In 2007, when Hillary Clinton was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/us/politics/26DEBATE-TRANSCRIPT.html">asked</a> in a Democratic primary debate whether she would be comfortable having “King and King” — a children’s picture book about a prince who marries another man — read to her second-grade child as part of the school curriculum, she responded that it was a “matter of parental discretion.”
It’s remarkable how far off the deep end the Left has gone in just a few short years.
This week, the Supreme Court will <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_calendars/MonthlyArgumentCalApril2025.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hear a case</a> brought by a group of parents claiming what Clinton argued years ago: Parents should be able to decide whether or not their children read LGBTQ storybooks at school.
Oral arguments will be heard for the parental rights case Mahmoud v. Taylor, which <a href="https://becketfund.org/media/religious-parents-ask-supreme-court-to-restore-opt-outs-for-pride-storybooks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">originated</a> when the Montgomery County Board of Education introduced LGBTQ storybooks to the elementary school curriculum and revoked its existing parental notice and opt-out policies. Muslim, Jewish, and Christian parents challenged the school district’s ban on elementary school opt-outs on the grounds that the policy burdened their constitutional right to free exercise of religion.
The diverse coalition of parents isn’t asking the school district to remove the LGBTQ storybooks from classrooms. They simply want the option to remove their children from the classroom when content is taught that conflicts with their religious beliefs. Parents are the primary educators of their children, and that vocation doesn’t stop when kids begin to attend school.
The board of education added storybooks that introduce gender ideology and sexuality to children as young as three or four years old. These storybooks are transparently part of an activist push to introduce children to same-sex relationships, transgender ideology, and LGBTQ vocabulary at a startlingly young age.
“Born Ready” features a female main character who repeatedly claims, “Inside, I’m a boy,” and whose parents immediately start treating her like a boy. “Not everything needs to make sense. This is about love,” Penelope’s mom tells her confused older brother. The book’s author, Jodie Patterson, serves on the board of the Human Rights Campaign, a radical LGBTQ advocacy group.
Another book in the Montgomery County curriculum, <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">titled</a> “My Rainbow,” is about a transgender-identifying boy’s desire to have long hair to fit in with “cisgender girls.” Trinity Neal, a transgender-identifying boy, and his mother, DeShanna, a nonbinary activist, wrote the story based on their experiences. DeShanna <a href="https://history.delaware.gov/lgbtq/my-rainbow-and-trinity-neals-rainbow-wig/">advocated</a> for Medicaid coverage of Trinity’s puberty blockers, resulting in the first Medicaid coverage of transgender medical procedures in their home state of Delaware. Subsequently, Trinity <a href="https://history.delaware.gov/lgbtq/my-rainbow-and-trinity-neals-rainbow-wig/">became</a> the first minor in the state to change his birth certificate’s gender marker from male to female.
“Jacob’s Room to Choose,” about a cross-dressing boy whose school accommodates him by abolishing gendered bathrooms, was <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">published</a> through the American Psychological Association’s children’s book imprint. APA has prominently <a href="https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2024/02/policy-supporting-transgender-nonbinary#:~:text=%E2%80%9CAPA%20also%20affirms%20the%20essential,appropriate%20youth%20self%2Dadvocacy.%E2%80%9D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supported</a> transgender medical procedures for minors and advocated for so-called “gender-affirming care.”
The other books at the heart of Mahmoud v. Taylor are similarly written at an elementary school reading level but focus on complex adult topics of sexuality and gender identity. “Love, Violet” <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">focuses</a> on a same-sex relationship between elementary school classmates. “Pride Puppy” <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">instructs</a> readers to identify leather, underwear, a lip ring, an intersex flag, and a drag king in its illustrations.
“What Are Your Words?” <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">encourages</a> kids to change their pronouns, promoting confusing pairs like “ey/em,” “ze/zir,” and “xe/xir,” and using they/them pronouns to refer to individuals in the story. And “Intersection Allies,” another book <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">featured</a> in the case, includes a foreword by critical race theorist and activist Kimberle Crenshaw.
These storybooks are examples of radical propaganda written by progressive activists to shape the hearts and minds of the next generation. Kids may not know better than to believe what they’re taught, but American adults aren’t so convinced by these woke storybooks. Only 3% of Americans <a href="https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20250115160612/Religious-Freedom-Index-2024-Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">believe</a> that instruction on human sexuality and gender identity is appropriate for pre-K or kindergarten-aged children. And 77% of Americans <a href="https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20250115160612/Religious-Freedom-Index-2024-Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">believe</a> that parents should be able to opt their children out of gender and sexuality instruction.
Just a few years ago, I pulled my children out of Fairfax County Schools because of the progressive garbage they were being exposed to in their classrooms on a daily basis. My family is not alone. There is a large movement of parents who have made the same decision we have, but not every family is in a position to do so. Parents should undoubtedly have the right to opt their children out of reading these radical activist storybooks: Children are not wards of the state.
When public schools add storybooks that teach gender ideology as truth, the state has violated the right of parents to raise their children in their religious tradition, along with teaching them the corresponding religious beliefs about gender, human sexuality, and the meaning of marriage.
The government has no business mandating that elementary students learn radical gender ideology. Fortunately, parents will do whatever it takes to protect their children and exercise their parental rights — even if it means taking the case to the Supreme Court.
* * *
Terry Schilling is a parental rights advocate and president of the American Principles Project.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Mixed race teacher reading to class

Will SCOTUS Back Parents When It Comes To LGBTQ Storybooks?

Books

Children

Education

Gender

gender ideology

LGBTQ

Opinion

Parental Rights in Education

Parenting

Public Schools

Schools

SCOTUS

Supreme Court

This is going to be my most controversial take of many months, but it&#8217;s urgent now, because there is a bipartisan group of senators with the backing of President Trump who want to end daylight saving time.
I don&#8217;t like this. I am a big supporter of daylight saving time and I&#8217;m not just saying that to be contrarian. I really like daylight saving time, and I think it is a mistake to end it.
When all the senators get together across both parties and they all agree on something, you know that thing is going to be terrible. In this case, what they want to do is lock the clock. Why? Because every person who&#8217;s never given a second thought to daylight saving time and has just scrolled through Twitter will say, “Actually, daylight saving time is really bad, because people die every year. Did you know that it actually increases deaths every year?”
To that I say, “Oh, really? How&#8217;s that?”
“Because I saw a tweet about it one time. It increases deaths because people have to wake up a little earlier. Plus, they have heart attacks,” they will say.
Well, there is a negligible uptick in deaths but that is a statistically dubious observation. What that argument ignores, however, are all of the benefits we get from daylight saving time. I guess the question you have to ask yourself, which really gets down to a difference between the Left and the Right, is “Why do we have daylight saving time in the first place?” Before we go and tear down Chesterton&#8217;s Fence, how about we ask, ”Why is that fence up in the first place?”
Most people will say, “Well, because of farming. It used to be when a lot of people were farmers, having that extra daylight was really helpful. But, you know, now most people don&#8217;t really farm, so it&#8217;s not a big deal.”
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mks-ep-1714-member-exclusive?elementPosition=4&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=The+Michael+Knowles+Show&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Carousel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Michael Knowles Show</a></h3>
Okay then, what are the other benefits of daylight saving time? Daylight saving time extends daylight in the warmer months when you want to be outside playing around. You don&#8217;t need that extra daylight in the winter months when you really don&#8217;t want to be outside much anyway.
According to the Department of Energy, daylight saving time <a href="https://energyharbor.com/en/energy-resources/energy-savings-tips/daylight-saving-time-save-energy#:~:text=To%20be%20clear%2C%20the%20U.S.,to%20turn%20on%20the%20lights." target="_blank" rel="noopener">reduces energy usage</a> and energy costs, not by a ton, but by 0.5%. That’s pretty good when you consider all the energy of the United States. There is also evidence that daylight saving time actually reduces deaths, because it reduces car crashes. That&#8217;s from <a href="https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.85.1.92" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a study</a> back in 1995. It also saves property and might save people&#8217;s lives because daylight saving time reduces street crime, pretty significantly. Robberies, for instance, dropped 27% during the sunset hours during daylight saving time. That&#8217;s according to a more <a href="https://jenniferdoleac.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Doleac_Sanders_DST.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent study</a> from 2015.
Daylight saving time increases economic activity because you can go out, and you&#8217;re more inclined to go shopping. You&#8217;re more inclined to work a little bit. It increases economic activity both domestically and internationally, because other countries use daylight saving time too.
But here’s my most basic argument for daylight saving time: it&#8217;s a tradition. It&#8217;s a kind of fun tradition. It&#8217;s a tradition that recognizes, in a particularly pronounced way, the changing of the seasons, the movement of time, the variety of life. It&#8217;s kind of fun, and kooky. People will say, “Well, we shouldn&#8217;t have to change our clocks twice a year, what a hassle. It&#8217;s not efficient.” Life is about more than efficiency, my friends. Our modern, clinical, robotic culture just wants to maximize efficiency in everything.
I am a conservative. I don&#8217;t want to maximize efficiency in everything. I like to enjoy fun, quirky little things. I enjoy our culture, and that&#8217;s a fun little cultural habit. It actually does produce economic and health benefits as well, and it kind of makes sense. And we&#8217;ve forgotten why we had daylight saving time in the first place. And like so many levelers and radicals, when we forget why a tradition exists, we just want to get rid of it. We don&#8217;t ask ourselves, “Why did that tradition arise in the first place? Why, if we maintain that tradition, have we ever tried to get rid of the tradition? How has it worked out?”
It seems like there&#8217;s a mass psychosis that&#8217;s going on that convinces everyone that we&#8217;ve been wrong for so many decades now.
I&#8217;m pro daylight saving time and you should be too. Call your congressman.

