Tennessee leads the nation in protecting parental rights and rejecting DEI in public schools, according to a first-of-its-kind state education ranking released Thursday.
The Rankings on Integrity in State Education — published by Defending Education — scored all 50 states and Washington, D.C., on five hot-button education issues: parental rights, DEI, gender and sexuality policies, teacher union restrictions, and foreign influence.
The comprehensive assessment represents a significant shift in how education policy is evaluated at the state level. While traditional education rankings have historically focused on academic outcomes and resource allocation, this new framework centers on the cultural and ideological battles that have dominated school board meetings and state legislatures across the country in recent years.
Red states dominated the top slots. Tennessee claimed first place, followed by Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, and Iowa.
“FOR THE FIRST TIME, PARENTS HAVE A SINGLE RESOURCE TO SEE HOW THEIR STATE HANDLES THE ISSUES THEY’VE VOICED CONCERNS ABOUT OVER THE LAST FIVE YEARS.”
Washington, D.C., ranked dead last. Rhode Island, California, Oregon, and Illinois rounded out the bottom five.
The stark geographic divide in the rankings reflects the deepening partisan split over education policy in America. The results illustrate how red and blue states have pursued dramatically different approaches to governing their public schools, particularly on issues related to parental involvement and curriculum content.
The report does not measure test scores or graduation rates. Instead, it evaluates how states respond to parental demands for transparency — particularly on secret gender transitions, sex education opt-outs, and DEI curriculum in classrooms.
This methodology marks a departure from conventional education assessments, prioritizing policy alignment with parental concerns over traditional academic metrics. The approach acknowledges that many families now view their state’s stance on these cultural issues as equally important to — or even more important than — standardized test performance when evaluating the quality of their children’s education.
Paul Runko, senior director of strategic initiatives at Defending Education, said the rankings empower parents to “evaluate local schools and hold leaders accountable at the ballot box.”
The report’s timing comes as education policy continues to emerge as a decisive factor in state and local elections nationwide. From gubernatorial races to school board contests, candidates’ positions on parental rights and classroom content have increasingly determined electoral outcomes, particularly in suburban districts where parents have mobilized around these concerns.
Four states tied for the top parental rights score: North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Each earned points for policies requiring parental consent before schools facilitate student gender transitions or deliver sex education.
These parental rights provisions represent legislative responses to incidents where parents discovered significant decisions about their children were made without their knowledge or involvement. The scoring methodology rewarded states that have codified parental notification and consent requirements into law, rather than leaving such decisions to individual school district discretion.
On teacher union restrictions, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina received perfect scores. The report credited laws governing collective bargaining, strike restrictions, and work authorization requirements.
Iowa, Missouri, and West Virginia topped the DEI category. The report praised them for restricting DEI initiatives, restorative justice programs, and teacher diversity mandates.
The DEI category reflects ongoing debates about whether schools should incorporate explicit diversity training and social justice frameworks into their operations, or whether such programs represent ideological indoctrination that extends beyond core academic instruction. States received higher scores for implementing clear boundaries around these programs.
Alabama, Florida, and Indiana tied for the highest scores on gender and sexuality policies. The report examined state bans on LGBTQ curriculum, restrictions on transgender athletes in women’s sports, and anti-bullying laws related to gender identity.
Seven red states — Alabama, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas — received perfect scores for blocking Chinese government influence in education, including Confucius Institutes.
The foreign influence category addresses growing national security concerns about how foreign governments, particularly China, may seek to shape American education through funding and cultural programming. Many of these states have passed legislation specifically targeting such arrangements in recent years.
Dr. Terry Stoops, director of government affairs at Defending Education, congratulated the top-ranked states in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“IF YOUR STATE IS AT THE TOP OF DEFENDING EDUCATION’S RANKINGS, CONGRATULATIONS! YOU LIVE IN A STATE WITH PUBLIC SCHOOL POLICIES THAT PRIORITIZE SOUND ACADEMICS OVER SHAMELESS ANTICS.”
Stoops blamed elected leaders in the lowest-scoring states for having “sacrificed educational excellence at the altar of social justice.”
“For parents in bottom-feeder states who value rigor over ridiculousness, the choice is either fight or flight,” he said.
The report aims to give parents a clearer picture of where their state stands on education battles — and how those policies could shape their children’s futures.
As families continue to make decisions about where to live and whether to keep their children in public schools, such rankings may increasingly influence both migration patterns and enrollment trends. The report provides a roadmap for understanding the vast policy differences that now exist across state lines in American public education.
