education

Heritage Foundation: Where Does Your State Rank on Education Freedom?

The Heritage Foundation recently released its 2025 Education Freedom Report Card, which evaluates and ranks all 50 states and the District of Columbia according to key components that determine parents’ freedom to choose the best education for their children.

The report also lists states that moved toward more education freedom in 2025.

The publication’s introduction quoted philosopher John Stuart Mills’ warning against state control of education because it allowed leaders to mold people “to be exactly like one another” in a way that pleases “the predominant power in the government.”

Heritage noted that America has failed to follow Mill’s guidance, “Rather than encouraging a diverse and pluralistic system of schools, Americans created a public school system characterized by ZIP code assignment, regulatory capture by far left-leaning employee unions, high spending, low academic achievement and pervasive efforts to [mold] the views of children in disturbing ways. “

The 2025 report card lists the five states with the highest levels of education freedom in dark green: Florida, Arizona, Idaho, Arkansas and Louisiana. The states with the lowest levels of educational freedom, illustrated in red, were Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and Rhode Island – with Maine at the very bottom of the list.

States were rated on four components: education choice, teacher freedom, transparency and return on investment.

Education choice includes whether a state offers education savings accounts for education expenses and what proportion of students qualify for these programs. It also includes the proportion of charter schools to public schools; the proportion of students in charter, private and home schools; and the amount of regulation burdening alternatives to government schools.     

Teacher freedom rankings considered whether states allow new teachers to be “certified through alternative pathways” or if they require traditional teacher licensing. This category also measured the proportion of school districts with chief diversity officers who “limit academic freedom in the classroom” and whether a state “grants full reciprocity to teachers who complete their certification in other states.”

The Heritage Foundation defines the third component, Transparency, as whether “the education system gives parents information to make the best decisions about their children’s education.” States were also rated on whether they had enacted a “Parents’ Bill of Rights.”

Heritage researchers also looked to see if a state protected teachers and students from critical race theory and transgender ideology – or if it compelled indoctrination in these radical ideologies and forced students and staff to use a student’s “chosen name and pronouns.

Transparency in education also included parents’ right to access curricula and materials; a state’s protection of public comments at school board meetings; and the timing of school board election cycle.

The report explains the latter, “This variable indicates whether states hold school board elections on cycle with the general election. Teachers’ unions often lobby for off-cycle elections so that they can ensure a larger turnout from their members. This makes it more likely that union-friendly school board members are elected.”

Return on investment was determined by dividing average fourth and eighth grade state scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress by its per-pupil spending. Researchers also looked at the ratio of teachers to non-teaching staff, noting, “Much of the K–12 public school spending has resulted in more school administrators, not investments in teachers and resources to improve education quality.”

States were given a separate civics education rating, which included whether a year-long civics course was a requirement for high school students and quantification of “how many classical education schools each state has per 100,000 K–12 students.” 

Civics education was also rated by “whether states require students to pass the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Test, or an equivalent,” as well as a state’s performance on the NAEP’s Civics Test.

The Heritage Foundation listed major gains just this year as more states embrace education freedom:

  • Tennessee (new education savings account (ESA) program).
  • Idaho (new personal use tax credit).
  • Indiana (expanded eligibility for voucher program).
  • Louisiana (new ESA program).
  • Missouri (expanded tax credit funded ESA).
  • New Hampshire (expanded eligibility for ESA program).
  • Wyoming (new ESA).
  • Perhaps most important of all, Texas joined the fraternity of states providing universal choice to K–12 students.

Despite those advances, the state education survey indicates how much more work is needed to allow parents the freedom to provide their children with the best education possible.

Focus on the Family and Family Policy Alliance have produced a comprehensive resource, Equipping Parents for Back-to-School, that empowers parents and concerned citizens as they work to improve government schools.

Equipping Parents helps you understand your rights and your children’s rights, prepares you to take action if needed, explains state and federal laws related to a variety of school issues and gives guidance for talking with your child about sensitive issues.