Spain Moves The Clock Forward One Hour To Adapt To Daylight Saving Time

Should We End Daylight Saving Time?

Clocks

Congress

Crime

Daylight Saving Time

Farmers

Light

Michael Knowles

U.S. Senate

By pushing its flagrant extremist agenda to the detriment of its predominantly rural, blue-collar residents, Maine’s Democrat majority reveals a deep-seated disrespect for Maine residents and an ideological misalignment with voter preferences, federal guidelines, and the timeless democratic principles that this country was built upon.
In the name of bolstering the state’s culture of equity, inclusion, and social justice, Maine Democrats have destroyed these virtues by forcing their progressive redefinition and implementation at the expense of Maine voters — a disturbing trend that is plaguing the country at large in a widespread cultural decline.
This is seen most glaringly in the transgender craze that’s possessed Maine’s elected leaders and educational bureaucracy. Countless parents, athletes, coaches, and state legislators have spoken out against Maine’s defiance of federal guidance prohibiting biological men from participating in women’s and girls’ sports. This is more than just anecdotal; <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-trump-trans-athletes-womens-sports-maine__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!3KREuUGLNJperg_9upddiHG3dlNgmGJqVv4ICai4oQ5KUQtyca9uE7x1TOxzGCVTop8i_lBGOJbCbeIGytNsZtE$" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent polling found</a> that a majority of Mainers (including the highly coveted independent bloc) believe high school sports should be separated by biological sex.
Maine Governor Janet Mills’ aggressive pushback against President Trump’s “<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/keeping-men-out-of-womens-sports/__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!3KREuUGLNJperg_9upddiHG3dlNgmGJqVv4ICai4oQ5KUQtyca9uE7x1TOxzGCVTop8i_lBGOJbCbeIG2fwqsv0$">Keeping</a><a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/keeping-men-out-of-womens-sports/__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!3KREuUGLNJperg_9upddiHG3dlNgmGJqVv4ICai4oQ5KUQtyca9uE7x1TOxzGCVTop8i_lBGOJbCbeIG2fwqsv0$" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Men Out Of Women’s Sports</a>” executive order wasn’t just a media stunt or political statement: it’s going to have a very real impact on Maine students and teachers if millions of dollars of much-needed federal funding is taken away from them as a result of the governor’s obstinate allegiance to this extremist agenda.
Yet the state’s Democrat majority persists in its radical agenda, insisting that they know better than the very constituents who elected them in the first place. It’s the reason why dozens of Maine school districts regularly withhold information from parents about their children’s gender transition process and the schools’ “gender plans” to help “affirm” students’ new identities. This condescension is both an insult to Maine residents and an astonishing abuse of parental rights — and underscores the contempt that the elected have for their electors.
Lest you think this deep disrespect for the electorate is unique to The Pine Tree State, think again. Across the country, the chattering class has been pushing a radical gender agenda against the will of families, and to the detriment of the country’s most vulnerable students. As part and parcel of this radical agenda, 12 states and the District of Columbia have declared themselves “transgender sanctuary states” to offer protections for youths seeking gender procedures while <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://defendinged.org/investigations/list-of-school-district-transgender-gender-nonconforming-student-policies/__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!3KREuUGLNJperg_9upddiHG3dlNgmGJqVv4ICai4oQ5KUQtyca9uE7x1TOxzGCVTop8i_lBGOJbCbeIGIoXlfBg$" target="_blank" rel="noopener">over 1,200 school districts across both red and blue states</a> have similar parental exclusion policies on the books, impacting more than 12 million children.
This isn’t just an assault on the parent-child relationship; it’s also a weaponization of tax dollars against the very people who pay them in the first place. Parents have a right to know what happens while their children are under the care of school personnel, and willfully concealing students’ information in the name of “inclusion” and “equality” is a clear violation of federal law.
Ultimately, Maine’s Democrat leaders are more focused on pushing their coercive agenda than fighting for what Mainers truly need and want. At best, their agenda is out-of-touch; at worst, it’s tyrannical.
Maine isn’t an ideological test lab where politicians can experiment with the effects of their extremist political philosophy — it’s a state with real people with tangible needs and priorities. It’s time for the state&#8217;s leaders to relinquish the activism and get back to the business that the people of Maine elected them to conduct.
At the end of the day, Mainers — and Americans as a whole — want common-sense policies that respect their values and protect their freedoms. Politicians should listen to voters and be responsive to their needs, rather than pushing an agenda far removed from the demands of their constituents. Let Maine be a warning to other blue states: should you choose to push your radical social justice agenda, be prepared to suffer the consequences.
* * *
Nicole Neily is the President &amp; Founder of Defending Education.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

