education

Advocating for Educational Freedom and School Choice

Focus on the Family was recently contacted by a secular news agency with questions about education freedom and the popularity of homeschooling and private education options over government-run schools. This gave us the opportunity to explain more fully why school choice matters to families and sets students up for success.

Right now, with so many fundamental assumptions about the government’s involvement in education being questioned, this is the perfect time to have conversations with our neighbors and friends about why education freedom is essential to the future of the education movement in the United States.

Here’s how Focus on the Family made the case for school choice and education freedom.

Advantages of School Choice

Focus on the Family believes parents have the God-given, fundamental right to direct their children’s education.

School vouchers give parents more independence to direct their children’s education. We know that children have different personalities and learning styles. Parents know their children and are equipped to make education decisions in their child’s best interest.

Focus on the Family will continue to advocate for parental rights and equip parents to understand their rights. We want parents to feel confident in their ability to advocate for their rights as parents and for their children.

Implications of Families Choosing Homeschool and Private Education Over Government-Run Public Schools

As President Trump’s Executive Order “Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families” explains, public schools are failing. Recent reports show that only 30% of eighth graders are proficient in reading and math. This is despite federal, state and local combined government funding of $17,700 per student. 

Rather than continuing to subsidize the failing public education monopoly, having more school options means public schools are competing for education dollars, and competition generally leads to better options – in this case, better education options for students and improved student achievement.

The federal government can’t mandate educational freedom – that’s a state issue – but it can offer incentives for states to give families more options, which is what this order does. Increasing educational freedom is good for students, families and our country.

Trump’s Executive Order Prohibiting Indoctrination in the Classroom

Focus on the Family applauds the new Executive Order, “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” that will end the activist indoctrination in K-12 schools.

We know some public schools have become politically and sexually radicalized. They teach, promote and celebrate values and ideologies that are in direct conflict with the spiritual values of many parents.

It is the duty of schools to teach students how to think and engage in discussions with civility — not to indoctrinate students with radical racial and gender ideology.

Education Freedom is Widely Popular

According to Real Clear Opinion Research, Americans overwhelmingly support school choice in education — by a margin of 71% to 13%.

Americans believe in education freedom because it equalizes education opportunities regardless of family income. Education freedom is about helping students attain the education that’s best for them.

Resource for Parents

Focus on the Family has a free parent resource on education — “Equipping Parents for Back-to-School.” It explains issues like educational freedom, parental rights in education, and religious freedom and free speech in schools. It’s a terrific resource for parents who want to advocate for their children and guide them toward academic success.

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Image from Shutterstock

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

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon recently sent her staff a letter titled, “Our Department’s Final Mission.” She wrote, “My vision is aligned with the President’s: to send education back to the states.”

Secretary McMahon added, “The Department of Education’s role in this new era of accountability is to restore the rightful role of state oversight in education and to end the overreach from Washington.”

Other goals listed in the staff letter include:

  • “Empower all parents to choose an excellent education for their children through increased school choice” by “promoting school choice for every child.” 
  • Combat radical ideologies and practices, such as “critical race theory, DEI, gender ideology and discrimination in admissions.” 
  • Eliminate “waste, red tape and harmful programs in the federal government.”
  • Restore “patriotic education and civics.” 

President Trump has already taken steps to achieve some of these goals, signing executive orders directing the DOE to promote educational freedom for families; stop the indoctrination of children into “radical, anti-American ideologies”; protect girls and women’s sports; and end diversity, equity and inclusivity (DEI) programs in education.

The department’s Office of Civil Rights launched investigations into schools and districts for Title IX violations.  Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor then sent a “Dear Colleague” letter, warning states and schools that they must eliminate discriminatory DEI trainings and curriculums and end racial preferences in hiring and admissions – or lose federal education funds.

Shortly after his election, the president said, “One other thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. and sending all education and education work back to the states.”

Since Congress established the DOE in 1979, it’s unlikely that this administration can unilaterally and legally shut down the department without congressional approval.

But conservative activist Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute,  argues there are things Secretary McMahon can do to reduce the size and impact of the government agency. In an article in City Journal, he writes:

The administration must first understand that the Department of Education administers three primary activities: college student loans and grants; K-12 funding; and ideological production, which includes an array of programs, grants, civil rights initiatives, and third-party NGOs that create left-wing content to push on local schools.