The free, downloadable PDF has sections dealing with different areas of concern within local schools, such as classroom curriculums and textbooks, sports teams and locker rooms, school health clinics and counseling offices, and school internet and computers.

Then, the resource equips you with ideas for responding and protecting your child.

Related Articles and Resources

Check out your state’s education freedom assessment ranking. 

FBI Reports: Crime in Schools: Almost 1.3 Million Incidents from 2020-2024

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What’s Happening in Schools? Why We Need Educational Freedom

Images from Shutterstock and The Heritage Foundation.

Image from Shutterstock.

FBI Reports: Crime in Schools: Almost 1.3 Million Incidents from 2020-2024

Almost 1.3 million criminal incidents occurred at schools across the nation from 2020 to 2024, a new FBI report finds.

Crime in Schools: 2020-2024 reports there were 1.5 million offenses against people and property, 1.5 million victims of crimes and 1.25 million known offenders associated with those incidents.

In a Fox News opinion piece on the FBI report, school choice activist Corey DeAngelis explained why the actual number of crimes is probably much higher than 1.3 million.

“The kicker is that this figure is almost certainly an undercount. In 2024, only about 9,000 law enforcement agencies submitted data to the FBI for the report, even though there are roughly 18,000 of these agencies nationwide.”

“That under reporting means we’re only getting a partial picture that likely misses hundreds of thousands more incidents from excluded jurisdictions. The real number of crimes in America’s schools is undoubtedly much higher, painting an even grimmer portrait of the system.”

In addition, some schools handle minor offenses internally, without reporting to law enforcement officials.

DeAngelis, author of The Parent Revolution: Rescuing Your Kids from the Radicals Ruining Our Schools, noted the crime analysis is an important argument for educational freedom, “Competition forces schools to prioritize safety to attract and retain families.”

He explained,

Kids shouldn’t be trapped in dangerous schools. Every day, children are exposed to violence, abuse and chaos in these government-run institutions. …

The evidence overwhelmingly indicates that school choice helps children attend safer schools. My peer-reviewed analysis of the literature, published in Educational Review in 2022, found that private and charter schools are consistently safer than traditional public schools.

These choice options foster environments with less violence, fewer disruptions, and stronger discipline standards.

“Crime in Schools” gives details about the types of offenses:

  • Assaults were the most reported offenses in the Crimes Against Persons category.
  • Larceny/thefts were the most reported crimes in the Crimes Against Property category.
  • Drug/narcotic offenses were the most reported crimes in the Crimes Against Society category.
  • When a weapon was involved in a crime, it was most often personal weapons (hands, fists, feet, etc.).

When weapons were involved in crimes, assailants used “personal weapons” 411,192 times, knives or cutting instruments 33,470 times, and guns 21,338 times.

The FBI also listed characteristics of victims, including their age, stating, “The age group with the highest number of victims over the 5-year period was 19 or older. For ages 18 or under, victims were most frequently reported in the 13 to 15 age group.”

Focus on the Family has long advocated for educational freedom. Parents need greater freedom as they raise their children and guide them toward academic success. In numerous articles, the Daily Citizen has described the capture of our educational system by radical idealogues; the sexualization and confusion of children through inappropriate sexual education, classroom instruction and school library books; and the failure of many schools to educate children in basic subjects.

Thankfully, many states are offering educational freedom, and the Trump administration is encouraging this trend.

But the FBI “Crime in Schools Report” shows the need for more states to move in that direction in order to protect all students.  

Download Equipping Parents for Back-to-School to find out more about what’s happening in schools and how to advocate for your children. This free resource empowers parents to make a difference in their children’s schools.

Related Articles and Resources

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Bill that Teaches ‘Gender Identity’ to Kindergarteners Signed into Law by Illinois Governor

Department of Education: Schools Embracing DEI Will Lose Funding

Trump Ends Radical Indoctrination, Promotes Education Freedom

Sex Educators Say ‘Early Grades May Be the Best Time’ to Introduce Children to LGBT Issues

Sexualizing Schoolchildren: Comprehensive Sex Ed

What’s Happening in Schools? Why We Need Educational Freedom

Image from Shutterstock.