MixCollage-26-Mar-2025-01-37-PM-9289

Maine’s Transgender Tug-Of-War Will Be Coming To A State Near You

Democrats

Federal Government

Leftists

Maine

President Trump

school district

Transgender

Women's sports

Gov. Brad Little (R) came through for the families of Idaho last Thursday morning by signing House Bill 93, the <a href="https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/2025/legislation/h0093/">Parental Choice Tax Credit bill</a>, into law shortly before the 11:46 a.m. deadline. Idaho now has a school choice program for the first time in the state’s history.
The bill enacts a $50 million private school choice tax credit program with all schoolchildren statewide eligible. Idaho becomes the 14th state in the nation to enact universal (or near-universal) school choice, joining Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.
Upon signing the bill, Gov. Little <a href="https://gov.idaho.gov/pressrelease/gov-little-signs-house-bill-93-creating-the-parental-choice-tax-credit-program/">declared</a>, “With the passage of the $50 million Parental Choice Tax Credit program, Idaho boasts even more abundant schooling options for Idaho students and families.”
Early in February, the state House passed the bill by a vote of <a href="https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/2025/legislation/h0093/">42-28</a>, providing hope to parents that Idaho may finally see school choice become a reality. The longtime Republican-controlled state had been void of any form of private school choice, resembling its Democratic-controlled West Coast neighbors of Washington, Oregon, and California.
On February 16, President Donald Trump weighed in with strong support by <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114015581630558522">posting</a> on Truth Social: “Congratulations to Governor Brad Little, and Idaho Legislators, who are fighting to bring School Choice to their beautiful State. $50 Million Dollars to empower parents to provide the very best Education for their child – GREAT news for Idaho families. This Bill, which has my Complete and Total Support, MUST PASS!”
Then, on February 19, the Idaho Senate voted <a href="https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/2025/legislation/h0093/">20-15</a> in favor of the bill, which sent it to the Governor’s desk for signature.
Yet, in uncanny measure for a red state governor, who already had the votes from the legislature and public support from the President of the United States, Gov. Little signaled it was not a given that he would sign the bill.
Before the bill reached his desk on February 21, Gov. Little’s Office had quickly placed an automatic voice message for all incoming calls. The message instructed callers to press one if the call relates to House Bill 93. From there, the voice recording stated that the Governor’s Office was only receiving calls from Idaho residents and only one call per household. It continued, “If you would like Gov. Little to sign House Bill 93, please press one. If you would like Gov. Little to veto House Bill 93, please press two.”
Within a few days of the bill reaching the governor, Press Secretary Joan Varsek <a href="https://www.eastidahonews.com/2025/02/thousands-of-phone-calls-flood-governors-desk-as-school-choice-bill-awaits-his-decision/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> the Governor’s office received “thousands of calls, emails, and voicemails on both sides in reference to H.B. 93.”
On Monday, the specific number of responses was released, which totaled <a href="https://www.idahoednews.org/state-policy/governors-office-received-more-than-32k-requests-to-veto-house-bill-93/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">37,457</a>. Only 13.6% of those who reached out were in support of the governor signing the bill, while 86.4% were in opposition.
Yet, these last-minute cries for a veto were far from an accurate reflection of Idahoans’ support of school choice. A <a href="https://www.clubforgrowth.org/wp-content/uploads/securepdfs/2025/02/CfG_ID_ParentalChoiceTaxCredit_PollingMemo1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">February 11-12 poll</a> showed that “nearly three-in-five Idaho voters support passing the Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit bill.” The favorability of parental choice in education is nothing new as a 2024 poll of Idahoans by Boise State University found that <a href="https://www.boisestate.edu/sps/2024-idaho-public-policy-survey/#education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">49%</a> strongly favor or somewhat favor education funding following a student to a “private or religious” school whereas only <a href="https://www.boisestate.edu/sps/2024-idaho-public-policy-survey/#education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">41.1%</a> somewhat or strongly oppose it.
While the Governor may never reveal why he waited until just a few hours before the deadline to sign the bill or why his office set up the phone poll when the results didn’t sway him, parents with schoolchildren statewide are grateful nevertheless that he delivered.
With House Bill 93 now law, parents who opt for a different education avenue than the failing public school system will be eligible to receive a refundable tax credit of up to <a href="https://idahocapitalsun.com/2025/02/19/private-education-tax-credit-bill-heads-to-idaho-governor/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$5,000</a> per student. The amount will increase to <a href="https://idahocapitalsun.com/2025/02/19/private-education-tax-credit-bill-heads-to-idaho-governor/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$7,500</a> per student for those with special needs. Both amounts are thousands of dollars less than public schools spend per student, with unacceptable educational outcomes.
As evidenced by the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress Exam scores, <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2024/pdf/2024219ID4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">60%</a> of fourth-grade and <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2024/pdf/2024219ID8.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">69%</a> of eighth-grade public school students in Idaho are not proficient in math. Reading is worse, as <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2024/pdf/2024220ID4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">69%</a> of fourth-grade and <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2024/pdf/2024220ID8.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">68%</a> of eighth-grade public school students in Idaho aren’t proficient. That’s nearly seven out of ten children failed by the system and robbed of their future.
Idaho is long overdue for allowing parents the freedom to select a better learning option for their children. Parents should not be bound to a failing system and left hoping their child will be one of the three out of the ten students who learn to read and perform math proficiently by the eighth grade.
The Office of the Governor website, on the “About Governor Brad Little” page, <a href="https://gov.idaho.gov/our-governor/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">states</a>: “Governor Little is committed to making decisions through one lens: the lens of ensuring Idaho’s children and grandchildren have the best opportunities to stay in Idaho and for the ones who have left to choose to return.
While it may have been in the eleventh hour, Gov. Little took action, recognizing that school choice is the solution to ensuring Idaho’s children and grandchildren have the best opportunities. Continuing course without an exit option for families from schools failing to provide students with proficiency would plague not only each child’s life but the state’s future. Not to mention, families with schoolchildren who have left Idaho would not have been incentivized to return when school choice abounds in other red states.
But thanks to a monumental signature last Thursday, that won’t be the case for the Gem State.
* * *
Dr. Keri D. Ingraham is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute, Director of the American Center for Transforming Education, and a Senior Fellow at Independent Women’s Forum.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Idaho State Capitol sunset, Boise

This State’s Governor Delivers On School Choice In The Eleventh Hour

Charter Schools

Idaho

Parents rights

The <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/mathematics/2024/g4_8/?grade=8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American education crisis</a> has become a national emergency that demands immediate correction.
According to the new <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/mathematics/2024/g4_8/?grade=8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Report Card,</a> a staggering 72% of eighth-grade students who took the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math exam failed to score at the proficient level. In 2019 and before COVID school shutdowns, eighth graders’ math proficiency levels were already at an unacceptable 66% — 6% lower than where they are now.
This <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/mathematics/2024/g4_8/?grade=8">report card</a> underscores the need for a seismic shift toward academic excellence over DEI-driven policies, wasteful spending, and misaligned priorities. It also demands that Education Secretary nominee Linda McMahon’s leadership serve as the turning point in reclaiming global math leadership through strategies like those employed by Singapore.
Fortunately, the Senate has a chance to make this vision a reality by confirming McMahon — a remarkably successful entrepreneur with a proven track record of delivering a high-quality product. This time, her mission is even more critical: ensuring American families have every opportunity to access the world-class education they deserve.
McMahon <a href="https://youtu.be/6KPixHxNJuQ?si=P3tx26tzgC8XTVXs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acknowledged</a> during her Senate confirmation hearing that the state of American education falls far short of being world-class, stating, &#8220;We have failed in our mission&#8221; and emphasized that &#8220;we are not delivering the high-quality education our children need.&#8221;
Unlike corrupt bureaucrats who spend billions on DEI initiatives at the expense of true student achievement, McMahon embodies the spirit of American exceptionalism and is focused on restoring the once-high standards for U.S. educational institutions. Today, plummeting student achievement demonstrated by recent NRC scores has embarrassingly reduced the U.S. to <a href="https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/pisa-2022-results-volume-i_53f23881-en/full-report.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">34th place in global rankings</a>, lagging significantly behind top-performing countries such as Singapore and China.
The U.S. education system is in desperate need of an examination of conscience, which I elaborated on in <a href="https://x.com/nickineily/status/1887166519626383760" target="_blank" rel="noopener">my testimony</a> before the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/TB4nIgmvHwY?si=cG7FPhHJpWfMAm-O" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House Committee on Education and the Workforce</a>. The previous administration created a dumpster fire by spending over <a href="https://defendinged.org/investigations/granted/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one billion dollars</a> prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives over core subject areas like math.
Much to students’ detriment, identity politics have permeated classrooms across America. Agenda-driven “educators” are brainwashing our nation’s children with <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/chicago-public-schools-health-education-scope-and-sequence-includes-teaching-pre-kindergarteners-to-correctly-identify-body-parts-typically-considered-private-including-nipples-penis-anus-an/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gender ideology</a>. Schools have <a href="https://defendinged.org/investigations/list-of-school-district-transgender-gender-nonconforming-student-policies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">kept parents in the dark</a> about their child transitioning to a different gender. Boys have been <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/12/17/us-news/female-athlete-permanently-hurt-by-trans-athlete-speaks-out/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">allowed</a> to compete in girl&#8217;s sports. Schools remain <a href="https://zwly9k6z.r.us-east-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F%2Fdefendinged.org%2Finvestigations%2Flist-of-school-districts-using-restorative-practices%2F/1/01000194cd2e7442-77266d75-05ae-4df9-8e19-e0e4bb8dee38-000000/lc1ogL9S6PtZZziFOT06loyjYas=411" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unsafe</a>. <a href="https://defendinged.org/investigations/corrupted/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DEI initiatives</a> have pitted students, educators, and administrators against each other and placed race above merit at the sacrifice of standards in excellence. Foreign funding from the <a href="https://zwly9k6z.r.us-east-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F%2Fdefendinged.org%2Finvestigations%2Flittle-red-classrooms-china-infiltration-of-american-k-12-schools%2F/1/01000194cd2e7442-77266d75-05ae-4df9-8e19-e0e4bb8dee38-000000/G5UNp0ro-pKBgZxaFkxm9Fl_sK0=411" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chinese Communist Party</a> and the <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/nyc-public-school-wipes-israel-from-the-map" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Qatar Foundation</a> threatens U.S. national security, seeks to soften attitudes towards Chinese state-directed communism and antisemitism, and spreads hate among students in schools.
If confirmed as Education Secretary, McMahon will prioritize answering to students and parents over teachers’ unions and education progressive activists—a stark departure from the Biden administration’s approach over the past four years.
Conversely, Singapore’s fundamentally different approach to education — particularly in math — yields measurable success, as reflected in the nation’s consistently best-in-the-world test scores.
McMahon’s leadership at the Department of Education could serve as a model for both federal and state policies, particularly by mirroring Singapore’s approach. In Singapore, the government actively resists identity politics, instead prioritizing national unity and meritocracy. Unlike the U.S., Singaporean schools prioritize academics and character development over <a href="https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/singapore-schools-israel-hamas-war-teachers-dont-impose-personal-views-moe-4146306" target="_blank" rel="noopener">social activism.</a> Singapore’s <a href="https://www.moe.gov.sg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ministry of Education</a> has made it clear that progressive gender ideology has no place in the curriculum. Parental authority is <a href="https://transgendersg.com/healthcare/minors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">upheld</a>, and schools are discouraged from withholding information about a child’s gender transition. Likewise, school sports remain sex-based, with no widespread movement to allow men to compete in women’s competitions. Instead of DEI-style initiatives that have led to division in the U.S., Singapore promotes diversity through <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/politics/the-gist-new-bill-passed-to-maintain-racial-harmony-us-tariffs-could-have-indirect-impact-on-spore" target="_blank" rel="noopener">racial harmony.</a> Lastly, the country remains vigilant about foreign influence, particularly from China and the Middle East, by <a href="https://www.creatrixcampus.com/blog/role-cpe-protecting-rights-and-interests-international-students-studying-singapore">strictly regulating</a> foreign funding in education.
Moreover, Singapore&#8217;s Ministry of Education developed the world-renowned <a href="https://www.singaporemath.com/pages/what-is-singapore-math">Singapore Math</a> curriculum, which focuses on deep conceptual understanding through a <a href="https://mathsnoproblem.com/en/approach/concrete-pictorial-abstract">concrete-pictorial-abstract (CPA) approach</a>. This method emphasizes mastery of fewer topics, ensuring a strong foundation for advanced math. In contrast, the failing <a href="https://www.thecorestandards.org/Math/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">U.S. Common Core</a> prioritizes multiple problem-solving strategies over mastery, often leading to confusion and a lack of deep understanding. With its broad scope and fast pace, Common Core leaves students without a solid math foundation, while Singapore Math’s structured approach leads to long-term success, as seen in Singapore’s top global rankings.
If confirmed, McMahon should draw inspiration from Singapore’s success in math education to restore U.S. leadership and reignite American exceptionalism in education. Singapore’s approach prioritizes student learning without any indoctrination and an innovative math curriculum. With achievement gaps still unacceptable six years post-COVID, it’s time for an outside-the-box leader like McMahon to close them.
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Nicole Neily is the President &amp; Founder of Parents Defending Education.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Linda McMahon, Administrator of the Small Business

