Mar 31, 2026

Dear Colleague,

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

Overturning an Outlandish Supreme Court Ruling Is the Only Way To Fix Education

Fox News, Corey DeAngelis 

Tennessee lawmakers have taken a bold stand against the misuse of taxpayer dollars in public education. On March 10, House Bill 793 advanced out of a full committee with a 15-9 vote, divided mostly along party lines, with Republicans in favor and all seven Democrats opposed. The proposal is scheduled to be heard on the House floor on March 16. The measure now requires public and charter school officials to verify students' immigration status at enrollment and report the aggregate results to the state...

ADE Data Demands 12News Retract School Choice Fraud Claims

Real Truth Media, Corey DeAngelis 

A recent Arizona Department of Education (ADE) study has revealed significant discrepancies in reporting on the state's Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program, prompting demands for 12News to retract an article by Craig Harris that cited a 20% fraud rate. The 20% figure stemmed from a risk-based audit, which focuses on higher-risk participants and accounts to identify potential issues efficiently. Such audits target specific subsets rather than the full population, meaning their results cannot be generalized to the entire program in the way a random sample can...

What to Know About Connecticut's Push to Limit Homeschooling

The Daily Signal, Jonathan Butcher 

Connecticut lawmakers are concerned about child abuse. Good, that issue should be a priority for parents and policymakers alike. But stripping rights away from all parents in the hope that the state will do a better job raising children is wishful thinking. State lawmakers are considering a proposal that would severely constrict the state's homeschool law. Currently, Connecticut parents have strong homeschool provisions that protect a family's right to choose how to educate their children. The sign-up process is straightforward, and while state officials require parents to teach certain subjects, parents do not have the same burdensome regulations as their neighbors in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and Pennsylvania...

Florida Bills Ensure That Teachers Unions Put Educators, Students First

The Washington Times, Corey DeAngelis 

On Friday, Tallahassee delivered a major victory for teachers, students and taxpayers. The Florida Senate passed SB 1296 by a vote of 20-14. Its House Companion, HB 995, passed its final committee stop by a decisive 17-8 vote. The Senate proposal now moves straight to the House floor for consideration. When a bill is signed into law, Florida will set a new national standard for public employee union accountability. The Senate version requires unions to receive majority support from those who vote to maintain certification each year, with at least 50% of the bargaining unit participating in the vote...

Kentucky's School Choice Push Could Trigger a Domino Effect

Blaze Media, Corey DeAngelis 

Kentucky is on track to become the first state where the legislature overrides a governor's opposition and opts into President Trump's new school-choice program, part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The federal initiative lets states opt in to tax-credit scholarships that expand options for families without tapping public school budgets. The Kentucky Senate just passed House Bill 1 by a 33-5 vote. All Republicans backed it, joined by one Democrat. The House had already approved the bill 79-17, with two Democrats voting yes. Now it heads to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, a reliable opponent of school choice. Kentucky's override rules make this fight different. Lawmakers need only a simple majority in each chamber to overturn a veto- and the vote totals suggest they have it...

SC Lawmakers Seem to Be Allergic to Educational Opportunity

The Daily Signal, Jonathan Butcher 

Why do South Carolina lawmakers want to make it more difficult for families to educate their children? Lawmakers are misinterpreting the very law they approved just last year that creates more learning opportunities, and now the state is on the brink of becoming one of the least family-friendly locales in the southeast. Fortunately, other state officials are pushing back. Still other lawmakers are trying to remove students who are customizing their learning experience while using the scholarships. In fact, state lawmakers overcame union opposition to support parents and create the scholarships- twice, actually, recreating the scholarship trust fund in 2025 after a state supreme court ruling forced nearly 1,000 children to leave the program a year earlier...

Tennessee Advances Bill Allowing Public Schools To Refuse Illegal Immigrants

Real Truth Media, Corey DeAngelis 

On March 4, the Tennessee House Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee voted 9-3 along party lines to advance House Bill 793, a measure that authorizes local education agencies and public charter schools to deny enrollment to students who are unlawfully present in the United States. Sponsored by Rep. William Lamberth, the proposal, originally introduced in February 2025, seeks to give schools the option to refuse such enrollments or condition them on tuition payments, potentially saving taxpayers millions annually in education costs for non-citizens. The legislation directly challenges the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Plyler v. Doe, which requires states to provide free K-12 education regardless of immigration status...