Loudoun County Boys Win Reprieve from Unjust Suspension

Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) has temporarily lifted its wrongful suspension of the two boys who asked, “Why is there a girl in the boys locker room?”

Founding Freedoms Law Center, which represents the boys and their families, won the reprieve on Tuesday after formally disputing the district’s conclusion that the boys’ efforts to protect their privacy constitute sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination.

The 10-day suspension will be delayed until LCPS’ adjudicates the appeal, which means the student who remains in Loudoun County can start school with his peers on August 25.

The other victim no longer lives in the state. His family moved to North Dakota to escape LCPS’ judgement.

Josh Hetzler, Senior Legal Counsel at Founding Freedoms, doesn’t expect the break to last.

“At every point along the way, LCPS has made it clear, frankly, that they were going to find these boys guilty,” he spoke plainly at yesterday’s press conference.

“So we don’t expect them to do the right thing — though we hope they do.”

If LCPS refuses to acquit the boys, Hetzler promises Founding Freedoms will take the district to court.

The boys are the latest in a long line of students and teachers victimized by Policy 8040, the district’s policy equating “gender identity,” a person’s subjective feeling of being male or female, with biological sex.

Policy 8040 effectively eliminates single-sex spaces. Students can use whichever bathroom or locker room aligns with their “gender identity.” Critics of the policy can be accused of “sex discrimination.”

In 2021, under Policy 8040, a “gender fluid” boy in a skirt sexually assaulted a fifteen-year-old-girl in the girl’s bathroom. LCPS subsequently tried to hide the attack, threw the victim’s father out of a school board meeting and transferred the perpetrator to another high school, where he offended again.

LCPS’ history with legitimate, atrocious Title IX violations makes its allegations of sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination against the boys seem particularly laughable.

Per Hetzler:

What they’re alleged to have done is to use [protected] speech to complain about a girl in the locker room.

[It] was all confined to speech among boys — never directed at the girl — inside the locker room. [It included] asking questions like, “Why is there a girl in the locker room?” and [making statements like,] “Hey, there’s a girl in the locker room.”

That’s the extent of it.

The boys’ actions aren’t in the ballpark of harassment or discrimination. But Renee Smith, the mother of the victim who lives in North Dakota, says the label itself is damaging, regardless of its veracity.

“Loudoun County Public Schools branded my son with one of the most damaging labels you can put on a young man — sexual harassment,” a proxy read from Smith’s remarks Wednesday.

“And for what? Referring to a biological girl as a girl? That’s not harassment, that’s truth.”

Smith continued:

The damage is already done. That false label will follow [my son], threatening his reputation and his mental and emotional wellbeing.

Happily, LCPS may not get away with its treatment of these boys. On Tuesday, the Department of Education (DoEd) came down on LCPS and four other Virginia school districts for repeatedly and willfully violating Title IX.

The order put LCPS and its compatriots on “reimbursement only” status while DoEd works to terminate the districts’ annual federal funding, totaling some $50 million.

That means the district will get no more federal money up front. Instead, it has to pay its own bills and submit them for reimbursement.

The DoEd is also investigating LCPS’ treatment of the boys.

“I’ve been informed by the Department of Education that they have opened a formal investigation over [this] case,” Hetzler confirmed Wednesday.

The case is ongoing.

LCPS’ has terrorized parents and students for years. The Daily Citizen fervently hopes its reign of terror will soon come to an end.

Additional Articles and Resources

Poetic Justice: Virginia school district loses federal funding day after bogus suspension.

