towards fixing the abysmal reading scores in the U.S., rather than writing hate… -
news
Tennessee Governor Calls for Expanded School Choice Programs
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee was set to announce new legislation Tuesday to expand school choice in his state to 20,000 more students next year—with plans to make a pilot program’s scholarships available statewide in 2025. In a statement to The Daily Signal before making his scheduled announcement at 3 p.m. EST about offering more education… -
news
Laura and Jeff Sandefer Take Simon-DeVos Prize for Creating Change Through Education
A 2009 encounter with a public school teacher dramatically changed the course of Laura and Jeff Sandefer’s lives—and the lives of thousands of students. That year, the Sandefers were considering a move from a Montessori school in Austin, Texas, to a traditional school for their sons. During a meeting with a teacher at a local… -
opinion
How University of Michigan Failed to Protect My Right to Free Speech
I arrived at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on Thursday, Nov. 16, to deliver a speech on Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. The talk’s blunt title, selected by the local Young Americans for Freedom chapter, reflected my own unambiguous approach to the conflict: “Israel’s Righteous Fight Against Jihadism.” Given the nature of… -
news
Catholic All-Girls College Will Admit Men Who Identify as Trans Women
Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana, will begin allowing men who identify as women to enroll at the college in the fall of 2024, an email obtained by The Daily Signal shows. President Katie Conboy told faculty in an email sent Tuesday afternoon that “Saint Mary’s will consider undergraduate applicants whose sex assigned at birth… -
opinion
The Root Cause of the Insanity on College Campuses Is Older Than You May Think
Americans are finally catching on that the oppressor-oppressed narrative being taught in our schools and universities is not a conspiracy theory disseminated by conservatives. It’s real. Jewish students having to barricade themselves in a college to escape a mob in Manhattan, of all places, has opened people’s eyes to the threat woke ideology represents to civilization. Too… -
news
Faithful Catholic Colleges See ‘Unprecedented’ Enrollment Numbers, Financial Support
As most collegiate institutions grapple with disappointing enrollment, a slew of faithful Catholic colleges are reporting surprising enrollment numbers and financial support. Their success is heralded by the Newman Guide, a list of higher education options consulted by Catholic parents throughout the world, as evidence of the positive impact that authentic Catholic education has upon… -
news
The Best Way to Fight Indoctrination in Schools: School Choice
Education freedom is the “great equalizer” and has “the biggest impact” on preventing indoctrination in the schools, proclaimed Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. “You can … say ‘no’ to critical race theory, ‘no’ to indoctrination, but they [schools] can find ways around it,” Reynolds told Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts on “The Kevin Roberts Show” podcast. … -
opinion
‘Most Improved’: Iowa Governor Explains How Hawkeye State Won School Choice Revolution
“I truly believe that school choice will make the most consequential change for our education system in decades,” Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds says. The Heritage Foundation feted the state of Iowa in Des Moines on Thursday for the state’s dramatic rise on Heritage’s Education Freedom Report Card after a flurry of reforms. In January, Reynolds,… -
opinion
Iowa Leads Way on Education Freedom
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, families bear the twin burdens of inflation and indoctrination. Parents continue to witness their children being taught divisive, radical ideologies that portray their country as intrinsically racist, place social justice above fundamental subjects such as reading and math, and even divide children by race. All this while academic proficiency drops off a cliff…. -
opinion
3 Changes to School Choice Bill Could Skyrocket Texas From No. 30 to No. 4 in the Nation
Gov. Greg Abbott called the Texas Legislature into a fourth special session on Tuesday with the aim of expanding K-12 options for families. Over the past few years, lawmakers from across the country have empowered families to find the best school for their children. Abbott, a Republican, seems resolved to create similar opportunities for Texas… -
opinion
Florida Again Earns Top Spot on Heritage Foundation’s Education Freedom Report Card
Florida has once again been ranked No. 1 among the states on The Heritage Foundation’s Education Freedom Report Card, which was released at an event Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa. “They have universal education choice in that state. Any child who wants it can exercise school choice,” says Lindsey Burke, director of The Heritage Foundation’s… -
opinion
Fight for Parents Rights Not Over in Troubled Virginia School District
The original version of this article, published the night of Nov. 7, was removed from The Daily Signal’s site because it relied on incomplete vote totals for its claims regarding election outcomes. One of the epicenters of the fight over parental rights in public schools is likely to remain a contested battleground with the results… -
opinion
A Third Try in Texas for School Choice
SAN ANTONIO—Gov. Greg Abbott has called a third special legislative session in an attempt to push through three priorities that previous sessions have defeated, surprisingly with some Republicans joining with most Democrats in opposition. School choice is one of those priorities. The last session bowed to scare tactics by the powerful teachers unions and Democrats… -
opinion
Time for Scrutiny of DEI Policies of Administrative Office of US Courts, Judicial Conference
Federal courts have their own administrative state, and that’s a problem. Like many of its executive branch counterparts, the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts came into existence during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal push to establish supposedly expert administrators. Established in 1939 after FDR’s failed court-packing plan, the “AO” (as it has come to… -
news
Not Taking It Sitting Down: High Schoolers Walk Out to Protest Trans Restroom Policies
It was May 28, 2021, when a 15-year-old girl was sexually assaulted in a Virginia public school restroom. Details revealed the girl was attacked by a boy wearing a skirt who was legally allowed to use the girls’ restroom at Stone Bridge High School in Loudoun County, Virginia, because it “matched his gender identity.” Under the pseudonym…