2024 Eddies Awards: Game Changer Campaign of the Year

The Eddies—annual, advocate-nominated and voted awards—feature strategic advocacy that is driving impactful policy change.

This Eddies category recognizes local, state, or national advocacy campaigns that tackled a big problem and achieved a new, game-changing policy. Sometimes a policy window opens quickly, and advocates move fast; sometimes, the window opens after years of sustained advocacy efforts. Either way, nominees in this category pushed the envelope to make a significant impact for students and families—paving the way for others to replicate or adapt this strategy in their communities.

See a complete list of 2024 nominees in all Eddies categories.

Game Changer Campaign of the Year Winner

Development and Passage of the Mississippi Student Funding Formula

Mississippi First, Teach Plus Mississippi

***Network Policy Pillar:* *Responsive Systems***

SUMMARY

This policy helps public school districts and public charter schools receive funding based on students’ individual needs, so they can adequately serve their student populations, including those who are from low-income communities, English language learners, in special education programs, and part of career-technical education programs so they can succeed in school, college, career, and life.Our policy and advocacy impacts all public school students in Mississippi (430,000+ students) across 137 school districts and 1,013 schools.

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

The historic Mississippi Student Funding Formula (MSFF), which was passed by the Mississippi Legislature in May and became law in July, changes the way the state pays for public schools by getting rid of a formula that contributed to systematic underfunding of public schools, especially those with large populations of underserved students. Mississippi’s previous funding formula, the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP), had been in effect since 1997 and was outdated and inequitable. Under this formula, there was no correlation between student need and the allocation of state funds. Additionally, the MAEP was only fully funded by the state legislature twice in its history. Year after year, school districts across the state suffered the consequences of being underfunded. The new formula, which helps poorer districts with weak local tax bases, is simpler and more flexible for administrators, while also providing significant increases in funding for underserved students who are low-income, in special education, and part of career-technical education programs.

The MSFF is the state’s first fully student-based funding formula. Moreover, for the first time, there is state funding for English learners. With the weighted formula for underserved student populations, student funding will now be distributed more equitably across districts. The state legislature has expressed its intent to continue to fully fund the formula in years to come.

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

Mississippi First and Teach Plus Mississippi worked across multiple, intersecting coalitions and legislators in developing a student-centered funding formula to replace the MAEP. Mississippi First and Teach Plus, along with Teach Plus Mississippi teacher leaders from across the state, recognize the significance of collective power in overhauling the state’s school funding formula. Each organization brought unique perspectives, knowledge, skills, and relationships that culminated in a bipartisan effort to fully fund all public schools in Mississippi. Teach Plus Mississippi teacher leaders co-authored a policy memo that called for weighted student funding and another Teach Plus teacher leader wrote an op-ed urging for the passage of the funding formula legislation on behalf of his high school students and every student in the state. Mississippi First drafted a bill prior to the 2024 legislative session, then identified and worked with key legislators, including the Speaker of the House, to introduce and ultimately pass legislation that established the MSFF.

The process of advocating for this legislation was not without its challenges. Throughout most of the legislative session, the Senate remained staunchly opposed to any legislation replacing the MAEP. As legislators do not work in a vacuum, public support for the new formula was crucial in persuading legislators to support this legislation. Mississippi First and Teach Plus Mississippi worked tirelessly to shape public opinion around this new policy and the urgency of passing a potentially historic piece of legislation. Mississippi First and Teach Plus Mississippi also met individually with key stakeholders to explain the details of the proposed funding formula and its advantages over the MAEP. As a result of these meetings, key elements of the formula were endorsed by Mississippi’s two largest professional organizations for teachers, Mississippi Professional Educators (MPE) and Mississippi Association of Educators (MAE). This advocacy was critical in showing lawmakers that the new formula had the support of one of its most important groups of stakeholders: public school teachers.

FINANCIAL INVESTMENT

Our joint advocacy contributed an additional $218 million, increasing the investment in public schools across the state to roughly $2.96 billion.