Loudoun County Schools Defy Education Department Over Multiple Title IX Violations

DoEd Finds Northern Virginia School Districts Violated Title IX

Irate Parents Excoriate Loudoun County Schools Superintendent and Board Over Sexual Abuse Coverup

Virginia School District Ignores Parents’ Opposition, Implements ‘Gender Identity’ Lessons

‘Equipping Parents For Back-To-School’ – Updated Resource Empowers Parents

Department of Education Launches Multiple Investigations Into Title IX Violations

Department of Education: Schools Embracing DEI Will Lose Funding

Department of Justice Launches Title IX Task Force to Protect Women’s Sports

New Education Secretary Linda McMahon: ‘Send Education to the States’

Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Women’s Sports and Spaces

What’s Your School District’s ‘Transgender’ Policy?

One Mom’s Journey Advocating for Children and Parental Rights  

Lori Gimelshteyn’s life was going along pretty smoothly. A wife and mother of two children, she also had a successful career as a speech language pathologist. In addition to her private practice she ran a ministry called the Let’s Talk Initiative, for children and adults with complex communication needs.

But then she and her husband, Max, began noticing something was very wrong with their children’s schools. Even though Cherry Creek School District was one of the top districts in Colorado, children were learning false and harmful ideologies in direct opposition to their family’s beliefs.

Their children were being lied to.

The first sign something was wrong, she told the Daily Citizen in an interview, was when their eleven-year-old daughter came home from school and said that a girl friend “was now going to be a boy and have a boy name and use he/his/him pronouns … and use the boy’s room.”

Lori thought they must have missed an email from the school. Had she overlooked an announcement about a workshop for parents, informing them that a girl would now be using the boy’s restroom?    

But there was no email. And no workshop.

Lori’s daughter explained to her, “Oh no, mommy, She goes home every day as a girl. His [sic] parents have no idea.”

The Gimelshteyn’s second wake-up call came when their eighth-grade son came home with a language arts assignment. He was asked to write an essay answering the question: “Why is your favorite hobby racist?”

Lori said, “After looking at the rubric and seeing he was being compelled to make the statement that skiing, his favorite hobby, was racist, against people of color.”

She told her son, “You will get an F on this paper before you lie. We don’t lie in this family.”

Shockingly, he responded, “You don’t understand, mom. I have to think one way at home and another way at school.”

The Gimelshteyn’s had just encountered two of our education system’s reigning ideologies: transgenderism and critical race theory.

Lori discovered that children were being taught that “they were born in the wrong body,” and they could somehow be transformed into the opposite sex – an obvious lie.

Critical race theory, as Lori explained, teaches children “they’re part of a systemically racist country that is basically bad” and “they are either in a group of what would be called oppressors or oppressed.”

She added, “And the districts are requiring the teachers to take professional coursework in this.”

These events sent Lori on a journey – talking with other parents, reaching out to teachers and speaking with the school principal.

Lori said, “When I uncovered what was happening, I thought, well, my goodness, all I have to do is tell people that this is happening and everybody will be outraged. And this will end.”

But when she questioned the Cherry Creek Board of Education about teachers being trained in critical race theory, she was vilified by local media – and even some parents. This created a chilling environment where other parents were afraid to speak out.

The very next day, I was in the papers as a crazed parent, a conspiracy theorist. I heard words like militia leader, anti-LGBTQ mom, and really just harmful, hurtful words.

And what that did was it set the precedent for every parent around me that had concerns. They did not want that to happen to them. They were afraid that they were going to be fired. They didn’t want to take a stand because the risk was so great.

The abuse from the press and the shunning by other parents, painful as it was, had the positive effect of deepening the Gimelshteyn’s faith. Lori told us the family had been, up until that point, “kind of Sunday Christians, if you will.”

But what they were facing led them to pray, seek God’s guidance, read the Word and grow in their relationship with God.

Max and Lori sat down together to decide what to do next.

The bottom line – they couldn’t fear men. She said, “We had to move beyond that because we have to protect these children.”

After a lot of prayer, talking with others, and discerning where God was guiding them, Lori stopped her speech pathology work and became a full-time advocate for children, parents and families.

