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
This School District Is Standing Up to the Federal Government’s Bullying Over Transgender Students and Locker Rooms
When it comes to locker rooms, does a public school have the right to say it should be restricted to of the students of the same physiological sex? Right now, a school district north of Chicago is squaring off with the federal government on that question. Township High School District 211, like many school districts,… -
news
Should Teachers Be Allowed to Ditch Their Classrooms to Work For the Union? Two Lawmakers Want to Stop Practice.
PHILADELPHIA—City schools are struggling to find teachers, but the district and local teachers union have an agreement that permits dozens of them to abandon their classrooms to go work for the union every year. As part of the contract between the School District of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, up to 63 teachers… -
news
Boehner’s D.C. School Choice Program Passed by House: ‘We Owe the Kids in This City a Chance’
Speaker John Boehner cinched victory Wednesday as House Republicans smoothly extended his linchpin private school voucher program for low-income students through 2021. The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program provides students in Washington’s struggling school districts with federally backed vouchers to attend a private school of choice. The House confirmed its reauthorization Wednesday evening in a near… -
news
Should Some High School Teachers Have to Have a Masters? In Minnesota, That’s a Fight
Minnesota educators, legislators, and students took turns at an unusual October legislative hearing, schooling the Higher Learning Commission’s top official on the “crippling effect” of a new HLC requirement for high school faculty teaching college-level classes to get master’s degrees. “The key to the Minnesota model for concurrent enrollment or dual credit programs is that they… -
news
Idaho Legislature Wants Stronger Protections for Parents. Idaho School Boards Say No.
A new Idaho School Board Association resolution reveals that the group wants the Idaho Legislature to “hold at bay any expansion of the parental rights in regard to education.” The resolution, one of a handful like it passed by the group’s central committee, suggests that parents’ rights might conflict with districts’ attempts to comply with federal… -
opinion
It’s Time for a Change in Education Funding
“We must provide a good education for every boy and girl—no matter where he lives,” President Lyndon B. Johnson declared in 1964. President Johnson sought and ultimately secured passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which would be a major element of the education component of his War on Poverty. Ineffective Title I… -
news
Teacher Unions Fight to Keep Their Clout in Right-to-Work States
Proposals to stop state and local governments from deducting union dues from their employees’ paychecks are likely to gain traction in coming months, those on both sides of the issue say. Such “payroll protection” measures arise as the U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide next year on a free speech challenge to rules compelling… -
opinion
Cementing a School Choice Legacy in the Nation’s Capital
I spend an enormous amount of time thinking (and worrying) about the children of Washington, D.C. Advocating for quality educational opportunities for them has been a priority in my life since the late 1990s. With Speaker John Boehner’s announcement of his decision to step down, I automatically began to reflect on the 10-plus years we… -
opinion
‘You’re It’: School District Bans Tag During Recess
Update: According to The Seattle Times, “[t]he Mercer Island School District reinstated the game of tag following an outcry from parents” on September 25, 2015. A school district in Washington state has banned tag, the popular game, because it’s too violent for today’s children. School district officials told a local television station that students are… -
opinion
Boehner’s Final Push for Parental Choice in Education
Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, who will retire at the end of October, will not be leaving office without one final push for parental choice in education. Boehner has been a strong supporter of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP), which was the first bill he presented to Congress as Speaker of the… -
news
Teachers Union Significantly Ups Spending on Political Activities, Boosts Liberals
The 2015 American Federation of Teachers annual report shows a left-wing political machine humming on all cylinders—with teachers buying the gas. For the fiscal year ending June 30, the union reported $37.6 million in political activity and lobbying expenditures, a $12.7-million increase from the previous year. Even more political spending was tucked away elsewhere in AFT’s annual U.S. Department of Labor… -
news
Recess Consultant Hired in Minnesota Schools, Kids Get Coached Through Play Time
What happens when an adult steps onto the recess playground with new rules and a game list in hand that reads “Animal Tag,” “Four Square Volleyball,” and “Basketball Bowling?” Two elementary schools in the Minneapolis area, in the town of Edina, have gone from the usual “on duty” recess supervisor to hiring a recess consultant…. -
news
Meet the Social Studies Teacher Who Ditched the School Union and Created His Own
Like most teachers, Jim Perialas didn’t have a choice about joining a teachers union. But in 2012, after becoming fed up with rising membership dues and inadequate representation, he and his fellow teachers in the Roscommon area public schools voted to break from the Michigan Education Association. Instead, they formed the Roscommon Teachers Association, where… -
opinion
A Huge Education Innovation May Get Squashed in Nevada
In January, Beverly Rogers, wife of late Nevada media mogul Jim Rogers, told 25 students at Reynaldo Martinez Elementary School in north Las Vegas she was launching a new foundation to honor her husband’s memory. The first act of the Rogers Foundation, she told the kids: each of them would get a full ride to college,… -
news
Seattle School District Concedes to Union, 53,000 Kids Return to School
After a two-week standoff, Seattle Public Schools and the teachers union reached an agreement on a contract, putting an end to a strike that left 53,000 students out of class for six days. “This agreement signals a new era in bargaining in public education,” Jonathan Knapp, president of the Seattle Education Association, said in a… -
opinion
Ahmed’s Clock and the Hysteria of American Schools
Social media are ablaze with the story of 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, a student at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas. On Monday morning, the amateur inventor brought a home-made clock to school to show to a teacher. Shortly later, he was led out by the police in handcuffs. I expect they will have more to… -
news
Nonprofit Health System Executive Brings After-School Chess Program to Ferguson-Florissant Schools
An after-school chess program for 20 elementary and middle schools in the Ferguson-Florissant school district started with a simple conversation between a father and his 10-year-old son. Nick Ragone, senior vice president and chief communications and marketing officer at Ascension, the nation’s largest Catholic nonprofit health system, says the idea came to him eight weeks… -
news
Report: Four-Day School Week Leads to Improved Academic Performance
As Labor Day abruptly marked the end of summer, arguments for a four-day workweek roiled across the Internet as a conduit to improved health and a greater quality of life. But the question of students enjoying a shorter school week has remained largely off the table because of concerns that an extended weekend would hurt… -
opinion
This Case Could Open Up School Choice Options for 37 States
On Sept. 2, the Douglas County School District Board of Education filed a request for extension to the Supreme Court of the United States asking for review of the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling on its scholarship program earlier this summer. In June, the Colorado Supreme Court struck down the educational choice program on the state’s… -
news
In Washington State, Thousands of Kids Aren’t Returning to School
As charter school teachers in Seattle are showing up to work despite a court’s ruling their schools unconstitutional, public school teachers in the city are on strike, leaving 53,000 students at home for the first few days of the 2015-16 school year. “There’s a big irony here right now in Seattle,” said Liv Finne, director…