Simple Math: How Linda McMahon Can Help American Students Regain Their Math Mojo

Department of Education

Mathematics

Singapore

Students

It is National School Choice Week in America, and the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exam scores were released on Wednesday. The horrifically low student academic performance scores make the undeniable case that American government-run K-12 education is an epic failure.
According to the NAEP results provided by The Nation’s Report Card, <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/reading/2024/g4_8/?grade=4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">69% of fourth-grade students</a> and <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/reading/2024/g4_8/?grade=8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">70% of eighth-grade students</a> aren’t proficient at reading — that’s only 3 out of 10 schoolchildren learning to read soundly. When students can’t read at grade level, it significantly hinders their other academic learning.
The NAEP math scores similarly confirm that a change of course in K-12 education is desperately needed. An astonishing <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/mathematics/2024/g4_8/?grade=4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">61% of fourth-grade students</a> and <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/mathematics/2024/g4_8/?grade=8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">72% of eighth-grade students</a> aren’t proficient in math.
As a nation, we can no longer justify restricting children to these failing schools for their education. Nor can the ever-increasing astronomical spending — well over<a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024/public-school-spending-per-pupil.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> $850 billion</a> annually — on the public education system continue to support the status quo. Change is urgently needed. And that change will require competition.
As Andy Puzder, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5102389-trump-andrew-puzder-fast-food-chain-ceo-eu-ambassador/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">President Trump’s nomination for U.S. Ambassador to the European Union</a>, recently <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IyfK6emqCA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explained</a>, “Competition is the only thing that increases quality and decreases price.” It’s the basics of a free market, which is long overdue in K-12 education in the United States.
With the 2025 legislative sessions now underway in almost all states and Congress, there is an opportunity to enact critically needed school choice laws. Bills should be put forth from all angles to provide parents access to alternative educational avenues from the government-run, teacher union-controlled public education monopoly.
This year, several red states will work to pass new school choice programs or expand eligibility for existing programs. Since 2021, a dozen states — <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/11/17/opinion/why-trump-was-the-candidate-for-educational-freedom/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">11 of which had a Republican trifecta at the time</a> — have signed universal or near-universal school choice into law. Thirteen <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/State_government_trifectas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Republican trifecta states</a> have yet to pass widespread school choice programs. This is the year several of those states have a shot at successfully setting all families statewide free to select an education alternative from the public school system.
While the state-level universal education freedom wins are happening in red states for now, parents living in purple and blue states must be empowered with educational options for their children. Congress passing the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/9462/text" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Educational Choice for Children Act</a> would be a critical step forward in this effort. The Act would allow up to two million students to receive a scholarship from a non-profit granting organization. According to the <a href="https://investineducation.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Invest in Education</a> website, “Scholarships would be funded with private donations, not federal dollars, and donors would receive a federal tax credit.”
Additionally, at the federal level, on Inauguration Day, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) <a href="https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sen-cruz-rep-hern-introduce-school-choice-legislation-prioritizing-the-right-to-a-quality-education-for-every-child" target="_blank" rel="noopener">introduced</a> the <a href="https://www.cruz.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/student_empowerment_act_20251.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Student Empowerment Act</a> to expand the allowed usage of 529 tax-deferred education savings plan funds. That would include usage for <a href="https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sen-cruz-rep-hern-introduce-school-choice-legislation-prioritizing-the-right-to-a-quality-education-for-every-child" target="_blank" rel="noopener">educational expenses</a> beyond tuition, such as “school curriculum, books, tutoring, testing fees,” and educational therapies for students with disabilities. Parents could use their 529 funds for the qualifying K-12 educational expenses regardless of whether their student is enrolled in a public or private school, or homeschool.
U.S. Representative Kevin Hern (R-OK), a co-sponsor of the bill, <a href="https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sen-cruz-rep-hern-introduce-school-choice-legislation-prioritizing-the-right-to-a-quality-education-for-every-child" target="_blank" rel="noopener">commented</a> that “Expanding 529 accounts is a game-changer for education, giving students, workers, and families the freedom and opportunity they deserve, whether that’s in a traditional classroom setting or homeschool. It’s time to make education more affordable and meet the evolving needs of our workforce.”
Beyond private school choice and homeschooling, parents must also have choices within the public school system. That should come in the form of states passing open enrollment laws allowing students to enroll in a different public district school within (intra-district) and outside of (inter-district) their residential assignment as space allows. Zip code must not bind a student to a certain public school. That’s not how other taxpayer-funded government services, such as public parks and libraries, work.
Public charter schools, magnet schools, and other choice schools are no different, and laws must be enacted at the state level that allow families to select these schools. Laws must also not restrict growing the supply of these sought-after public school options.
The education of our future generation is too important to allow the public education monopoly to continue to trap children in failing schools, robbing them of their future. It’s past time for the market forces of competition to reign in America’s K-12 education environment — increasing quality and decreasing price. As a nation, we must keep advancing school choice through all means. Our children deserve nothing less than access to a high-quality education.
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<a href="https://www.discovery.org/p/ingraham/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr. Keri D. Ingraham</a> is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute, Director of the American Center for Transforming Education, and a Senior Fellow at Independent Women’s Forum.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Students taking test in class