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

Strategic timing is critical. There are many twists and turns in the legislative process that could seemingly dash the hopes of a policy win. Yet, Rachel Canter and Sanford Johnson, executive directors of Mississippi First and Teach Plus Mississippi, respectively, remained hopeful and steadfast in their advocacy and commitment to ensuring that children attending public schools in Mississippi receive an equitable education. The path of the revised school funding formula was neither narrow nor straight. In Mississippi, legislators and other stakeholders had criticized the MAEP for years. These complaints came to a head in 2023 when the Senate attempted and failed to pass a revised version of the MAEP. The attempted passage of this bill, however, indicated an appetite for change. Moreover, the state legislature had a new Speaker of the House of Representatives for the upcoming 2024 session, and he was eager to make his mark during the first year in leadership. Mississippi First acted on these circumstances and provided the new speaker with well-researched funding formula legislation shortly after he took office, positioning the organization as a valuable partner in the process. With the guidance of Johnson, Teach Plus Mississippi teacher leaders tenaciously focused their advocacy efforts on sharing what equitable funding increases would mean for students in their communities, especially students from low-income households, English learners, and those in special education. By keeping students at the center of the message, Mississippi First and Teach Plus Mississippi leveraged the windows of opportunity into a historic victory for public education. News of the revised school funding formula reverberated outside of Mississippi, as it was published in media outlets across the country.

Compromise is necessary. The House and Senate had different ideas about funding reform during the session, with the House wanting to pass the new student-centered formula and the Senate wanting to amend the old formula. Both chambers were entrenched in their positions for most of the legislative process. When the House made it clear that they would not vote to revise the current formula, and as more information emerged about the advantages of a student-centered formula, the Senate came to the table to develop a compromise. The final bill contained the most important provisions of the original student-centered formula legislation introduced in the House, with minor revisions demanded by the Senate. Had the House not been willing to compromise on some provisions of the original bill, Mississippi would not have passed a new funding formula this year.

Build a strong case demonstrating how the new policy will be an improvement upon the old or alternative one. Equity was a priority for Mississippi First, Teach Plus Mississippi, and our stakeholders. Using concrete data, we were able to demonstrate how the newly proposed formula would be objectively more equitable than the old one. Building this argument on facts and data effectively convinced many stakeholders to support the student-based formula.

RESOURCES

Game Changer Campaign of the Year Finalists

30 Years in the Making: Students-First Funding in Colorado

Colorado League of Charter Schools, Colorado Succeeds, DFER Colorado, Ready Colorado, Stand for Children Colorado Teach Plus Colorado, Transform Education Now (TEN)

Network Policy Pillar: Responsive Systems

SUMMARY

This policy helps all Colorado students to receive more equitable funding, particularly for those who have been historically underserved or have unique needs, so they can reach their fullest potential. Our policy and advocacy impacts all 880,000 of Colorado’s public school students.

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

For the last 30 years, the Colorado public school finance formula was oriented around district characteristics, which resulted in wealthier districts receiving significantly more funding than neighboring districts with a lower cost of living. The needs of systems came before the needs of students. As an example, a student identified as at-risk attending school in wealthy Aspen received $7,000 more in funding than a similarly identified student attending a less-resourced district, Pueblo City.

After numerous failed attempts to revise the formula, Colorado House Bill 24-1448 (HB24-1448) puts students first in the formula, both literally and figuratively: district needs are no longer the driving factor. Instead, student factors are funded first in the formula and the state increased the funding weights for students who are at-risk and students who are learning English. The new formula also adds students receiving special education services to the weighted student factors and emphasizes the needs of rural districts, which have consistently been fighting for “one-time” funding in the legislature.

Critically, the bill also included provisions that 1) strengthen school-level financial transparency to allow advocates to understand whether funds are actually reaching the students the bill is intended to serve and 2) significantly increase charter school capital construction funding.

When the formula is fully implemented after five years, Colorado will have added an additional $500 million to ensure all students, especially at-risk, ELL, special education, and rural students, can reach their full potential.

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

An existing education reform coalition came together to advocate for the creation of a task force in the 2023 legislative session, which ultimately made recommendations toward a students-first formula that addressed the specific components our coalition knew were creating inequities in our system. The representatives on the task force were strategically identified by coalition partners to ensure that we were building towards a broader consensus of changes that needed to be made.

