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
ACLU Files Lawsuit to Block School Choice for Nevada Children
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has just filed a lawsuit intended to block students from participating in Nevada’s groundbreaking near-universal education savings account (ESA) option. The ESA option was signed into law this spring by Gov. Brian Sandoval, R-Nev., and began accepting applications a few weeks ago. More than 2,200 parents have already applied… -
news
Does This School’s Transgender Bathroom Policy Violate Student Privacy?
A Missouri school district is under fire for allowing students to use restrooms and locker rooms designated for the opposite sex. Alliance Defending Freedom has sent a letter to the Hillsboro R-3 School District asking the board of education to change its recent decision. “Protecting students from inappropriate exposure to the opposite sex is not only perfectly legal, it’s a school… -
news
How One Catholic School Found Faith in the Floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina
NEW ORLEANS—When Hurricane Katrina left Mount Carmel Academy under 10 feet of water, many thought the school would be gone forever. Located in the Lakeview neighborhood, among the hardest hit areas in New Orleans, the all-girls Catholic high school was trapped between two breaks in the levees that were supposed to protect the city. The… -
news
Here’s How Hurricane Katrina Changed Schools in New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS—For all its devastation, Hurricane Katrina swept into this city an opportunity to embark on one of the greatest education experiments in America. In the aftermath of the 2005 storm, instead of rebuilding a public school system where roughly two in every three schools were deemed “failing,” the city transformed almost all of its… -
news
New Hampshire Summit Seeks to Bring Innovation to Education
LONDONDERRY, N.H.—Parents, educators, and voters expressed concern over the role of the federal government in education during a summit today in New Hampshire. Attendees, panelists, and speakers said that parents, communities, and states need to have a larger role in solving what event organizers called the “education crisis” facing the nation. The 2015 Education Summit… -
opinion
Hope for Education in America: “Disruptive Innovation” and Education Savings Accounts
How exactly does a new and innovative product, perhaps dismissed at first as marginal or impracticable, become a major player in a market? It doesn’t tend to happen the same way that established products gain market share. So-called sustaining innovations occur within a market’s established competitors and make existing products more effective (and sometimes more… -
news
Father Forced to Quit His Job Says School Voucher ‘Got Me My Son Back’
For years, Kirk and Tanya White thought New Orleans public schools didn't work for their two sons. They got their eldest son, Geno, into a private school under a city education initiative, but his father says it turned out the new school also was failing by Louisiana's own standards. Then Geno hit a low point when he was… -
opinion
How to Parent: A Department of Education Guide
A few years ago, the Obama administration caught backlash after the Department of Education released suggested lesson plans to schools in conjunction with a national back-to-school address that the president was delivering on Sept. 8, 2009. But federally directed lesson plans are so 2009. On Friday the Department of Education released a “checklist” designed to “help… -
news
A Big Week in Education: Congress Considers No Child Left Behind Rewrites
Eight years after the program technically expired, Congress is finally debating an update of the contentious No Child Left Behind Act, which poured an avalanche of federal programs and testing standards on public schools across the U.S. The House’s update of No Child Left Behind, called the Student Success Act, will be the topic of… -
opinion
Students Will No Longer Face Jail Time for Missing School in Texas
Everything is bigger in Texas, and that includes the number of children charged with Class C misdemeanors for skipping school. Texas was one of only two states to consider truancy a crime, and in 2013 the Lone Star State prosecuted over 115,000 kids for missing school. The result: 17-year-old students were locked up with adult… -
news
University of Wisconsin Launches Program to Find Missing Soldiers
More than 73,000 Americans who served in World War II “remain unaccounted for,” according to the Department of Defense. As we approach the 70th anniversary of the conclusion of the war this September, their families still wait for answers about what happened to their loved ones. Recently, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has decided to help locate… -
news
Why ‘Cookie Cutter’ Public Schools Don’t Cut It For This Mom of Seven
Liz Robbins was caught off-guard when a Washington, D.C., area code appeared on her phone. “I apologize,” she said. “With the surgery … I had been emotional right before you called.” Robbins was answering the phone from Henderson, Nev., a short drive from Las Vegas. When the 202 area showed up, she thought it was… -
news
Why This Iowa Principal Is Thankful for School Choice
WELLSBURG, Iowa—For this coming fall, Timothy Christian School will welcome just 45 students in kindergarten through 8th grade—the fewest to begin an academic year since the school opened in 1941. In a state where 30 entire school districts have been eliminated in the last decade and more than 4,000 have been wiped out since 1950,… -
opinion
How to Make the Government Pay for the Perfect Education for Your Kid
Imagine being able to create a tailored, made-to-order education for your child. Perhaps you know that the private school one neighborhood over has an excellent high school mathematics program. It allows students who don’t attend full time to take individual courses there, so your daughter takes an Algebra II class there three days a week…. -
news
Chris Christie: ‘There Are Solutions’ to Education Reform
AMES, Iowa—New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie laid out his education platform at Iowa State University this morning. If America wants to remain a force in education, Christie told a crowd of about 200 people, policy should be centered on three things. Christie said: “We need accountability. We need competition. And we need choice.” Christie, who… -
opinion
Nevada Education Accounts … Not Your Father’s School Choice Program
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval made education reform history last week when he signed the nation’s first universal education savings account program into law. The accounts are designed to give every Nevada student who has been enrolled in public school for at least 100 days an opportunity to have an educational experience tailored to their individual needs…. -
news
Eyeing Supreme Court Gay Marriage Case, Mike Lee Unveils Bill Protecting Religious Schools
In anticipation of the Supreme Court’s impending decision on the gay marriage case, Sen. Mike Lee is attempting to protect religious non-profits by passing legislation that would prohibit the federal government from “discriminating” against faith-based institutions. “Discrimination by private parties against private parties—that’s one issue,” Lee told a small group of reporters today in a… -
news
Michigan Bill Would Add to Regulations on Homeschooling
Legislation has been introduced in the Michigan Legislature that would enact stricter regulations on homeschooling in the state. The legislation follows the deaths of two Detroit children whose mother explained their absence from a traditional school by claiming they were being homeschooled. Michigan’s House Bill No. 4498 would require homeschooled students to meet in person… -
opinion
Nevada Becomes Fifth State to Enact Groundbreaking Education Savings Accounts
The Silver State just struck gold. Nevada has just become the fifth state to enact groundbreaking education savings accounts (ESAs), which will enable families to harness the funds that would have been spent on their children in their assigned pubic school to craft a customized education plan. The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice earlier this… -
news
These 4 Graphics Tell the Story of School Choice
Earlier this week, professor Patrick Wolf of the University of Arkansas made the case for school choice in Washington, D.C. Based on his research, The Daily Signal pulled out data to tell the story visually.