Center for Education Policy

Jul 24, 2024

Dear Colleague,

Welcome back. We are excited to share the latest from The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy.

Parents Need Charter Schools That Offer Non-Woke Options

Fox News, Jason Bedrick, Jay Greene, and Ian Kingsbury

Parents unhappy with the "woke" propaganda that permeates many public schools may think they can escape leftist indoctrination simply by using school-choice options. However, "choice" by itself doesn’t guarantee that their children will end up in schools that promote the values they prefer...

America’s Teachers Are Unhappy. Here’s How We Can Turn That Around

Daily Signal, Erika Donalds

All is not well with America’s teachers. Surveys published this spring paint an alarming picture of the reality teachers face every day in our country’s classrooms. Inflation has hit their earnings. Top-down regulation has smothered their creativity and motivation. Union-driven, one-size-fits-all contracts thwart career advancement...

Rising Trend of Classical Education Offers Hope for Civic Renewal

Daily Signal, Jason Bedrick

As we celebrate our independence on the Fourth of July, Americans would do well to reflect upon what’s necessary for a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, to long endure. A free people requires an education in the civic knowledge and virtues necessary to preserve liberty...

Bans on Smartphones in the Classroom Gain Favor Across Political Spectrum

Daily Signal, Jonathan Butcher

The school year is over, and the results should leave parents and educators with more anxiety than relief. Achievement scores are near historical lows and student absenteeism is high. There is some bipartisan agreement, though, on classroom management that could help students begin to rebound in the fall...

Brookings Misleads Readers Again in Arizona ESA Rebuttal

Education Next, Jason Bedrick

The Brookings researchers had failed to consider Arizona’s popular and longstanding tax-credit scholarship (TCS) policy, which works in tandem with Arizona’s ESA policy and disproportionately benefits low-income families. Once again, they fail to provide readers with key information they need to understand how Arizona’s ESA and TCS programs operate...

It Could Soon Be Illegal for California Teachers to Tell Parents About Kids’ Trans Confusion

The Federalist, Jonathan Butcher

Want to know what is happening with your child at school? If you live in California, don’t ask teachers. It could soon be against the law for them to tell you...

Louisiana Expands Education Choice to All

Daily Signal, Jason Bedrick

Education freedom is on the march. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry on Wednesday signed legislation making the Pelican State the 19th state in the nation to enact K-12 Education Savings Accounts or an ESA-style policy, and the 11th to offer education choice to every K-12 student...

Florida Should Fund Students, Not Mere Systems

Tampa Bay Times, Erika Donalds

Rising property values have poured billions of dollars into Florida public schools — a boon from our growing economy and families flocking from other states. But most parents and taxpayers aren’t aware that this funding doesn’t benefit all students...

Putting Public Colleges on a Path to Privatization

Public Discourse, Adam Kissel

Postsecondary education in the United States needs the discipline of the market. Putting all public colleges and universities on a path to privatization—and, eventually, removing all forms of public subsidy—is how to get there...

The Department of Education Is Making a Great Case for Its Own Abolition

Newsweek, Jonathan Butcher and Lindsey Burke

Conservatives have argued for years that the federal education agency is unconstitutional, but the department is making its own case for closure by promulgating policies that are either ineffective or illegal (or both)...

Courts Block Biden’s Student Loan Cancellation Plan: A Win for Taxpayers

Daily Signal, Madison Marino

Two federal court judges issued nationwide injunctions stopping the Biden administration from illegally canceling hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt. This scheme, the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE Plan, is the latest lawless loan redistribution attempt to fail in court...

Deport International Students Who Support Terror or Terrorize Their Schools

The Washington Times, Adam Kissel

This year’s Hamas-inspired campus lawbreaking has resulted in students being suspended, expelled and arrested. Many colleges, however, took a different path. Before students return this fall, lawmakers and regulators should require universities to take a harder line...

Harvard Dean Threatens Faculty Who Protest School’s Mistreatment of Jews

Washington Examiner, Jay Greene and Robert Maranto

“Snitches get stitches” is a threat typically made by adolescents to avoid punishment by intimidating those who might expose their misdeeds. Yet it seems Harvard is a glorified junior high these days, with Lawrence Bobo, its dean of social sciences, threatening faculty who publicly criticize the university for its mistreatment of Jewish students...

Combating the Title IX Change | Jonathan Butcher on America's Voice Live

We Must Do Away with Racial Preferences to Help Our Nation | Jonathan Butcher on Bloomberg TV

The Woke Capture of Charter Schools

School choice should empower parents to obtain an education for their own children that is consistent with their values. A new Heritage report by Jason Bedrick, Jay Greene, and Ian Kingsbury shows how charter school choice is falling short of that goal. The authors encourage states to adopt universal private school choice to avoid a binary option for families of charter schools that may not be aligned with their values or district public schools that are frequently unaligned, unsafe, and academically ineffective.

Read the full report here.