She founded Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, with the goal of “building a statewide network of parents, educators, and citizens united in purpose to restore accountability, uphold parental rights, and protect children from harmful ideological and institutional overreach.”

Colorado Parent Advocacy Network’s work includes:

  • Advocacy support for families in education, healthcare, and government systems.
  • Informational classes and resources for parents, educators and community members.
  • Mentorship for launching local advocacy groups.
  • Statewide policy engagement and legislative action on issues impacting children and families.

That policy engagement includes Lori’s work with Protect Kids Colorado, where she is a board member. The organizations are sponsoring three measures they hope to place on the ballot in 2026.

  • “Protecting Our Children From Child Sex Trafficking” sets a penalty of life in prison without parole for anyone who buys or sells a minor child for sex in Colorado.
  • “Protecting Our Girl’s Sports from Biological Males” ensures girls sports are protected, requiring sports leagues and teams be specifically designated male, female, or co-ed.
  •  “Protecting Our Children From Irreversible Sex Change Surgery” prohibits irreversible sex change surgeries on minor children, age 17 and younger.

Lori is very hopeful about placing these measures before Colorado voters.

She’s optimistic about the future, even for states like Colorado, deeply mired in radical leftist ideology and politics. Concerned voters are rallying around the three ballot initiatives to protect children, she said, adding, “And that tells you that in a state like Colorado, where a lot of people feel like it’s a lost cause, that the people – we the people – are shifting this culture.”

Lori’s also encourages other parents to do something to advocate for children, parental rights and a return to academic excellence. Concerned citizens don’t need to start new organizations or give public speeches – most states have parental rights advocacy groups to connect with, donate to and volunteer for.

Parents can take steps to protect their own children by opting them out of objectionable lessons, surveys or assignments, she said. If enough parents do this, teachers will have to alter their curriculums to accommodate them.

Not everyone will become a full-time activist, but everyone can do something to protect children and stop harmful education practices. 

Related Articles and Resources

YouTube Interview: Mom Takes a Stand: Protecting Children from Ideology in Schools

California Family Harassed After Trying to Opt-Out of Activities Teaching Gender Ideology

Colorado Parent Advocacy Network – Resources for Parents

Protect Kids Colorado

‘Equipping Parents For Back-To-School’ – Updated Resource Empowers Parents

Equipping Parents for Back-to-School

Is ‘Critical Race Theory’ Being Taught in Public Schools? CRT Deniers Claim it Isn’t

Liberal Father Seeks to Disprove Concerns Over Sexually Explicit Books in Schools, Becomes Convinced These Books Are Not for Children

National Day of Reading Celebrates ‘Stories Supporting Transgender and Non-Binary Youth’

NEA President Wants to Transform Education Into ‘Something It Was Never Designed to Be’

Sexualizing Schoolchildren: Classroom and Library Books

What’s Your School District’s ‘Transgender’ Policy?

Poetic Justice: Virginia school district loses federal funding day after bogus suspension.

The Department of Education (DoEd) put five Northern Virginia school districts on “reimbursement payment status” Tuesday pending full termination of their federal funding.

The decisive edict follow the districts’ continued violations of Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded educational programs and institutions.

Alexandria City, Arlington, Fairfax County, Loudoun County and Prince William County Public Schools allow students to use bathrooms, locker rooms and other sex-segregated facilities consistent with their subjective “gender identity,” rather than their biological sex.

Late last month, DoEd’s Office of Civil Rights found these policies violate Title IX. It ordered the districts to segregate bathrooms, locker rooms and sports by biological sex — or risk forfeiting a combined $50 million in annual federal funding.

None of the districts complied. Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS), per usual, actually made a show of failing to comply.

Last week, the school board formally voted to refuse DoEd’s order. Yesterday, it suspended two high school boys for expressing discomfort with a girl in their locker room.

