Oct 20, 2025

Dear Colleague,

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

Linda McMahon Shows How to Take On the Deep State

The Washington Examiner, Jonathan Butcher

The deep state has been described as the “secretive illuminati of bureaucrats determined to sabotage the Trump agenda.” But in education, this illuminati doesn’t just threaten a political agenda: It threatens the success of millions of students in school and in life. Can Secretary Linda McMahon upend the Education Department’s bureaucratic deep state? She’s already doing it. Last month, McMahon launched a 50-state tour, not to tout the successes of the new White House, but to talk with teachers and parents about returning education authority to state and local educators. Education is a state priority, embedded in the constitutions of each of our nation’s laboratories of democracy, and McMahon is right to hit the road to meet with state education officials...

Disguising DEI: Schools Keep Trying to Push a Discredited Ideology

The Daily Signal, Jonathan Butcher and Mike Gonzalez

It’s back-to-school season, and some teachers have promised that the racist ideas from diversity, equity, and inclusion would not be in their classrooms this year. That’s the good news. The bad news is that many of these teachers and administrators are clearly telling whoppers. In fact, K-12 schools and colleges around the country are disguising their DEI offices and their racial preferences. Take Maryland, across the border from the nation’s capital and where many federal bureaucrats sleep and send their children to school. State education officials said schools would comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders calling on schools to reject DEI, citing the ways in which DEI programs violate civil rights laws. Yet schools in Montgomery County, precisely where the swamp lives, still have resources on their website dedicated to DEI and critical race theory...

Arizona’s Attorney General Wages Lawfare on Families

The Daily Signal, Jason Bedrick

Arizona is one of the nation’s leading states in offering families education choice—and families are loving it.

Three out of four parents support the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program, which enables families to choose the learning environments that work best for their children. Parents can use these funds to pay for private school tuition, tutoring, textbooks, homeschool curricula, online courses, special needs therapy, and more. The typical student in this program receives about $7,500 per year, less than half the $15,300 per pupil at Arizona’s district schools. But Democrat Attorney General Kris Mayes wants to put a stop to even that. Yet again, Mayes is waging lawfare against the more than 90,000 students using the state’s education choice program...

California’s AB 495 Erodes Parental Rights and Child Safeguards

The Daily Signal, Jonathan Butcher, and Madison Marino Doan

A recent move by the California Senate Appropriations Committee has left families across the state concerned about their rights as the primary decision-makers in their children’s education. Just this week, as the Legislature neared the end of its session, the state Senate approved AB 495, a proposal that expands the list of those who can claim “caregiver” rights over a child—threatening to expand the state’s authority at the expense of parents. Despite last-minute revisions before the Legislature, this bill is still harmful to parental rights. The proposal has even been described by some as “putting every child at risk.” This isn’t the first time California lawmakers have sought to sideline parents...

The Washington Post was Sold an Arizona School Choice Story

Next Steps, Matthew Ladner 

Arizonans have a pet peeve involving people from “back East” who judge us before they understand us. The Washington Post jumped into this with both feet by publishing a story with the headline Public schools are closing as Arizona’s school voucher program soars. The story, which prominently features the long-troubled Roosevelt Elementary School District’s decision to close five schools, has multiple problems. The paragraphs below will document one of the main problems. Before moving to that, the reader should note that multiple people made efforts by both email and phone to alert the Post reporter to these data during the research process, including the sharing of many of the links to the same state data sources that will be used below. Arizona K-12 choice is complex with multiple types of choice operating simultaneously and interacting with each other: the nation’s largest state charter school sector, multiple private choice programs, and (the granddaddy of them all) district open enrollment. No one should fault anyone for failing to appreciate the complexity of a situation from afar, but ignoring data to formulate a fundamentally misleading narrative is another matter....