He suggests McMahon handle each of these areas separately:

  • First, the department should spin off all college student loans and grants to an independent financial entity.
  • Second, the administration, in cooperation with Congress, should block-grant the Department of Education’s K-12 funding programs to the states. 
  • Third, Trump must shut down the Department of Education’s centers of ideological production and terminate the employment of the bureaucrats who run them.

Rufo explains this last point, saying:

The department maintains a sprawling network of ideological centers through its research programs, as well as a vast array of NGOs, which survive on department funding and promote left-wing identity activism. These groups have become hotbeds of progressive identity politics, promoting theories of “systemic racism” and the idea that men can turn into women.

The conservative author has posted examples on X demonstrating DOE support for radical ideology. For example, this NGO, given funds by the agency, tells educators they should “learn to further avoid stigmatizing youth engaged in survival sex work.”

The presentation goes on to describe “adultism”: “The oppression experienced by children and young people at the hand of adults and adult-produced/adult-tailored systems.”

Rufo spotlighted another training program, funded by the DOE, “which claims that babies develop racial biases as infants and begin ‘attributing negative traits to non-dominant (non-white) races’ by age 5.”

Your tax dollars at work.

Secretary McMahon wrote in her letter to DOE employees about the waste and misuse of funds, with little positive impact on academic achievement:

The Department of Education is not working as intended. Since its establishment in 1980, taxpayers have entrusted the department with over $1 trillion, yet student outcomes have consistently languished. Millions of young Americans are trapped in failing schools, subjected to radical anti-American ideology, or saddled with college debt for a degree that has not provided a meaningful return on their investment.

McMahon reminded the staff, “Parents are the primary decision makers in their children’s education.” She encouraged them to work to “empower parents to make the best educational choices for their children” as the administration seeks to transfer educational authority back to the states.

Related Articles and Resources

Focus on the Family’s free parenting resource Equipping Parents for Back to School explains issues like educational freedom, parental rights in education, critical race theory, sexual education, and religious freedom and free speech in schools. It’s a terrific resource for parents who want to advocate for their children and guide them toward academic success.

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Image from Getty.

Department of Education Launches Multiple Investigations Into Title IX Violations

The U.S. Department of Education has launched multiple investigations into schools and athletic associations for Title IX violations, including schools that allow boys in girls restrooms and sports.

The investigations follow an executive order signed by President Donald Trump, Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, which declares that the practice of letting men compete in women’s sports is “demeaning, unfair and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.”

The order directs the DOE to remove federal funds from “educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities.” 

The most recent investigation was launched after the president got into a dustup with Maine Governor Janet Mills over boys taking slots on girls teams, as National Review reported.

When asked whether Maine would follow the executive order, the governor replied the state was “complying with state and federal laws.”

The president then said, “We are the federal law. You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.” 

According to National Review, “Mills replied that she will see Trump in court as her state openly resists federal law. Maine’s high school sports governing body is continuing to abide by state law regarding athletic eligibility, defying Trump’s order.”

A male high school student recently won Maine’s Class B indoor girls pole vaulting championship, helping his team eke out a one-point victory for the Class B title.

The male sophomore, who goes by the name Katie Spencer, won the event with a vault of 10-6. Two girls, freshman Briella Boudreau and senior Kessa Benner, tied for second and third, 10-0.

As a result, the DOE announced it was looking into the Maine Department of Education “amid allegations that it continues to allow male athletes to compete in girls’ interscholastic athletics and that it has denied female athletes female-only intimate facilities, thereby violating federal antidiscrimination law.”  

Maine’s not the only one being scrutinized for discriminating against girls. Here’s a roundup of more groups the DOE is looking into:

  • The DOE announced it was investigating “three entities for suspected Title IX violations: San Jose State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association.” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor released a statement saying, “This administration will not tolerate the mistreatment of female athletes.”

He added, “The previous administration trampled the rights of American women and girls – and ignored the indignities to which they were subjected in bathrooms and locker rooms – to promote a radical transgender ideology.” 

  • The education department released a statement that it had also “directed investigations into the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF)” after the groups “publicly announced plans to violate federal antidiscrimination laws related to girls’ and women’s sports.”

