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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opinion
‘Micro-Schools’ Punch Above Their Weight by Offering Personalized Education
With the school year in full swing, anxious parents hope their children are content in their local schools. Families worry about finding the right school environment for their children, especially since every child learns differently. Take the Gilbert family, in Florida, whose story captures the importance of having multiple education options. Four of their five… -
opinion
Problematic Women: How Big Government Education Programs Failed the Young
This week on “Problematic Women” we talk with Lindsey Burke, The Heritage Foundation’s education fellow, about a new collection of essays, “The Not-So-Great Society.” Burke, co-editor of the project, discusses what Lyndon B. Johnson’s programs really did for public education, and it’s little that is positive. She also suggests how we can begin to solve… -
news
Why LBJ’s Great Society Gets a Failing Grade in Improving Education
President Lyndon B. Johnson’s vision for a Great Society unleashed an army of bureaucrats on American schools but produced little or no improvements to public education in 54 years, according to a new report published by The Heritage Foundation. The report, titled “The Not-So-Great Society,” delves into the impact of Johnson’s string of initiatives—among them… -
opinion
Puerto Rico’s School Choice Reforms Are Helping Kids
Last year brought a whirlwind of education opportunities to Puerto Rican families. The island’s first charter school, Proyecto Vimenti, opened to serve disadvantaged children. The commonwealth’s legislature approved a private school scholarship program for children who are bullied, experience sexual harassment, or who have special needs. These were notable victories for families where most have… -
opinion
How to Beat the Student Debt Crisis
The cost of college has gone sky-high, and now Americans are $1.6 trillion in student loan debt. How did we get here? And how do we get out? Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and The Heritage Foundation’s Mary Clare Amselem explain on this week’s episode of Washington Waste Wednesday. -
opinion
After Getting Kicked Off Campus, This Christian Group Got Justice
In a significant win for religious liberty, a federal court last month ruled that a state university in Iowa can’t require a Christian student organization to have non-Christian leaders. The court ruled that the university had discriminated against the Christian group and that top university officers, including the vice president, must pay out of their… -
opinion
Teacher Fired Over Trans Pronouns Sues School
West Point High School French teacher Peter Vlaming is a soft-spoken man who was well loved by his students. He wasn’t looking for a fight. He was just looking to do his job. But when the school demanded that he use male pronouns for a biological girl student who had decided to identify as a… -
opinion
How 1 Man Is Leading the Fight for School Choice in Richmond
Antione Green is working to open a second charter school in Richmond, Virginia. The school, called Richmond Urban Collective, would serve at-risk boys in grades six through eight. Although he is facing steep opposition from the school board in the city, Green has mobilized parents around Richmond who are supportive of his fight to bring… -
opinion
How 1 Woman Helped DC’s Underprivileged Kids Find School Success
When Virginia Walden Ford crossed the threshold of her new high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, as one of the second wave of black students to integrate the school, little did she know these were her first steps in a lifetime journey to champion educational opportunity for all children. Ford would go on to help… -
opinion
Americans Deserve Better Schools
With most services, you get to shop around, but rarely can you do that with government-run schools. Philadelphia mom Elaine Wells was upset to learn that there were fights every day in the school her son attended. So she walked him over to another school. “We went to go enroll and we were told, ‘He… -
opinion
Memo to Teachers Unions: Charter Schools Clearly Benefit Students
When Morgan Waldrop started high school, academics weren’t much of a priority. “It wasn’t even a goal of mine to be at the top of my class,” Waldrop says. But when she became pregnant, her goals changed. “Focusing on my schoolwork was focusing on my son so that I could provide a future for him,” she says. Starting in… -
opinion
America’s Children Need Universal School Choice Now More Than Ever
What social institutions have the most immediate and strongest impact on a child’s development and well-being? According to researchers for the Pew Charitable Trust’s Economic Mobility Project, it’s the child’s family circumstances, with schools ranking as the second-most important factor. In the U.S., family circumstances and schools are closely linked, because most cities and counties link schooling to housing…. -
opinion
Justice for Victims of School Shootings Act Could Have Unintended Consequences
Another member of Congress, this time a Republican, has succumbed to the temptation of creating a federal crime where one isn’t needed. Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, on Aug. 23 introduced the Justice for Victims of School Shootings Act, which would make carrying out, or conspiring to carry out, a school shooting a federal crime. At… -
opinion
We Hear You: Our ‘Back to School’ Edition
Editor's note: Kids of all ages are returning to school, and "We Hear You" is back from a summer hiatus. What could be more fitting than some of your letters on the state of public education? Remember to write us at [email protected].—Ken McIntyre Dear Daily Signal: I'm writing with thoughts arising from Stephanie Curry’s commentary… -
news
School Board to Fight After Judge Imposes Pro-Trans Bathroom Policy
Virginia’s Gloucester County School Board will appeal a federal judge’s finding that its bathroom policy unlawfully discriminates against transgender students. U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen ruled Aug. 9 that the district’s decision violates constitutional equal protection principles and Title IX, the federal law governing sex discrimination in education. Former President Barack Obama appointed Allen to the… -
opinion
How LGBTQ Groups Are Quietly Dismantling Norms, Changing Education
Virtually every week, there seems to be another issue that preoccupies the country. But while our attention is focused on President Donald Trump, Google, Charlottesville, Russia, impeachment, Jeffrey Epstein, the next elections, racism, a trade war with China, the #MeToo movement, or something else, LGBTQ organizations are quietly going about their work dismantling ethical norms,… -
opinion
Common Sense in Free Fall on College Campuses
Evidence is mounting that political ideology is corrupting the liberal arts. According to Campus Reform, in late July, Portland State University accused one of its professors, Peter Boghossian, of “‘questionable ethical behavior’ and banned him from conducting academic research.” What was the professor’s offense? He successfully convinced several prestigious, peer-reviewed journals to publish articles that… -
news
Department of Education to Probe Athletic Program Allowing Transgender Females to Compete With Girls
The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is opening an investigation into whether female high school athletes were discriminated against when the state of Connecticut allowed males who identify as females to compete with them. The three high school girls pursuing the complaint include Selina Soule, who earlier this year missed qualifying for the… -
news
Stand on Marriage Costs Christian School Its Place in Voucher Program
When the state of Maryland found out that Bethel Christian Academy affirms the biblical view of marriage in its student handbook, officials last fall cut the Baltimore-area school from a state-sponsored school voucher program, arguing it practiced sexual discrimination. Now the principal says at least six students no longer can afford to attend Bethel, a… -
opinion
A Time for Trade Schools
Solving the huge debt incurred by young adults who took out loans to attend college has become a key policy debate. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for example, recently announced proposed legislation to eliminate student loan debt by taxing bonds and stocks. By the beginning of 2019, student loan debt was at an all-time high: Over…