Supreme Court Rules Against Schools Keeping Secrets from Parents

Real Truth Media, Corey DeAngelis 

In a crucial decision emphasizing the role of families in education, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of parental notification regarding students' "gender" identity expressions in public schools. The case, Mirabelli v. Bonta, originated from a 2023 lawsuit filed by two California teachers, Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West, against Escondido Union School District and state officials, including Attorney General Rob Bonta. The teachers challenged district policies that required educators to use students' preferred names and pronouns while prohibiting disclosure to parents without the student's consent. They argued these rules violated their religious freedoms under the First Amendment and parental due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment... 

Randi Weingarten Turns Teachers Union Into Political Weapon Against ICE

The Washington Times, Corey DeAngelis 

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, has once again shown her true colors by boasting that she used the union's financial clout to meddle in politics. In a video first shared by Manhattan Institute investigative journalist Stu Smith, Ms. Weingarten detailed her efforts to pressure Target executives into taking a public stand against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minnesota. She bragged about leveraging the teachers' retirement funds, which hold millions of shares in the retail giant, to push this anti-ICE agenda during a meeting with Target's leadership. This meeting wasn't about better pay for teachers or improved classroom resources. It was pure political theater aimed at undermining President Trump's immigration enforcement policies...

Utah Charter School Draws Line Against Government Overreach

The Washington Examiner, Corey DeAngelis 

American Preparatory Academy in Utah has repeatedly refused to disclose top administrator salaries to state auditors. The school argues that these individuals are paid by a private management company rather than the school directly. The school's position is exactly right. Charter schools are privately operated businesses. They are not arms of the government. And state officials have no legitimate authority to force these independent service providers- and contractors that work with them- to reveal internal compensation details... 

Schools Blow $30 Billion on Laptops and Tablets That Wrecked Gen Z

Fox News, Corey DeAngelis 

Leave it to the government school monopoly to blow $30 billion of taxpayer money on laptops and tablets that were supposed to revolutionize learning but instead produced a generation of kids less cognitively equipped than their parents. U.S. schools spent that staggering sum on educational technology in 2024 alone, roughly 10 times what they shelled out for textbooks. The promise was access to endless knowledge at every student's fingertips, but the outcome has been a cognitive nosedive that leaves Gen Z struggling with basic skills like attention, memory, literacy and numeracy...

A Cautionary Tale As Head Start Turns 60

Real Clear Politics, Madison Marino Doan 

Fresh federal findings cast doubt on whether Head Start is delivering on its promises to families and taxpayers. In 2025, the federal preschool program providing care to children from low-income families, marked its 60th anniversary. Over that time, taxpayers have spent more than $240 billion on the program. A recent report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) found that median spending per child reaches approximately $20,000 in Early Head Start (a program serving infants, toddlers, and pregnant women) and close to $15,000 for pre-K students in Head Start programs. These figures exceed or rival the cost of many private childcare options...

School Choice Is About Religious Liberty, Not Just Better Test Scores

Public Discourse, Jason Bedrick 

Higher School choice policies are sweeping the country. Eighteen states now make every K-12 student eligible to receive public funds to attend the school of their family's choice, and more are expected to do likewise. To craft sound policies that deliver on the promise of school choice, policymakers must ground their approach in the fundamental principles that justify this shift away from traditional public education. Typically, school choice advocates make their case on utilitarian grounds: school choice means more efficiency than relying on government-run schools, they say, because markets and competition produce better outcomes. Others emphasize equity, noting that school choice gives lower-income families opportunities to provide their children with quality education rather than being trapped in failing schools based on which home their parents could afford...

South Dakota Senate Blocks School Choice

Real Truth Media, Corey DeAngelis 

On February 20, the South Dakota Senate considered Senate Bill 218, a measure to authorize publicly funded charter schools in the state. The vote resulted in a 17-17 tie, with Lt. Governor Tony Venhuizen, who was endorsed by the South Dakota Education Association in his previous runs for office, having the authority to break the tie but choosing to abstain. This decision effectively blocked the bill's advancement...