NAEP Disaster Reveals Failure of Regulatory Accountability and DEI

The Daily Signal, Jason Bedrick and Matthew Ladner 

The latest results from the National Assessment of Education Progress are nothing short of catastrophic. They are an indictment of an education system that has been subject to decades of top-down “accountability” and consumed trillions of dollars—more and more each year—only to deliver worse results. On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education released the 2024 NAEP scores for 12th-grade math and reading and eighth-grade science. The results are ugly. They show that America’s schools are failing in their most basic mission: ensuring that students actually learn. Just 35% of 12th graders are proficient in reading—the lowest score since the NAEP began in 1992. Stunningly, the math scores were even worse, with only 22% proficient—the lowest score since the current test began in 2005. In science, barely 31% of eighth graders met the proficiency bar...

Manufactured Outrage: How School-Choice Deniers Weaponize Minimal ESA Fraud

AZ Free News, Jason Bedrick 

Channel 12 continued its clumsy crusade against school choice this week with a breathless report about fraudsters abusing Empowerment Scholarship Accounts to buy diamond rings and necklaces, flights and hotel stays, and even lingerie. It paints a picture of a program rife with abuse. But is it? The Arizona Department of Education gave Channel 12 the records for more than 1.2 million ESA requests. Yet when asked repeatedly what percentage of those requests were fraudulent, Channel 12’s reporter refused to comment. Why? Because the truth undermines the anti-ESA narrative...

Airplane Food and Academic Standards

The Scottish Union for Education, Jonathan Butcher 

No one likes airplane food—which almost inevitably means small portions, limited options, and the unavoidable presence of chicken. Despite bland offerings, passengers are usually just hungry enough—or just bored enough—to eat anyway. In K-12 (primary and secondary) schools in the U.S., academic standards are the equivalent of airline food. State policymakers are responsible for setting standards in each major subject to outline the topics they want educators to teach students. The standards are broad, often lacking details—but, like airline passengers, teachers and students are a captive audience with few alternatives...

The Clumsy Crusade Against School Choice  

AZ Free News, Matthew Ladner and Jason Bedrick 

Have you heard the charge that Arizona families are using Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) for babysitting? Or that ESA families are sitting on millions of dollars that they’re using for expensive, overseas vacations? Or that the ESAs only benefit wealthy families who live in high-performing school districts? These claims range from “lacking key context” to “lacking any evidence whatsoever.” The main source of these and other horror stories that school-choice opponents tell is reliably left-leaning Arizona media outlets such as Channel 12 and the Arizona Republic...

A Tale of Two States' School Choice

The Daily Signal, Jason Bedrick 

Universal school choice policies are sweeping the nation. But not all policies are created equal. As the experience in two states demonstrates, how the policies are designed matters greatly. Both Louisiana and New Hampshire recently expanded eligibility for their education choice policies to all K-12 students. Yet although the population of Louisiana is more than three times larger than New Hampshire’s, the number of new scholarship students in the latter is more than five times than in the former...

Helping Parents and Students Choose a College With Confidence

The Daily Signal, Jonathan Butcher, Jay P. Greene, and Madison Marino Doan

How do we know which are the best colleges? Traditional ratings rank schools based on the average GPA or test scores of entering students. But the ability to attract bright students does not mean those colleges provide a quality education once they enroll. That’s why The Heritage Foundation partnered with College Pulse, a research and analytics company specializing in college students, to survey students across the country—seeking to find out what current students and graduates of postsecondary institutions think about life outside of school, including starting a family, practicing religious faith, acting with integrity, protecting free speech, and other measures of civic life....

Patients Treated Better Because of Doctors’ Skill, Not Gender Identity

The Washington Times, Jonathan Butcher

Zoe Dykstra has a simple reason for studying medicine: She wants to take care of sick people. “I’m just trying to get through college and get my degree and be a nurse,” she said in our phone interview. But a recent class presentation at Grand Valley State University in Michigan called “Pronouns as a Treatment Plan” did more to confuse and frustrate Ms. Dykstra than help her to be a medical practitioner. “Grand Valley is hounding this so hard to the point where it doesn’t even make sense anymore,” she said. “Going into a field trying to take care of people is what I signed up for, but they are adding this whole other layer of cultural competence and [if you don’t agree] you are not a good nurse.” The presentation warned students they might be “triggered” by the discussion of “sexual orientation” and “chosen name vs. dead name.” Nursing students were told to watch out for questions from patients, such as “what if they want to see my ID” and “what if they stop me at the airport?” Hardly medical questions...