New National Test Scores Make Undeniable Case For School Choice

Elementary Schools

K-12

School Choice

Ted Cruz

Testing

The following is an edited transcript of an interview between Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley and the president and CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom Kristen Waggoner on a <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trump-targets-dei-gender-policies-1-25-25/id1576594336?i=1000685411732" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Saturday edition of Morning Wire.</a>
* * *
President Trump has returned to office with an extremely ambitious agenda – and has immediately taken executive action to jump start what he’s promising will be a transformative year for the nation. Among the issues he’s already begun to address is reversing the Biden administration’s policies on gender identity and Diversity Equity and Inclusion. Morning Wire sat down with the president and CEO of <a href="https://adflegal.org/">Alliance Defending Freedom</a>, a legal group that has been leading the charge on gender and DEI cases, to discuss Trump’s actions and cultural shifts on the issues.
* * *
JOHN: Joining us now to discuss Trump’s executive action on gender and DEI is Alliance Defending Freedom President and CEO Kristen Waggoner. First of all, thank you so much for coming on.
KRISTEN: Thanks for having me.
JOHN: I wanted to start with the big picture. We just witnessed a historic – on so many levels – inauguration, the biggest political comeback in American history. In terms of the larger issues that your organization in particular is really concerned with, what does this mean for the future of the country in the coming four years?
KRISTEN: We&#8217;re thrilled with the promises that President Trump has made with regard to the revolution of common sense. That&#8217;s what he referred to in his inaugural speech, that we&#8217;re going to return back toward reality, toward common sense, and the rule of law. And I think what it means for practical purposes is that he is intending to use the federal government to ensure we eradicate a toxic ideology that has wreaked havoc on Americans, both in terms of safety, opportunities, and freedom.
JOHN: Yes, let&#8217;s unpack that. I know that gender ideology has been a key priority for your organization. The Daily Wire has also been very focused on this issue. What are we seeing coming from the Trump administration on gender-related policies?
KRISTEN: The Trump administration has issued a number of executive orders that deal with gender identity as well as censorship and DEI in the federal government, and all of those come together to essentially restore the legal and scientifically sound definition of sex in federal law, meaning that we are created male and female, and that sex is neither chosen nor changed. And that will have tremendous implications, both on women&#8217;s rights, with regard to sports, fairness, privacy, locker rooms, also what our children are being taught, and in numerous other areas.
<div id="attachment_865525" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-865525" class="size-large wp-image-865525" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Untitled-design-5-1024x576.jpg" alt="President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC." width="1024" height="576" />Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images</div>
JOHN: The Biden administration aggressively pushed progressive gender ideology – how much has that impacted schools, local organizations – how pervasive has this actually been?
KRISTEN: Well, at <a href="https://adflegal.org/">Alliance Defending Freedom</a> we have represented scores of female athletes that have been deprived not only of fairness on the athletic field, but also privacy in locker rooms, in dorm rooms, in showers, and safety. We also have represented students who have been deprived of free speech, and counselors and teachers who have been deprived of free speech, compelled to use pronouns that don&#8217;t reflect biological truth. We have represented parents who have been deprived of decision-making authority for kids and teachers deprived of conscience rights. And we&#8217;ve even seen schools that have been deprived of certain funding mechanisms because of this ideology. President Trump has issued an order telling the agencies in the executive branch that they can, they must stop infusing all of these areas of federal law with this notion that we are created something other than male or female.
JOHN: Do we expect to still see states like California undermine this effort or are there federal levers that can push back against the attempts to continue this kind of ideologically crammed down in schools?
KRISTEN: I guarantee you, you&#8217;ll see states like California, New York, and Washington try to undermine these executive orders. And because of the way that our system of government is set out, there will be bad states that will continue to try to undermine the rights of American citizens. And there will be litigation that continues. But the difference here is they can no longer say that federal law requires this, in terms of the agency action. And now the power of the federal government in all of the places that it shows up is actually on the opposite side of this fight. And in addition, the Trump administration can go a step further, and it can deprive institutions as well as state governments of federal funding when they refuse to recognize biological reality and common sense.
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JOHN: From a legal perspective, does the federal government coming out against this ideology, does it further expose these local entities, the school boards, etc. to legal ramifications for promoting something that could be dangerous or unfair to women and girls?
KRISTEN: It should do so, assuming that the administrative agencies are putting teeth in these actions. So again, the way that the government works is the executive branch, the president sets the agenda and tells the agencies what to do. Then it&#8217;s the agencies that create the guidance and enforce what the president has said in federal law. So it will be critical that the agencies follow this direction and put real teeth into this by denying federal funding and by going after those states and those educational institutions that are not honoring the rights of Americans in this area.
JOHN: Now, Alliance Defending Freedom has been fighting on this front for a while now. Are you guys seeing progress, generally speaking, in terms of the legal arguments against gender ideology? 
KRISTEN: We are seeing progress, but there still is an uphill battle. I think my hope is that we&#8217;re turning the corner on this issue. For years, we&#8217;ve been fighting it for over 10 years now with regard to bathrooms, locker rooms, and, more recently, eight or so years on the sports front. I think we&#8217;re turning the page. But again, we have half of the states that have adopted laws to protect women and girls in sports as an example. And these are state laws. Those are being challenged and argued that they are unconstitutional. So those cases will continue, but we will continue now to have the federal government on the side of women and girls, rather than against us. I also think we can&#8217;t possibly underestimate the importance of the federal government saying there are two sexes and that you cannot choose nor change biological reality – because that will play out in many different ways across the government, and it will stop the social engineering that we&#8217;ve been seeing that&#8217;s happening through the power of the federal government.
<h3><a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?_gl=1*1lail3r*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE3MzIyMDEyNDkuQ2owS0NRaUEwZnU1QmhEUUFSSXNBTVhVQk9JSkM0VnNsMFVreURxYXUxVWVEVWdOdjZkNzR2Y1pEeEZQeHVBcGl2R3BLaTdBMjVzT1p5TWFBdG1nRUFMd193Y0I.*_gcl_au*NDUxNDQ0NzYwLjE3MzY3ODI2NDY.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczNjk1NzYwMy4zNDAuMS4xNzM2OTU3NzE2LjYwLjAuMA.." target="_blank" rel="noopener">CELEBRATE #47 WITH 47% OFF DAILYWIRE+ MEMBERSHIPS + A FREE $20 GIFT</a></h3>
JOHN: Now, you mentioned at the top that DEI is a big part of what the Trump administration is trying to weed out. This is something the Biden administration heavily focused on in a way we&#8217;ve never seen before. What kinds of actions from Trump are we seeing there, and what do we expect in the coming years?
KRISTEN: The executive order that President Trump issued today on DEI is so critical because it removes DEI from federal government policies, and he was right to do so because DEI essentially is an attempt to socially engineer gender ideology and race into every facet of American life and the very first step to take that back and to, as President Trump said, have a revolution of common sense is to, again, rid the government of DEI programs because it&#8217;s a proven failure. It introduces risk, legal risk, it eliminates people advancing on the basis of merit, and it destroys unity, which President Trump has said is a high priority for him.
JOHN: The Daily Wire is very interested in the intersection of politics and culture. We&#8217;re very much believers in politics being downstream of culture, and that we have to not only fight against forces cramming down dangerous policies but we have to build and shape culture. How have cultural shifts influenced the issues of gender and DEI?
KRISTEN: They&#8217;ve been profoundly impactful. I would say that law and culture work together. You can&#8217;t have one without the other, and one doesn&#8217;t necessarily lead the other, but they both impact one another. And so I would just say, especially the work that The Daily Wire has done has been so critical in our efforts, as an example, on the gender identity front, because the principle that you&#8217;re establishing in the court before the Supreme Court, or a principle you&#8217;re establishing in a state or federal law, it has to be plausible to the American people. It has to make sense to them. And Daily Wire, for example, has been one of the first that has come out and spoken clearly, succinctly, and without fear, with courage, on the importance of biological reality. When the law doesn&#8217;t recognize the biological differences between men and women, families get hurt. And most importantly, women and girls will suffer not only from equal opportunities, but they will lose their rights.
<div id="attachment_359463" style="width: 1029px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-359463" class="size-large wp-image-359463" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/03/Screen-Shot-2022-03-23-at-10.07.51-PM-e1685654915193-1019x576.png" alt="Matt Walsh" width="1019" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/03/Screen-Shot-2022-03-23-at-10.07.51-PM-e1685654915193-1019x576.png 1019w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/03/Screen-Shot-2022-03-23-at-10.07.51-PM-e1685654915193-300x170.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/03/Screen-Shot-2022-03-23-at-10.07.51-PM-e1685654915193-768x434.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/03/Screen-Shot-2022-03-23-at-10.07.51-PM-e1685654915193.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1019px) 100vw, 1019px" />The Daily Wire</div>
JOHN: Final question. We&#8217;ve seen a flurry of activity from the Trump administration and his opening salvo on reshaping the federal government. What else are you seeing in terms of this new administration’s priorities?
KRISTEN: I think of all of the priorities that he set out, they come back to one primary theme — he&#8217;s recognizing the stifling authoritarianism that we&#8217;ve seen at home, here in the United States, and that we&#8217;re witnessing abroad. As some of our members of our international team have also said, the entire world is watching right now, and they are rooting for Americans and for President Trump to turn the corner on this – in a moment throughout the world that wants to return to the concept of inalienable rights, that wants to return to the rule of law and to a government that recognizes common sense values. So whether that&#8217;s on immigration and what&#8217;s happening at the border, whether it&#8217;s weaponization of the federal government and the justice system against one&#8217;s enemies, as we have seen, to censorship, which President Trump has said is a high priority for him to stop censorship. The world is watching and what is most important now is what happens next. And I think the whole world is cheering for him and his administration to follow through on its promises in these areas.
JOHN: Well, there was massive anticipation heading into this week – and now very high hopes for what’s ahead. Kristen, thank you so much for talking with us.
KRISTEN: Thanks for having me.
JOHN: That was Kristen Waggoner, CEO and president of Alliance Defending Freedom – and this has been a weekend edition of Morning Wire.
***