Latest Media Attack on School Choice Withers Under Scrutiny

AZ Free News, Matthew Ladner and Jason Bedrick 

Ralph Waldo Emerson famously noted that "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Opponents of Arizona's school choice program seem determined to field legions of such monsters. Exhibit A: the reporting of Craig Harris. Harris has over the years repeatedly filed anti-school choice stories which were riddled with errors. His latest salvo against Arizona's popular Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) program is no exception. In 2018 and 2019, Harris published articles in the Arizona Republic claiming charter schools underperformed district schools and faced mass closures, but both stories relied on flawed research- including counting schools that only went through 9th grade or had already closed as having 0% graduation rates and relying on "research" by anti-charter school activists that misunderstood basic accounting concepts...

Teacher Unions Hold Kids Hostage: Here's the Way Out

The New York Post, Corey DeAngelis 

Striking San Francisco teachers reached a deal with the district Friday, after leaving roughly 50,000 kids without an education for a week and their parents scrambling to figure out how to go to work without child care. Teachers unions once again had put their own interests ahead of the children they're supposed to serve. School-choice programs can spare families of such hardships...

Kent's Warning Signals a Shift in Accreditation Oversight

The Daily Signal, Madison Marino Doan

This week, Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent put college accreditors on notice: comply with federal civil rights law or risk losing the authority that gives them control over billions in taxpayer-funded student aid. Kent's warning was directed at the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education. The National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), a federal oversight board, recently documented concerns about these accreditors. Established by Congress in 1992, NACIQI is an 18-member independent advisory board that evaluates accrediting agencies and makes recommendations to the Secretary of Education on whether to recognize them...

The End Is Nigh for the Department of Education

The Daily Signal, Jonathan Butcher and Madison Marino Doan

Bad News: Tax Day is just one month away. But the U.S. Department of Treasury just announced a rare gift for taxpayers: A dose of sanity on college loans. Today, the U.S. Department of Education and the Treasury Department signed an agreement that helps wind down the education agency, moves more responsibilities over college loans to Treasury, and simplifies the college lending process. This is the 10th interagency agreement between the Education Department and other federal agencies. These agreements follow the White House executive order issued one year ago this week, calling for the end of the Department of Education...

Indiana House Passes Bill Expanding College Admissions Tests

Real Truth Media, Corey DeAngelis 

The Indiana House passed Senate Bill 88 on Tuesday by a vote of 67-29. The bill already cleared the Senate 39-9, with one Democrat joining all 38 Republicans voting in support. It now moves to Governor Mike Braun's desk for signature. Senate Bill 88 requires Indiana's public universities to accept scores from the Classic Learning Test, or CLT, for admissions decisions in the same way they accept SAT and ACT scores...

The Promise and Peril of Artificial Intelligence in Education

The Heritage Foundation, Annie Chestnut Tutor and Jonathan Butcher

Policymakers and families should scrutinize proposals to adopt artificial intelligence in education, especially when those proposals rely on for-profit educational technology platforms. When powerful technologies are introduced without clear limits, safeguards often arrive too late. As policymakers consider AI in education, they must take seriously the research on harms to children from addictive design features that are common across online platforms. These risks are not hypothetical: They can harm attention, mental health, and learning. Schools should respond with common-sense limitations and clear restrictions instead of assuming that new technology will regulate itself. Protecting children, supporting families, and preserving educational integrity must remain the central goals.

Modernizing Student Transportation for an Era of K-12 Choice

The Heritage Foundation, Matthew Ladner

American taxpayers all pay for public school districts’ yellow school buses, but these systems run almost exclusively for the benefit of students attending their zoned district school. In recent years, district yellow bus ridership has declined even as the need for transportation in choice-based K–12 education has grown. A “flood the zone” strategy could include allowing universal student access to yellow bus systems; updating municipal transportation systems to serve students better; including transportation as an allowable use under education savings account (ESA) programs; and encouraging the creation and growth of new schools and education vendors through multiple means, including a next-generation co-location policy.

Applications Are Now Open for The Lloyd & Bea Smith High School Fellowship 

The Heritage Foundation is now accepting applications for the Lloyd & Bea Smith High School Fellowship, a weeklong summer program in Washington, D.C., for motivated high school students interested in conservative ideas, leadership, and public policy. Students selected for the Fellowship will participate in policy briefings with Heritage scholars, go on field trips that bring our nation's history to life, and gain firsthand exposure to how conservative principles are applied in our nation's capital. The deadline to apply is March 31st!