According to the DOE statement, both groups “announced their intentions to abide by state law as it relates to girls’ and women’s sports in violation of federal antidiscrimination laws. Both state laws allow athletes to participate on teams based on an individual’s subjective gender identity rather than biological sex, even though biological sex is the basis for Title IX protections.”

  • The DOE’s Office of General Counsel announced it “sent a letter to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) urging them to restore to female athletes the records, titles, awards, and recognitions misappropriated by biological males competing in female categories.”  
  • The DOE’s Office for Civil Rights sent a letter to the Denver Public Schools District for violating Title IX when “the District converted a girls’ restroom in East High School to a multi-stall all gender restroom.” The letter goes on to state: “East High School now has an exclusive restroom for male students and no restroom for female students on its second floor.” Not having equal facilities for girls clearly violates their Title IX rights, the letter said, adding that the department would be investigating discrimination at other Denver schools.

America First Legal Senior Advisor Ian Prior said in a statement, “A male student in these school districts can wake up, claim to be ‘gender expansive or transgender,’ and then have a pass to use female locker rooms and restrooms. If the female students are uncomfortable sharing those locker rooms and restrooms with that male student, it is the female students who must make alternative arrangements. That is sex discrimination.”

When boys participate in girls sports, they steal victories, scholarships and opportunities to compete. It’s also unsafe. Allowing boys into dressing rooms, showers and restrooms, as an assault on girls privacy, dignity and safety.

For too long, girls and women have been pushed to the sidelines by males claiming to be female. We applaud the Department of Education for launching these investigations and hope for success as they fight transgender ideology and discrimination against girls and women.

Related articles and resources:

The U.S. Department of Education offers resources related to Title IX here and complaint filing information here.

If you’re concerned about what your child is being taught in school, check out this updated, free resource from Focus on the Family and Family Policy Alliance: Equipping Parents for Back-to-School.

We want parents to feel confident and equipped to manage issues affecting public – and private and online – schooling. The FREE downloadable resource helps you be aware of what’s going on in your child’s classroom and offers guidance for how to advocate for your child in the school year ahead.

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Department of Education: Schools Embracing DEI Will Lose Funding

The Department of Education sent a “Dear Colleague” letter warning states and schools that they must eliminate discriminatory “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) trainings and curriculums and end racial preferences in hiring and admissions – or lose federal education funds.

The letter was sent on February 14 by the DOE’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor and applies “to all preschool, elementary, secondary, and post-secondary educational institutions, as well as state educational agencies, that receive financial assistance.”

The letter, from the DOE’s Office for Civil Rights, warned, “Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding.”

The letter began with a clear statement, “Discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin is illegal and morally reprehensible.”

Trainor then went on to explain two ways schools have violated federal non-discrimination laws. First, they have done this through “race-based preferences” and second, in using DEI in teacher training and classroom instruction.

Regarding race-based preferences, Trainor’s letter explained:

In recent years, American educational institutions have discriminated against students on the basis of race, including white and Asian students, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds and low-income families. These institutions’ embrace of pervasive and repugnant race-based preferences and other forms of racial discrimination have emanated throughout every facet of academia.
 
For example, colleges, universities, and K-12 schools have routinely used race as a factor in admissions, financial aid, hiring, training, and other institutional programming.

The DOE also noted, “In a shameful echo of a darker period in this country’s history, many American schools and universities even encourage segregation by race at graduation ceremonies and in dormitories and other facilities.”

The letter explained that the U.S. Supreme Court, in its 2023 decision Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College, found race-based preferences in college admissions unconstitutional.

Trainor wrote that the test for this discrimination is simple:

If an educational institution treats a person of one race differently than it treats another person because of that person’s race, the educational institution violates the law. Federal law thus prohibits covered entities from using race in decisions pertaining to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.

The civil rights letter also told state departments of education and schools that DEI programs violated students constitutional rights:

Educational institutions have toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon “systemic and structural racism” and advanced discriminatory policies and practices. Proponents of these discriminatory practices have attempted to further justify them – particularly during the last four years – under the banner of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI), smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming, and discipline. 

DEI is based on radical concepts from critical race theory and radical feminist ideology, beliefs rooted in Marxist- and Freudian-based critical legal theory. When used in schools, DEI teaches staff and students:

  • Everyone is racist and misogynist.
  • People have overlapping identities which make them “oppressed” or an “oppressor.”
  • “Gender” is one of those identities, and it is a “social construct.”
  • “Anti-racism,” LGBT activism and radical feminist action must be employed to fight this systemic bigotry. 

