Education Freedom
Creating Opportunity for Every American Child
MISSION
The Education Freedom Campaign works to ensure rooted in our fundamental values. In this campaign, K-12 education policy experts promote school choice and produce sound research to help parents make informed decisions for their children. Our higher education experts work with our partners in government and in the marketplace to equip a new American workforce by eliminating bloat and incentivizing innovation and opportunity. We work with federal and state governments to ensure that these principles are implemented based on what is best for children, not bureaucrats. After all, parents are the first primary educators of their childing. They should be in the driver’s seat in educational decision making.
Focus Areas / Policy Pillars
- School Choice – Expanding parental rights and education freedom.
- Accountability through Transparency - Ensuring parents and policymakers have the information on curriculum, finances, safety, and academic outcomes that they need to make informed decisions.
- Limited Bureaucracy – Reining in bloated bureaucracy and compliance rules and focusing resources on academic achievement over ideological initiatives.
- Education Value – Reforming accreditation and return-on-investment standards, sharing risks and responsibilities, and supporting workforce development.
- Ending the Department of Education – Supporting legislation and rulemaking to devolve control and give block grants to states, as well as refocusing accreditation on quality control and outcomes and reforming student loans and debt.
- Free Expression – Promoting free speech and institutional viewpoint neutrality in higher education.
Team
Erika Donalds
Chair, Education Opportunity
Michael Shires
Vice Chair of Education Opportunity
Sarah Hitchcock
Education Freedom Campaign Director
Christopher Schorr, Ph.D.
Director of the Higher Education Reform Initiative
James Paul, PhD
Director of State Education Opportunity
Jovan Tripkovic
Policy Analyst, Higher Education Reform Initiative
Latest
Commentary
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March 2, 2026
How States Can Restore School Safety & Order
The Department of Education (ED) recently announced another inter-agency agreement to send responsibility for federal school safety programs to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). These programs will undoubtedly be better managed by HHS than by ED, which has a tragic track record of leveraging its policy authority to make schools less safe. However, shifting management of federal programming alone will have a limited effect on conditions inside classrooms.
State Model Policy
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March 2, 2026
Restoring Teacher Authority and Classroom Order ACT
The purpose of this act is to promote safe and orderly classrooms where teacher authority is respected by students and school administrators, to ensure that parents have access to reliable insight into school safety, and to biannual review of school discipline policies. This act requires that the State Education Agency administer an annual survey to teachers to ascertain safety conditions within public schools. This act also requires Local Education Agencies to revisit their school discipline codes of conduct to increase teacher discretion in the school discipline system.
Commentary
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February 23, 2026
America’s Civics Crisis—and Opportunity
School children across America had off last Monday for a holiday known as Presidents Day, but which is still officially called Washington’s Birthday. Without George Washington, the American Revolution may not have happened and certainly would not have succeeded.
Expert Insights
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February 23, 2026
Department of Education Finds California in Violation of Parental Access Law
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), signed into law in 1974, prevents schools from releasing sensitive information regarding students to third parties and guarantees the rights of parents to “inspect and review the educational records of their children.”
Expert Insights
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February 23, 2026
How a Compact Restores Public Trust in American Higher Education
Americans have lost faith in their institutions of higher education. According to Gallup, only 42% of Americans expressed confidence in American higher education in 2025, down from 57% in 2015 and up only slightly from 36% in 2023 and 2024. Findings from the Pew Research Center confirm this trend: a 2025 poll found 70% of Americans believe higher education is “going in the wrong direction,” up from 56% in 2020. Only 28% think higher education is “going in the right direction,” down from 38% in 2020.
Topics
- Protecting Kids Online
- Rural Prosperity
- Criminal Justice & Public Safety
- The Courts
- Government Weaponization
- Merit-based Employment
- Debt
- Inflation
- Trade
- Work & Jobs
- Post Secondary Education
- K-12 Education Freedom
- Public School Transparency
- American Only Elections
- Clean Votes
- Secure Elections
- Energy
- Environment
- Budget, Spending, & Taxes
- Transgenderism
- Border & Immigration
- Defense
- Marriage, Family, & Children
- Faith & Religious Liberty
- Sanctity of Life
- Parental Rights
- Protect Women’s Sports
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issues-new
Videos
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A New Era for College Sports: The Saving College Sports Proposal Outshines the SCORE and SAFE Acts
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How Mississippi Beat the Odds: Gov. Tate Reeves on Literacy Reform and the School Choice Revolution
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Secretary McMahon, AFPI, TPUSA, & Partners Launch New Civics Coalition
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AFPI Files Title IX Lawsuit to Protect Oregon Girls’ Rights
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