Of LCPS’ laundry list of wrongs, its failure to protect single-sex sports and spaces are some of the most egregious.

In 2021, shortly after LCPS passed its policy equating “gender identity” and “sex,” a “gender fluid” boy in a skirt sexually assaulted a fifteen-year-old girl in the girl’s bathroom..

Subsequently, the Daily Citizen writes:

LCPS’ Superintendent and Board dragged the [assaulted] girl’s father out of a board meeting, tried to cover up the incident and transferred the boy to another school — where he assaulted a second girl.

Then, in May, a female student filmed two boys in the boys’ locker room asking, “Why is there a girl in the boy’s locker room?”

Though the female had violated school policy by filming in the locker room, it was the boys, not her, who faced punishment.

On Monday, the district concluded the boys had committed sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination by asking why a girl had violated their privacy. They will serve a ten-day suspension and establish an additional “corrective action” plan with administrators upon their return.

Though both boys were sanctioned, only one will serve his unjust punishment. The other moved away from Virginia entirely, taking refuge in North Dakota, after district investigator Christopher Moy indicated he could choose to drop cases if the subjects left the district.  

But Moy didn’t drop the investigation. Instead, he informed the family if their son ever re-enrolled in Loudoun County, he would first have to serve his suspension.

Now, the high school junior’s school record includes accusations of sex discrimination and sexual harassment — just in time to start applying for colleges.

The Daily Citizen asked Victoria Cobb, President of the Focus on the Family-allied Family Foundation, how LCPS could come to such an unjust conclusion.  

“LCPS is targeting these boys, plain and simple,” she said. “Punishing boys who complain that a biological girl is in their changing area is a top-down effort to normalize unacceptable privacy invasions by the opposite gender.”

Family Foundation’ legal affiliate, Founding Freedoms Law Center, represents the boys and their families. Cobb says they plan to hold LCPS accountable for their radical policies:

To allow this punishment to stand is to allow a school system to force children to bow to a woke ideology that defies reality, science and God’s created order.

Cobb and the Family Foundation are far from the only ones to question the validity of LCPS’ “investigation.” In June, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares released a report finding:

LCPS is utilizing an unlawful, discriminatory and retaliatory Title IX investigation to silence students’ sincerely held religious objections to [LCPS policies equating sex and “gender identity.”]

Miyares referred the report to DoEd for further investigation.

Now, the writing is on the wall for LCPS and its compatriots. DoEd has “commenced administrative proceedings seeking suspension or termination of federal financial assistance to [the districts].”

In the meantime, the districts will get no federal money up front. Instead, while on “reimbursement status,” they will have to foot their own bills and submit them for federal reimbursement.

“States and school districts cannot openly violate federal law while simultaneously receiving federal funding with no additional security,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon explained in a press release.

“The Northern Virginia School Divisions that are choosing to abide by woke gender ideology in place of federal law must now prove they are using every single federal dollar for a legal purpose.”

The Daily Citizen heartily praises DoEd for its unflinching enforcement Title IX. As Craig Trainor, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at DoEd, said in July:

It’s time for Northern Virginia’s experiment with radical gender ideology and unlawful discrimination to come to an end.

Additional Articles and Resources

Loudoun County Schools Defy Education Department Over Multiple Title IX Violations

DoEd Finds Northern Virginia School Districts Violated Title IX

Irate Parents Excoriate Loudoun County Schools Superintendent and Board Over Sexual Abuse Coverup

Virginia School District Ignores Parents’ Opposition, Implements ‘Gender Identity’ Lessons

‘Equipping Parents For Back-To-School’ – Updated Resource Empowers Parents

Department of Education Launches Multiple Investigations Into Title IX Violations

Department of Education: Schools Embracing DEI Will Lose Funding

Department of Justice Launches Title IX Task Force to Protect Women’s Sports

New Education Secretary Linda McMahon: ‘Send Education to the States’

Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Women’s Sports and Spaces

What’s Your School District’s ‘Transgender’ Policy?