From Fiasco to Fix: FAFSA Finally Puts Families First

The Daily Signal, Madison Marino Doan

For high school seniors, fall brings excitement as they form plans to enter college or the workforce. But for students choosing college, that isn’t all fun and games. Instead, they face the daunting task of completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or “FAFSA,” to access loans and scholarships. While required for college financial assistance, FAFSA is known for being notoriously complex—so complex, in fact, that in 2020, Congress mandated changes to streamline the form. That meant it was the Biden Department of Education’s job to revamp and simplify the process, helping families in the process. Instead, the department’s efforts were a complete disaster, providing a textbook example of government incompetence...

How College Courses Rationalize Political Violence

The Daily Signal, Jay P. Greene

Where do young people learn that it’s OK to kill over political differences? Look no further than what they’re taught in school. There, college professors routinely assign books by leaders of radical groups that murdered people to advance their political goals. These blood-drenched terrorists are presented as positive role models, and their violence is romanticized as advancing justice. Take, for example, how frequently the works of Angela Davis are assigned in college courses. According to Open Syllabus, books by Davis appear over 2,000 times in syllabi collected from U.S. universities. Davis rose to infamy as a leader of the Black Panther revolutionary movement when she bought the guns used in a 1970 takeover of a California courthouse. That takeover led to the death of a judge and serious injury to a district attorney and a member of the jury...

Jewish Students Are Seeing the South as a Safer Place to Study

Jewish News Syndicate, Jason Bedrick and Jay P. Greene

With hostility toward Jews and Israel overtaking many American college campuses, Jewish students are wondering: What schools are best for them to attend? As application deadlines approach this fall, Jewish parents and their children are poring through the news and consulting each other to avoid universities where antisemitic activity has surged. They can see that last year’s cohort of Jewish applicants was steering away from colleges in the Northeast, Upper Midwest, and California in favor of those in the South. Many are attracted to public schools like the University of Florida and the University of Texas. Both have a critical mass of Jewish students, which is necessary for maintaining essential Jewish institutions and practices on campus. And both have responded positively to state policymakers by cracking down on organizations and instructors who promote Jew-hatred...

The Unhealthy Concentration of Federal Health Research Funding

The Daily Signal, Jay P. Greene

The Trump administration has focused critical attention on the National Institutes of Health, and for good reason. Despite the importance of its mission, the NIH has been hijacked to advance political agendas. NIH research grants are heavily concentrated in a small number of congressional districts represented by progressives. In 2024, over half of NIH research grants went to just 20 congressional districts, all of which were located in liberal enclaves. NIH funding is typically awarded by competitive grants judged by committees of experts. But assignment to those committees and designation as an expert is strongly influenced by having been a past recipient of federal funding. This creates incestuous groups of researchers in a small number of universities, handing money to each other. If ever researchers outside of this bubble begin to win significant grant dollars, universities’ excessive overhead charges from federal funding can allow them to make generous salary offers and relocate those researchers to the closed circle of favored institutions...

Disguising DEI: Schools Keep Trying to Push A Discredited Ideology

The Washington Times, Jonathan Butcher and Mike Gonzalez

It’s back-to-school season, and some teachers have promised that the racist ideas from diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) would not be in their classrooms this year. That’s the good news. The bad news is that many of these teachers and administrators are clearly telling whoppers. In fact, K-12 schools and colleges around the country are disguising their DEI offices and their racial preferences. Take Maryland, across the border from the nation’s capital and where many federal bureaucrats sleep and send their children to school. State education officials said schools would comply with President Trump’s executive orders calling on schools to reject DEI, citing the ways in which DEI programs violate civil rights laws...