As the letter explained, “DEI programs … frequently preference certain racial groups and teach students that certain racial groups bear unique moral burdens that others do not.” As a result, the letter stated, these programs “deny students the ability to participate fully in the life of a school.”

The Dear Colleague letter followed an executive order from President Donald Trump, “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling.” The order indicted false, divisive ideologies like critical race theory and gender ideology, explaining their negative effects on students.

Another executive order directed different agency heads to “coordinate the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear.”

While most K-12 education is funded by state and local governments, the DOE provides support for a variety of areas, including personnel, curriculums, technology and special education programs. According to the Education Data Initiative, “K-12 schools nationwide receive $119.1 billion total or $2,400 per pupil from the federal government.”

The DOE also offers grants for college students, such as Pell Grants, to the tune of $44.3 billion in 2023-2024.

The letter offered a link to the DOE Office of Civil Rights where individuals can file complaints against schools that continue to discriminate through racial preferences and DEI training, programs and curriculums.

Related articles and resources:

Focus on the Family’s free parenting resource Equipping Parents for Back to School explains issues like educational freedom, parental rights in education, critical race theory, sexual education, and religious freedom and free speech in schools. It’s a terrific resource for parents who want to advocate for their children and guide them toward academic success.

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Tennessee Governor Signs ‘Education Freedom Act,’ Expands School Choice  

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed the Educational Freedom Act of 2025 earlier this week, creating 20,000 educational scholarships for students for the 2025-2026 school year. The bill also gives all public school teachers a one-time, $2,000 bonus for the current school year.

This legislation is part of a growing movement toward giving families the freedom to choose the best type of education for their children, allowing them to thrive and succeed.

At the bill’s signing, the governor said:

I learned a long time ago that education changes the trajectory of a child’s life forever. Today we put in place a piece of legislation that will change the future of Tennessee forever, because it changes the trajectory of the next generation of Tennessee.

The legislation, H.B. 6004, was passed in a special session of the General Assembly, with the House approving the measure by a vote of 54-44 and the Senate with a 20-13 vote.

According to the governor’s Education Freedom website, “20,000 scholarships will be available to Tennessee students.” This includes:

  • 10,000 scholarships for students at or below 300% of income qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, have a disability, or are eligible for the existing ESA [Education Savings Account] program.
  • 10,000 additional scholarships available to a universal pool of students entitled to attend a public school.

The scholarships, amounting to a little over $7,000, can be used for tuition and fees at a private school of a family’s choice, along with textbooks, instructional materials and uniforms at the private school. Money can also be used for transportation, tutoring and computer technology for educational needs.

In addition, “There will be an automatic growth trigger of 5,000 additional scholarships for each year after 75% of total scholarships are taken in the prior year.” The bill denies scholarships to students who cannot establish their “lawful presence in the United States.”

The Education Freedom Act was applauded by groups who want parents and families to have more freedom in choosing the education that best fits their children’s needs.

Americans for Prosperity Tennessee State Director Tori Venable released a statement thanking the governor and state legislators who supported the measure, saying, “Today marks a historic moment for Tennessee families and students. We applaud Governor Lee for his work to provide Tennessee kids with the best educational opportunities to fit their individual needs, from crafting this legislation to signing it into law.”

She explained that the organization had “ been a strong advocate for school choice, directly connecting with nearly 200,000 Tennesseans at their doors and over the phone in the past year alone.” Venable added, “We’re proud to see this massive win after combined years of policy and political work to empower parents across the Volunteer State.”

The American Federation for Children also celebrated, with Vice President of Government Affairs Ryan Cantrell saying:

Thanks to their hard work, Tennessee has now joined the ranks of dozens of states taking decisive action to address the gaping holes in our public education system. Parents across the country gave elected leaders a mandate to expand education freedom, and Tennessee has delivered it.

Related articles and resources:

Focus on the Family’s free parenting resource Equipping Parents for Back to School explains issues like educational freedom, parental rights in education, and religious freedom and free speech in schools. It’s a terrific resource for parents who want to advocate for their children and guide them toward academic success.

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