President Trump Delivers Remarks, Announces Infrastructure Plan At White House

‘There Are Only Two Sexes’: ADF’s Kristen Waggoner On Trump’s Gender & DEI Executive Orders

'There Are Only Two Sexes': ADF's Kristen Waggoner On Trump’s Gender & DEI Executive Orders

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Donald Trump

Morning Wire

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is a relatively new term for most people, so it’s understandable that few are speaking out against this program. And while I’ve known for a long time that SEL is dangerous, I never sat down to dig into its underlying concepts until recently. It turns out that ignorance truly is bliss, because I was much more blissful before realizing the magnitude of SEL and the tentacles it sends into our children’s precious minds.
Researching SEL generally only turns up rave reviews and studies talking about how this program will solve the world’s problems. Many websites explain SEL as a method in which children learn to develop skills to self-regulate their emotions, develop healthy identities, build positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. Additionally, SEL programs always claim to be “evidence based,” creating “lifelong learners.”
Such headlines and websites make it hard to argue that SEL is a bad program for children. But peeping behind the curtain reveals that SEL is nothing more than unlicensed therapy shoved down your child’s throat on a daily basis in public school.
There are several organizations that push SEL, but <a href="https://casel.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning</a> (CASEL) is the front runner. Their website boasts that they have “been a leader of the SEL movement since first introducing the term over two decades ago.”
In the CASEL program, there are five standard competencies that students are measured against: (1) self-management, (2) responsible decision making, (3) relationship skills, (4) social awareness, and (5) self-awareness. All seamless topics, until you realize these are all about regulating emotions, which is 100% therapy.
Aside from being unlicensed therapy, SEL is a continuously improved program that aids schools in ensuring “equitable and optimal outcomes.” But in order for the program to be continuously improved upon, data is required — lots and lots of school and student data.
How do schools obtain this data? The answer is simple yet terrifying: surveys.
Some surveys require parental input, but most do not. I decided to spend time scrolling through my son’s school issued Chromebook and I quickly found a plethora of surveys on an app called &#8220;Quizizz.&#8221; After reviewing several of the surveys, it’s easy to see all these surveys are geared toward emotions – nothing to do with actual educational competencies such as reading or math.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-863477 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Student-1.png" alt="" width="512" height="179" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Student-1.png 512w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Student-1-300x105.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" /></div>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-863483 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/student-2.png" alt="" width="512" height="136" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/student-2.png 512w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/student-2-300x80.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" /></div>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-863487 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/student-3.png" alt="" width="512" height="139" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/student-3.png 512w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/student-3-300x81.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" /></div>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-863491 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/student-5.png" alt="" width="512" height="138" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/student-5.png 512w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/student-5-300x81.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" /></div>
<div id="attachment_863499" style="width: 522px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-863499" class="wp-image-863499 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/student-7.png" alt="All screenshots credits: Quizizz.com" width="512" height="135" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/student-7.png 512w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/student-7-300x79.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" />All screenshots credits: Quizizz.com</div>
In addition to surveys focused on children’s emotional states, other surveys focus on school environment. Below is an example of a <a href="https://schoolguide.casel.org/resource/student-survey-how-i-feel-about-my-classroom-and-school/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">school survey</a> I found from CASEL in which students are asked a series of questions about how they feel about their classroom and school.
<div id="attachment_863501" style="width: 522px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-863501" class="wp-image-863501 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/chart-4.png" alt="Credit: Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). https://casel.org/" width="512" height="437" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/chart-4.png 512w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/chart-4-300x256.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" />Credit: CASEL.org</div>
<div id="attachment_863503" style="width: 522px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-863503" class="wp-image-863503 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/chart-5.png" alt="Credit: Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). https://casel.org/" width="512" height="436" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/chart-5.png 512w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/chart-5-300x255.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" />Credit: CASEL.org</div>
The questions themselves aren’t overly concerning – at least they aren’t asking kids if they are gender confused – but they are concerning in that they create doubt in a child’s mind. As <a href="https://www.abigailshrier.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Abigail Shrier</a> points out in her book, “Bad Therapy,” people are not overly happy beings. If we are constantly thinking about our emotional state, it eventually leads us to realize that we are unhappy, which leads to more serious mental health issues.
With that in mind, imagine how a child would feel after completing this survey, realizing they responded “disagree” on questions that their friends agreed with. The potential damage from a simple survey could have serious impacts on young children – all while the parent is clueless the survey is even happening. How can parents help a child understand their poor feelings after completing the survey if parents aren’t even aware of the survey in the first place?
SEL advocates claim these programs have positive and long-lasting impacts on the student’s and school’s success. They suggest that SEL improves academics, reduces negative social behaviors such as bullying, and creates positive school environments. But one of the major issues with this logic is that life will not always be a “positive climate,” so why are we fixated on children growing up in an environment they will never experience in real life?
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At its core, SEL is nothing more than social engineering and group think – make kids believe they must take control of their natural emotional reactions and project a calm, “approved” behavior to not hurt another person’s feelings. This is what I call “forced tolerance and acceptance training.” I remind my son daily that “tolerance is not a Commandment” therefore we are not called by God to tolerate beliefs and behaviors that we believe to be anti-Christian.
What happens when these SEL competencies conflict with the values of parents and religious teachings? What happens when children suddenly realize they have internal conflict between SEL teachings and those of their parents or church? How do kids resolve those feelings?
The reality is that our kids will grow up and realize the world doesn’t care about a “positive climate.” Real life is tough and it doesn’t stop because your feelings get hurt. Sadly, SEL is making our children emotionally weak, meaning they will likely crack at the slightest sign of conflict. This is exactly what Abigail Shrier documented in her book “Bad Therapy.” Children are less socially engaged than children 10+ years ago due to fear of failing.
I personally believe SEL results in major confusion for children, which ultimately is feeding the increased mental health issues we’re seeing in children. Mental health programs were not an option when I grew up. We had actively engaged parents, less violence in schools and higher graduation rates.
Maybe instead of taking billions of dollars from the federal government for these so-called mental health programs, the Department of Education should start restricting SEL in our schools. SEL is not the answer to what is plaguing our children – more parental participation and less government involvement is the answer.
* * *
Emily Jones is a native of North Alabama and leads the Madison County Chapter of Moms for Liberty. She also hosts a podcast titled <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@rightsideradio459/videos" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Controversial Mom</a> on YouTube.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Students raise their hands during class

