Education Policy

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Group Of Elementary School Pupils Sitting On Floor Listening To Teacher
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Blacks Need High Quality Education, Not a DEI Agenda — Part 1

[Editor’s Note: This is Part One of a two-part article. Click to read Part Two: Blacks Need High-Quality Education, Not a DEI Agenda — Part 2.] John Deere, Harley-Davidson, Ford Motor Company, and other major corporations are backtracking on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and returning to hiring based on merit. Make no mistake. A work environment featuring diverse ideas and opinions is highly conducive to success. Similarly, it is important to have a work culture that includes all players on the team. But most often, DEI is focused on prioritizing race and sexual orientation over the applicable criteria of merit. This DEI agenda is problematic. Some people counter that the “E” in DEI implies a commitment to equitable outcomes in addition to equal opportunity. In other Read More ›

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Sunrise at the national mall
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Time to Pull the Plug on the Department of Education

Whether ecstatic or demoralized about the recent election, Americans should all welcome a fresh review of how the federal government carries out its work. For too long, the massive federal bureaucracy has been allowed to grow while becoming less and less efficient in how it spends tax dollars. In fact, it would be an exercise in futility to name any government program in anyone’s lifetime that achieved its intended goals in the time frame predicted and within the budget allocated. This reinforces the principle that the government should be the last option to fix a problem, not the first. Perhaps the most glaring example of government ineffectiveness is the Department of Education (ED). Established near the end of the Carter Read More ›

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Image by Michael Vadon at Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:President_of_the_United_States_Donald_J._Trump_at_CPAC_2017_February_24th_2017_by_Michael_Vadon_02.jpg

Why Trump Was the Candidate for “Educational Freedom”

In July, just a few days after President Joe Biden ended his re-election bid, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten boasted that the union under her charge was the first to endorse Kamala Harris for president. Weingarten pledged: “The AFT has 1.8 million members—including 450,000 in battleground states. Between now and Election Day, we’re going to give our all to make sure our voices are heard and our members are mobilized. Because when we fight, we win.” No question, Weingarten is a fighter. She fought to keep schools closed, which spanned three school years in some states. However, election night was far from a win for Harris, losing in a landslide to former president Donald Trump, who will Read More ›

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Exciting News

Thanks to our generous donors, Discovery Institute's American Center for Transforming Education has significantly expanded our work. As a result, we are now providing national influence to advance each of the five aspects of our approach to K-12 education transformation. Read More ›
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going to school
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An Alarming Crisis

You may find this shocking: over 77% of children emerge from K-12 public education without achieving basic proficiency in core academic subjects. And we're not talking about advanced level classes. Millions of children will spend six to eight hours a day in the classroom and still fail to achieve fundamental reading and math skills. Read More ›
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Louisiana (USA) flag waving on the wind
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Louisiana to Become 12th State to Adopt Universal School Choice

The Louisiana Senate and House have passed a sweeping school choice bill that will reach all families statewide by 2025. The bill will become law with the signature of Gov. Jeff Landry (R-LA), a longtime school choice advocate. With his soon-coming signature, Landry will make good on his promise by delivering education freedom to all Louisianans during his inaugural year in office. Read More ›
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US flag and flag of Texas flying proudly above the Texas State Capital
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Greg Abbott Went to War for School Choice — He Appears to Have Won

Texas voters made their voices heard at the ballot box last week by ousting from the state House of Representatives Republicans who had voted with Democrats to block school choice for families in the Lone Star State. The Texas House is now positioned to successfully pass a sweeping school-choice bill on behalf of Texas families in the 2025 legislative session. Read More ›
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Solitary Graduation Cap on a Pathway
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Protests Will Cost Universities in the Long Term

The campuses of many of America’s once distinguished institutions of higher education have been dominating the news in the past few weeks as pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel, and antisemitic protesters scream, chant, incite violence, refuse to vacate their tent cities, and make demands of school administrations. This damaging higher education exposure comes on the heels of the K-12 education “great parent awakening." Read More ›
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Bored and discouraged student
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Uniform Schools Yield Uniformly Poor Results

Parents who have two or more children know how totally different children can be. Even with the same two parents, living in the same house, eating the same food, and having very similar learning experiences, children will still turn out to be different in personality, interests, and even appearance. So why would we stick with an education system that treats all children alike? Read More ›
Keri Ingraham - Politically Unstable Podcast - April 2024

Keri D. Ingraham Discusses Education Innovation & School Choice on the Politically Unstable Podcast

There are pockets of amazing innovation happening around our country in K-12 education, but they are far too rare. One example of an innovative high school is West Michigan Aviation Academy in Grand Rapids. The school is in its 14th year, but few people know about it nationally. It should be a national headline because it is a model that deserves replication. Read More ›
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Let’s Align High School to Workforce Needs

The perceived value of higher education has been plummeting for years, yet tuition prices continue to rise at levels outpacing the increased career earning power in several fields. Combine the financial cost and the misalignment of college courses with the labor markets, and it’s no surprise that traditional higher education is on the decline. Read More ›