For-Profit Colleges Deserve Equal Treatment

The Washington Examiner, Adam Kissel

To most Americans, colleges like Grand Canyon University look pretty benign. But not to the Federal Trade Commission. Until recently, the FTC looked at this Phoenix-based institution and many others like it and saw a big target. Fortunately, its years-long assault against GCU seems to have failed. Last month, the FTC dropped its lawsuit against the school, “ending years of coordinated lawfare by government officials” against a Christian university that had once been a for-profit institution...

Why Universities Are Settling

The Daily Signal, Jay P. Greene 

Columbia, Brown, and Penn have already settled their disputes with the Trump administration over anti-Jewish, racial, and gender discrimination complaints. Now, several news reports suggest Harvard and Cornell will announce settlements soon—and UCLA, Northwestern, and others may follow soon after. Many academics and their allies are mystified as to why these universities would agree to settlements. But it’s not that hard to understand. First, universities are settling because they are guilty. The evidence is overwhelming that several universities failed to protect Jewish students—which they could have done simply by enforcing their own rules against such abuse and suspending or expelling bad-acting students. Instead, they rewarded students who violated the civil rights of Jewish students...

Rightly Rated: New Survey Affirms Colleges Promoting Virtue and Tolerance

The Heritage Foundation, Jay P. Greene, Jonathan Butcher, and Madison Marino Doan

Some college rating systems are based largely on inputs, like the average SAT scores of incoming students, but do not consider post-graduation outcomes. Other college rating systems are built exclusively around the economic success of graduates and do not factor in other outcomes, such as living a good life and personal well-being. While universities and colleges should equip students with the skills needed to prosper in the workforce, education, in general, and higher education, in particular, can and should do much more. In its essence, education is a process of shaping character. The Heritage Foundation education-policy team wanted to know if graduates of the schools they rated in Heritage’s “Choosing College with Confidence” guide are prepared to demonstrate the virtues on which a healthy society depends....

Uncovering Radical Efforts to Disguise DEI

The Heritage Foundation, Jonathan Butcher, and Mike Gonzalez 

Shortly after his inauguration, President Donald Trump issued an executive order removing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices and programs from federal agencies and another calling for private entities, along with educational institutions, to comply with federal civil rights laws and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. Schools and organizations are now either attempting to hide their DEI operations or are disguising DEI offices and positions. The Trump Administration is acting within its proper authority by requiring postsecondary institutions to comply with civil rights and other antidiscrimination laws. Federal officials should be prepared to withhold federal taxpayer spending from educational institutions at all levels when schools violate crucial civil rights protections...

A Legitimate Role for the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences

The Heritage Foundation, Jay P. Greene, and Jonathan Butcher 

President Trump has instructed U.S. Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education.” For decades, the Education Department and its research arm, the Institute for Education Sciences (IES), have strayed into responsibilities that properly belong to parents and state and local education officials—that overreach must end. Secretary McMahon has indicated that some department functions will be maintained, and the IES or remaining responsibilities outlined here should be moved to another agency well-suited to data collection and reporting, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics or the U.S. Census Bureau. Secretary McMahon and Members of Congress should continue to phase out the U.S. Department of Education and return authority to parents and local and state education policymakers...

Restoring Equal Treatment for For-Profit Colleges: The Center for Excellence in Higher Education as a Case Study

The Heritage Foundation, Adam Kissel 

A long-standing tension exists in American higher education between “access” and “outcomes.” The 20th century saw huge gains in the proportion of Americans attending college. In 1940, only 4.6 percent of Americans aged at least 25 had completed four years of college; in the 2020s, the figure has neared 38 percent. But access came with high costs. Specifically, while federal and state governments spent more and more to subsidize tuition, of great financial pleasure to America’s colleges and America’s parents, the average IQ of college students over the same period declined from 119 to 102. College became normal instead of elite, a bachelor’s degree became a requirement for increasing numbers of jobs, and low graduation rates became an embarrassment at many colleges. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni reports that 197 colleges have a four-year graduation rate of 25 percent or worse. More than 600 colleges cannot even graduate half of their students within four years...