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
This School District Teaches Middle School Sex Ed Based on Planned Parenthood Guide
Warning: This report includes graphic language and references to such language, which some readers may find offensive. A Virginia school district is using a teacher’s guide for middle school sex education, co-sponsored by Planned Parenthood, that promotes student “role-plays,” urges normalizing of certain behavior, and refers to sterilization as “permanent birth control.” The teachers guide… -
opinion
School System’s Decision Against Flying ‘Pride’ Flags Outside Buildings Angers LGBTQ+ Activists
School board meetings in one New Jersey district have turned into a toxic fiasco as LGBTQ+ protesters screamed and cursed at board members over a policy to fly only the American and New Jersey flags in front of schools. The last two scheduled school board meetings of the Westwood Regional School District in Bergen County,… -
opinion
School Choice Chalking Up More Wins Across Country
The momentum for school choice is continuing to build nationwide. Eight states have enacted new education choice policies or have expanded existing ones so far this year, including Indiana, Montana, and South Carolina earlier this month alone. Of the eight, four states—Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, and Utah—enacted school choice policies that will be available to all… -
news
Pornographic Books Found in Texas School Libraries Result in Bipartisan Action to Remove Them
Warning: This report contains sexually graphic images from commonly available books in school libraries, which The Daily Signal has obscured in part. A bill that has passed the Texas House with bipartisan support could become the model for ensuring public school libraries don’t provide sexual content to children. HB 900, sponsored by four Republicans and… -
news
Texas on the Verge of Allowing Chaplains in Public Schools
A bill allowing chaplains in schools passed the Texas Legislature Tuesday evening after the state’s House of Representatives voted largely along party lines, according to Religion News Service. House Bill 3614 was introduced by Republican state Rep. Cole Hefner in March and if signed into law would allow schools to “employ or accept as volunteers chaplains,” according… -
opinion
Are School Libraries Banning Thousands of Books? Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Trust the Left’s Narrative
“What we’re seeing here is a resurgence of widespread censorship in America,” Nadine Farid Johnson recently told The Wall Street Journal. Johnson is the Washington director of PEN America and co-author of its report claiming to identify 2,532 books banned in public schools during the 2021-2022 school year. PEN America advocates on behalf of poets,… -
opinion
Biden’s ‘Transgender’ Rule Mandating Schools Treat Biological Males as Females Gets Tested
Just when you thought Virginia’s Loudoun County Public Schools could not get any worse. Now, Biden’s Department of Education has launched an investigation into how the school system handled two 2021 sexual assaults against girls by a boy claiming to be “transgender.” Its investigation of those complaints will force the department to come to terms… -
opinion
It’s a Problem When the Goal of School Meals Is No Longer Just to Serve Students in Need
The White House wants every K-12 student to be part of the welfare system. And in its zeal to achieve that goal, pesky things like Congress or the risk of expanding already poorly performing programs pose no obstacles. President Joe Biden’s administration is continuing the work of President Barack Obama’s team and trying to put… -
opinion
‘He’s Wrong,’ Expert Says as Education Secretary Implies Book Banning Responsible for Falling Civics, History Scores
The test results are in, and America’s children are failing history and civics. According to the “Nation’s Report Card,” just 13% of eighth graders are proficient in U.S. history, and only 22% are proficient in civics. Every four years, the National Assessment of Educational Progress captures how well America’s students are performing in major subjects…. -
opinion
Red States Ban Destructive Transgender Treatments as K-12 Schools Funnel Children to Dangerous Path
Citing “very serious side effects” and a “lack of reliable scientific evidence for their efficacy and safety,” Missouri is clamping down on chemical and surgical gender transition interventions for both children and adults. The move comes as public schools across the nation push children toward transgenderism with organized efforts and intentional tactics that leave children’s… -
opinion
‘We’re Not Doing That Here,’ Oklahoma Schools Superintendent Says of DEI Instruction
Oklahoma is taking a lead on school choice programs and resisting far-left ideology in classrooms across the state. “It is amazing how aggressive the Biden administration is with this radical agenda towards our schools,” Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public instruction, says. When he came into office, Walters says he told staffers there, “We’re… -
opinion
The School Choice Momentum Continues Nationwide
Education choice is on the march. So far this year, four states have enacted education choice policies that will be available to all K-12 students. Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, and Utah have now joined Arizona and West Virginia in making every child eligible for education savings accounts or ESA-like policies that allow families to choose the… -
opinion
Parents Get Back in Charge of Their Children’s Education
Parents in the pandemic era have asserted themselves with new vigor for the sake of their children. Parents no longer presume that the zoned public school is the right fit, or that the school puts students first. Nor do parents presume that most teachers wish to reproduce the values of the community. Since 2020, Americans’… -
news
School Allows Reading of LGBT Book to Second Graders Despite State Law Requiring Parental Consent
A Missouri elementary school allowed a parent to read the transgender-promoting children’s book “I Am Jazz” to a second-grade class without first informing other parents, although state law requires school districts to notify parents beforehand about lessons on sexuality. Webster Groves School District, located in the suburbs of St. Louis, allowed the parent to read… -
news
4 Highlights From Teachers Union Head Randi Weingarten’s Testimony on School Lockdowns
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, fielded lawmakers’ questions Wednesday about her powerful union’s role in school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Weingarten, who leads the nation’s second-largest teachers union, testified before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on why the AFT pushed school lockdowns. The New York Post reported… -
opinion
What Bud Light Scandal Could Teach Us About School Choice
One of the most effective levers of influence in a free market system is the ability for consumers to take their business elsewhere. When Gillette released a marketing campaign in 2019 designed around criticizing “toxic masculinity,” alienating millions of men around the country, consumers responded by taking their business (about $5 billion of it) elsewhere. … -
opinion
Marxian Education
Some schools are ditching traditional grading. Instead, they use “labor-based grading,” an idea promoted by Arizona State University professor Asao Inoue. Labor-based grading means basing grades more on effort than the quality of work. In addition, Inoue lectured a conference of rhetoric professors “stop saying that we have to teach this dominant English. … If… -
opinion
New Book Pulls Back Curtain on Public Schools’ ‘Mediocrity’ Sending Parents, Students to Exits
Connor Boyack and Corey DeAngelis’ new book, “Mediocrity: 40 Ways Government Schools Are Failing Today’s Students,” provides a concise explanation for why Americans have begun abandoning the woefully inept public school system. Forty chapters rife with examples of failure paint the American public school system as a catalyst for the exodus to alternative options. Case… -
opinion
A Christian College Becomes Bastion of Student-Led Censorship
Free speech and free inquiry are in bad shape on college campuses. You might hope that things would be better on avowedly Christian campuses, but if Whitworth University is any indication, they aren’t. On April 12, Whitworth’s student government voted 9-4 to deny a conservative group’s request to invite Chinese dissident Xi Van Fleet to… -
news
Larry Arnn Reveals Secret of Hillsdale College’s Success
OXON HILL, Md.—Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn criticized the overcomplication of learning in K-12 schools and universities across the nation, calling for America to return to “the classics.” Speaking at The Heritage Foundation’s 50th Anniversary Leadership Summit on Friday, Arnn picked apart the critical flaws in how progressives view the classroom in a discussion with…