Why ‘Social Emotional Learning’ Is Nothing More Than Unlicensed Therapy

Why 'Social Emotional Learning' Is Nothing More Than Unlicensed Therapy

Therapy

In 2017, Americans were split almost down the middle on the question: “Is gender determined by sex at birth or one’s subjective sense of identity?” <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/06/06/gender-identity-sexual-orientation-and-the-2024-election/pp_2024-6-5_cultural-values_5-03/">Pew Research</a> found back then that the numbers were 53% on the side of biological sex and 45% on the side of “gender identity.” Seven years later, as 2024 comes to a close, that number has shifted significantly to 65% and 34%, respectively.
We’ve seen that play out in a number of ways, one of the most obvious being the 2024 Presidential election. Donald Trump aired ads that called attention to Kamala Harris and her party’s emphasis on gender identity — from men in women’s sports, to using taxpayer dollars to pay for body alteration procedures for prisoners. The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/07/us/politics/trump-win-election-harris.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> those ads shifted some voters — especially black and Hispanic men — toward Trump. Political commentators with a finger on the pulse of the culture <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/democrats-dishonest-gender-conversation-2024-election/680604/">attribute</a> the unscientific, dangerous focus on gender identity as one of the reasons Trump is now the president-elect.
From my point of view as the Director of the Center for Academic Freedom at Alliance Defending Freedom, gaining momentum toward scientific reality in the face of progressive thought policing has not been an easy task. Especially in the academic realm, where we <a href="https://adflegal.org/case/meriwether-v-trustees-shawnee-state-university/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped">started</a> significantly litigating in 2018.
In that 2018 case, we represented Dr. Nicholas Meriwether, who was then a philosophy professor at Shawnee State University. Dr. Meriwether declined to use female pronouns for a male student, and as a result, the school punished him for following his convictions. Ultimately, Dr. Meriwether won the case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and settled the case four years after it started.
However, schools at all levels around the country tried to get everyone on board with accepting gender incongruence. ADF has worked to ensure teachers, parents, and students who have a view of human sexuality based on scientific reality don’t lose their voice in the conversation.
In Virginia, high school French teacher <a href="https://adflegal.org/case/vlaming-v-west-point-school-board/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped">Peter Vlaming</a> nearly lost everything because he couldn’t refer to a female student as male in good conscience. Peter was highly respected by the school and well-loved by students. When a female student announced she was male, Peter accommodated her by using a different name and avoiding the use of pronouns. But when the school found out about this, administrators demanded that he use male pronouns to refer to the female student. Peter refused because doing so would violate his convictions about language and human sexuality. The school fired him for his stance, and through years of court battles, received almost $600,000 in a settlement for the school’s violation of his free speech.
Similar to Peter, Vivian Geraghty — a middle school English teacher in Ohio — was forced to resign after she tried to reach a compromise with her school’s officials that would allow her to respectfully decline to use terms inconsistent with the sex of two students. When Vivian raised the First Amendment issue with the school’s principal, he told her that, as a public servant, she must “set [her] religious convictions aside.” Vivian just <a href="https://adflegal.org/case/geraghty-v-jackson-local-school-district-board-education/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped" target="_blank" rel="noopener">settled</a> her lawsuit against the school this month to the tune of $450,000.
This fight over language and human sexuality is important, and it’s still not over. The University of Louisville punished, harassed, and ultimately fired <a href="https://adflegal.org/case/josephson-v-ganzel/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped">Dr. Allan Josephson</a>, who turned the university’s struggling Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology into a well-respected institution, after he spoke — in his personal capacity — at a Heritage Foundation panel about the dangers of buying into gender identity ideology for children. Dr. Josephson’s case started back in 2019, and in September of this year, the Sixth Circuit ruled that the university “should have known that Josephson’s speech was protected and that retaliating against Josephson for his speech would violate his First Amendment rights,” and sent the case back to the lower courts for jury trial.
If the recent trend in views on gender identity is any indication, Dr. Josephson’s stand for truth should ultimately result in further vindication. Teachers should not be forced to lie to their students, especially on something as important as human sexuality. In the medical community, researchers like <a href="https://adflegal.org/article/cass-review-children-deserve-better-not-experimental-treatments/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr. Hilary Cass</a> — who was commissioned to study the effects of gender transition procedures for minors by England’s National Institute of Health — are consistently finding there is no benefit to treating a young man or woman as the opposite sex.
These brave teachers are on the front lines of standing up against a dangerous ideology. Through their courage, the rest of America is catching on. This year brought important victories in the arena of thought and language, and in 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court has an opportunity to <a href="https://adflegal.org/case/united-states-america-v-skrmetti/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped" target="_blank" rel="noopener">further protect</a> children from this unproven, unpopular ideology by allowing states to protect kids from dangerous procedures like distributing puberty blockers and removing otherwise healthy body parts. More and more Americans agree it’s the right thing to do.
 * * * 
 
Tyson Langhofer is senior counsel and director of the Center for Academic Freedom with <a href="http://www.adflegal.org/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alliance Defending Freedom</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/ADFLegal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@ADFLegal</a>).
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Back to school

These Brave Teachers Took A Stand For Biological Reality In 2024

Thanks to the overwhelming efforts of everyday American parents who have refused to bow to the radical Left, the war on Christmas seems to have gone cold.
In recent years, public fights and lawsuits over Christmas events and displays dominated the headlines every December. This season, however, they appear to have subsided.
Parents have bravely pushed back against woke propaganda in the schools, elected better leaders, and have fought for their children’s education over woke indoctrination.
Most teachers and administrators no longer want the hassle, the conflict, or the public attention and scrutiny that these disagreements bring. While in some aspects this is good news, the reality is the damage has already been done — the status quo implemented during the period of lawsuits and school board debates remains.
Students are treated to inoffensive and meaningless “holiday” and “winter” events that look more like low-octane paganism than anything actually believed by the critical mass of the student body.
Of course, this was the long-term goal all along. Even if the Left lost in the courts, in too many cases they won in the classrooms. Because most teachers and administrators don’t want the hassle, the end result has been the same as if they had actually won in the courts and the legislatures.
This is a tragedy for our children and for our culture. Instead, this should be an opportunity for educators and parents to share not only the tidings of the seasons, but also the importance of our country’s robust history of religious liberty.
Public schools, of course, are not meant to be a means of taxpayer-funded evangelization. At the same time, they should not be places where such voluntary discussions are stifled or drowned out by artificially inoffensive celebrations. They should not be an excuse for our educators to look away from the role that religious liberty played in our founding and what it means today. Many of our founders’ ancestors braved the difficult voyage across the Atlantic and carved out new lives in an uncertain and unforgiving wilderness, driven by the need to live out their beliefs in accordance with their consciences. There’s a reason the freedoms of conscience are the first to be included in our Bill of Rights, after all.
When we fail to teach children the foundational things, we do them a grave disservice. Children are going to take in values from whatever they are taught. They learn just as much from the absence of a thing as they do from the thing itself. Instead of learning that we live in a country where beliefs both matter and are respected, they learn to relegate them to the back of their minds and hearts as mere matters of taste and preference.
That’s no way to go through life, and it’s no way to form citizens who are ready to inherit the kind of republic our founders intended for them.
At the same time, America’s school children are still being instructed in values and beliefs from the front of the classroom, just not traditionally religious ones. For years, they’ve been instructed in Critical Race Theory and gender ideology, thanks to the dictates and incentives of the federal Department of Education. Now, that’s about to change.
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With a new administration, we have an opportunity to push out all of the woke, anti-American bureaucratic rot at the top of the national education system. Really, we should not have a national education system. The best way to address the problems coming from Washington would be to get rid of them altogether and eliminate the Department of Education like President Trump has promised.
In addition to creating a bureaucratic nexus to indoctrinate our kids from Washington, it has done absolutely nothing to improve education outcomes since its inception. Since Jimmy Carter established this indoctrination machine in 1980, every academic statistic has only declined. We need to return control of education back to the states, where parents are in the driver’s seat, not some D.C. bureaucrat dictating decisions from their ivory tower.
People forget this country — the greatest country in the history of the world — was built without a federal Department of Education. The minds who built this country and sustained it through its most trying times were educated in one-room schoolhouses. The generations who defeated the 20th century axis powers and put a man on the moon for the first time in human history were the product of state-run education systems. We do not need federal bureaucrats to flourish — we need parents to be empowered to help their children prosper. After all, students are the next leaders of our great nation. This Christmas season, we can start preparing them for it.
* * *
Ryan Walters is Superintendent of the Oklahoma State Department of Education. You can follow him on X: <a href="https://twitter.com/RyanWaltersSupt">@RyanWaltersSupt</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Christmas crib.

Thanks To Brave Parents, The War On Christmas Has Turned Cold 

Christmas

Critical Race Theory

Oklahoma

School Boards

Woke Culture

On February 9, 2010, Michelle Obama unveiled her ambitious initiative to combat childhood obesity through her <a href="https://letsmove.obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Let’s Move!”</a> campaign, aiming to empower children and reduce obesity rates. The <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood-obesity-facts/childhood-obesity-facts.html#:~:text=This%20means%20that%20approximately%2014.7,percentile%20for%20age%20and%20sex." target="_blank" rel="noopener">CDC</a> reports that 1 in 5 children in the U.S. suffer from obesity which prompted President Obama to pass the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy,_Hunger-Free_Kids_Act_of_2010" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010</a>. This law aimed to promote healthier diets with mandated minimum servings of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains while limiting sugar, fat, and sodium. However, the program fell short of its goals and inadvertently exacerbated the problems it sought to address.
The focus of her campaign was not only to ensure that our nation’s children are being fed but also fed healthy food through the aid of the government. This could have only been a good thing until reality proved otherwise.
Within the first few years of this initiative, participation in school lunch programs across the nation fell dramatically. The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-15-656.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a> that nationwide participation in the National School Lunch Program declined by 1.4 million.
Children&#8217;s decrease in participation coincided with rising lunch prices aiming to comply with new “health” standards set by the First Lady, which mandated minimum fruit, vegetable, and whole grain servings, as well as set a maximum for sodium, sugar, and fat contents.
This centralization of our children’s diets drastically harmed low-income communities. Many low-income schools faced budget shortfalls, with some completely dropping out of the federal program. Ironically, this initiative reduced access to meals for the very same children the initiative sought to help.
Michelle Obama’s &#8220;one-size-fits-all&#8221; approach to children’s diets, also did not account for dietary preferences or individual school needs. Thus, children were actively choosing not to eat the meals provided for them, calling them “gross” and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/11/24/students-are-blaming-michelle-obama-for-their-gross-school-lunches/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posting</a> pictures of their so-called nutritious and balanced meals with the hashtag #thanksmichelleobama.
However, Michelle Obama was right: the quality and nutritional value of lunches can change and affect the current rates of childhood obesity. Unfortunately, her approach completely failed to address the real problem at hand: public health giants and their monopoly on the United States agrifood system.
The National Institute of Health (NIH) recently conducted a <a href="https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/childhood-obesity-linked-limited-food-options" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> on the correlation between childhood obesity and low-income areas. Scientists found that adolescents residing in areas of low income had a greater than 50% higher risk of obesity. This statistic is the complete opposite when it comes to a majority of marginalized countries. So why does one of the wealthiest nations on the planet have the most significant rates of obesity?
Low-income communities in the United States are consuming more ultra-processed foods now than ever before. Why? Because processed foods are often cheaper than fresh produce and they are made and marketed for convenience. Mass consumption of ultra-processed foods leads to a higher risk of health dangers and diseases due to high calorific content and low nutritional value.
Students weren&#8217;t getting enough nutrition as it was and Michelle Obama’s school lunch program inadvertently replaced the traditional high-calorie, low-nutritional meals with a different form of processed foods. This change posed a significant issue for low-income students who depended on these meals, as the new options were often unappealing and failed to meet their dietary needs from the start.
This systemic problem is at the heart of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement. RFK’s bid is to fix the American agricultural system and that begins with cleaning up public health agencies like the FDA and USDA claiming, “[t]hose agencies have become sock puppets for the industries they’re supposed to regulate” in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKSBS5v-aOc">recent video</a>. It has become abundantly clear that these agencies are solely operating for monetary gain, not for the people of America.
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In a <a href="https://www.mahanow.org/school-lunches-video" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox &amp; Friends interview</a>, RFK was asked what he would do to improve school lunches, and to that, he responded immediately: “I’ll get processed food out of lunches immediately. About half the school lunch program goes to processed food….We’re creating a diabetes problem in our kids, by giving them food that is poison and I’m going to stop that.”
The &#8220;Make America Healthy Again&#8221; pledge to get toxic chemicals out of the food supply addresses the real problem the way Michelle Obama never could. Rather than just treating symptoms of obesity, RFK’s plans to reform America’s agricultural policies, agencies, thereby addressing the systemic failures in our food system.
To truly combat obesity in America, we must prioritize the quality of our food. By addressing systemic failures and reforming the food supply chain, initiatives like RFK Jr.’s offer a more sustainable and realistic path to a healthier nation.
* * *
Dr. Naydeen González-De Jesús is a former college president and former U.S. public diplomacy officer who has championed student success and international collaboration. Her initiatives and contributions to the U.S.-Argentina Education Memorandum during the 2018 G20 Summit, have driven economic mobility, educational advancement, and strengthened bilateral relations.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Wire.

Donald Trump Campaigns In Michigan In Final Days Before Election

RFK Jr. Could Do What Michelle Obama Actually Promised: Healthy Lunches For Low Income Students

Barack Obama

Health

Michelle Obama

Obesity

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The recent victory of Donald Trump at the national polls ushered in “morning in America” as much as it indicated a repudiation of wokeness. His vow to dismantle the Department of Education offers the US an enviable opportunity and appointing the media tycoon Linda McMahon indicates a welcome, business-minded (read: meritocracy-based) approach. To effectively revamp our schools and the specific ways we invest in, approach, and even define education, depends on some hard truths and our willingness to confront them.
Americans have spoken by refuting the Division, Exclusion, and Inequality movement taking over our culture and our schools. Parents rejected the leftist push for gender ideology, critical race theory, and pornography in our schools to support girls-only locker rooms and their hard-won Title IX sports.
Yet the war is far from won and success in this battle only slows the advance. To preserve our traditional values, we must examine how we arrived where we are today, fighting culture conflict within our own families. While President-elect Trump addresses education on the federal level, our communities must tackle these issues locally at the same time. We can celebrate our public victories against Bud Light and Target, but if the battles for the hearts and minds of our young people continue inside our schools, we may snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
According to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math-science/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pew Research</a>, the U.S. ranked an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/on-the-world-stage-us-students-fall-behind/2016/12/05/610e1e10-b740-11e6-a677-b608fbb3aaf6_story.html?utm_term=.e99466bb5b12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unimpressive 38th</a> out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science on the most recent international academic achievement studies survey taken in 2015. We currently spend more per student than almost any other country to achieve those discouraging results. Why are we fighting to preserve such a spectacularly failing institution while the world sprints past us? Because school is good. That’s the resounding mantra we all ingested.
Schools are where we all learned to trust the experts, especially the educators, so it’s nearly impossible to repudiate the efficacy or validity of our &#8220;factory schools&#8221; and teachers. Despite our reluctance, analysis of the problem demands transparency and candor.
First, for decades, schools have coached pupils (us) to believe that their highest goal is college prep and career readiness (read: money). Where decades ago we believed in entrepreneurship, integrity and independent innovation, now culture holds that the only way to the money is the institutional road. It’s no wonder parents would sacrifice their children on the school’s altar! Save the schools or my child will not succeed! As parents see the blatant lies in our schools, the pornography, the abject ignorance, and the abysmal academic performance, belief in that ultimate fiction has recently (finally) been unseated, and we can (and should) criticize our schools.
The Marxist principles of the teachers’ unions directly contradict traditional American values, but with their market stranglehold they can afford to ignore our condemnation. Inflicting their evil dogma on impressionable minds is their second incentive to preserve their institutions. We are now in a race to see who converts the culture first. If we, however, continue submitting our children to their indoctrination, we will soon reach the tipping point where our own offspring will vote down the Second Amendment and for a surveillance state. And while laws may countermand the Marxist mantra, many ideological teachers don’t heed the law.
Enter the school choice debate. On the surface, government funds following the child makes sense. The parents can vote with their feet and their dollars. But financial infusions typically inflate costs, negating the value of injected money. Further, government intrusion disrupts honest brokerage: in the case of education, it will oust any educational endeavors unwilling to subject themselves to government scrutiny – which would be the only authentic players in the game. Universal school choice (read: single-payer education) would kill innovation, putting us right back to where we are now.
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The future is uncertain, and foundational transformation is the only way to prosper. That’s why Trump has floated tax credits for families with school-aged children. This might afford them more flexibility to raise and educate their children without the strings of government forcing its ideas on them.
The most radical idea in education is reverting to first principles — training the student to teach himself. This is how education used to work, before we began our modern &#8220;factory school&#8221; experiment. It is how the founders – those geniuses who devised our representational republic that so few of our citizens currently acknowledge – became educated.
The education revolution begins with the recognition that it doesn’t take an “expert” to train a child to be an adult; parents should do that.
Parents want a better route forward for their families and their children’s futures, and home education offers that pathway. Most parents are smart enough to be their child&#8217;s teacher. Indeed, the parent’s level of schooling is not reflective of academic outcome for the homeschooled child. Ultimately, all wisdom is self-taught and children need wisdom more than they need to drill math facts, memorize dates, or learn about lubrication.
Many parents still feel enslaved to the system, brainwashed to conform by its past self-proclaimed glory. The new learning model, however, is independent of what any woke “educators” recommend, and for good reason. Independent-minded parents choose home education instead, to foster in their children a devotion to truth, appreciation for wisdom, and the love of freedom.
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Sam Sorbo is an education freedom advocate. A successful Hollywood film actor, producer, and writer, Sam took a step back from her career to homeschool her three children. She has authored numerous books, including her newest releases: “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Parents-Guide-Homeschool-Making-Education/dp/1630063002/ref=sr_1_1?crid=HFWW0GGBD8Z8&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.yVYc1H-XpcJF2RaoepopgHFxrEhbmBVVmI0sH01FpWOXkzwvNBVNwmS-AtJu2G3FDKvoxBHkGGNNXkFFjoiBsinUChM9L5HNlpcD7m8QJ3Gm_8gxVwSQ33qiNOxwx1FlRG7ekd3i83bTCrSoSfxHOImdLZD5O_1lrJp2g6Ty8NZVtmVxBisE23eAn-mqaiAjNMUQ7YcHm_GYRo_E4y40RZq-WtC0Scz-iw9HmLCjICI.paIAaZz6m84aTGbMCODe3GFah6-u91YqwIC5zNIX5Ss&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=Sam+Sorbo&amp;qid=1733341621&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=sam+sorbo%2Cstripbooks%2C104&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Parents’ Guide to Homeschooling</a>&#8220; and &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-40-Days-Devotional-Celebration/dp/1630063029/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christmas 40 Days Devotional,</a>” with husband Kevin Sorbo.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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