The recommendations the task force brought forward gave the political cover and created the momentum needed to introduce HB24-1448. We were able to build on our existing coalition, which represents left, right, and nonpartisan organizations, to add a coalition of rural superintendents, some of whom were opposed to policies our reform coalition had previously advocated for. The rural superintendents’ coalition came to see how important it was for their voices to be lifted up in a legislature that tends to listen to the louder (i.e., more wealthy and politically engaged) voices of the Denver metro area. With a broader coalition, each organization had its own specific role to play, particularly in ensuring that we maintained the bipartisan sponsorship we cultivated.

FINANCIAL INVESTMENT

Our advocacy contributed to a $500 million investment in all of Colorado’s students, specifically students who have been historically underserved, as well as $65.5 million for facilities for Colorado’s charter school students.

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

Play the long game: The extent to which our coalition has been fighting for this change for decades cannot be overstated. The consistent attention on the issue was essential to continue to raise awareness of the problem. After reflecting on prior losses, we saw an opportunity to create a task force that would be reflective of different stakeholders and would remove the barrier of political self-interest by not including legislators. This combination allowed the task force to create recommendations that could be the foundation for future legislation. There were many opportunities where the plan could have gone awry: the wrong people appointed to the task force, bad task force facilitation, or task force representatives refusing to engage, but along the way, we made decisions that ensured we stayed on track and we got to the recommendations we needed to create legislation.

Remove politics: The legislature tried numerous times to revise the funding system through legislative interim committees but failed because of the political challenges. In 2023, the legislature established a task force of experts and stakeholders, but no politicians. Many legislators have named how critical it was that the task force had no politicians and was oriented around the needs of students. But it’s also critical to note that our coalition did significant work to ensure that the right people were appointed to the task force to get to the outcomes we desired.

Power in relationships and sponsorship: We started with a coalition that had built authentic relationships over time with legislators, district leaders, and other advocacy groups—this was the foundation for so much of our success. Like many states, we have found ourselves with a legislature that is incredibly diverse politically. Our coalition has intentionally cultivated relationships with policymakers that reflect the full range of the legislature’s political diversity and have become champions for school finance reform. Our key legislative champions, who we approached to be bill sponsors, held leadership positions and were influential within their ideologically diverse caucuses.

Because of the depth and breadth of our coalition, we had multiple touchpoints with many legislators along the way. These strong legislative relationships allowed us to expand and diversify our coalition during bill negotiations and bring enough stakeholders, special interests, and, ultimately, legislators on board to get the bill across the finish line.

Lastly, the Governor has a great deal of influence in the legislature, and the relationships that members of our coalition have with him and his office were also helpful in securing needed votes of support.

Negotiate without losing the farm: At the end of the day, our coalition was aligned on the core policy change we needed to achieve. We were able to negotiate with opponents because we knew what was non-negotiable for us. That gave direction, and some autonomy, as we negotiated within caucuses or with opponents. Using data that gave us the equity arguments we needed, we were able to make real-time adjustments to legislation as we negotiated in the final days of the session.

Education reform is possible in a blue state: Colorado’s political landscape has changed significantly in the last few years: what was once a solidly purple state is now truly blue. Because of the long-term strategy and thoughtful collaboration that reflected our state’s various political dynamics, we achieved significant education reform that will impact students in Colorado for generations.

RESOURCES

Comprehensive Reforms in Louisiana

DC Goes Big on Education Funding for Kids in ALL Schools

DC Charter School Alliance, DC Policy Center, DFER District of Columbia, EmpowerK12, Parents Amplifying Voices in Education (PAVE)

Network Policy Pillar: Responsive Systems, Innovative Options

SUMMARY

This policy helps traditional public schools and public charter schools in DC’s educational system of choice to advance equity across sectors and ensure they have the resources they need to truly serve all kids. Our policy and advocacy impacts more than 101,000 students.

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

DC’s fiscal year (FY) 2025 budget like many cities and states across the country was subject to significant revenue cuts as federal covid recovery dollars expired. Our coalition’s efforts this past year resulted in the following equity-forward wins to help our schools continue accelerating student outcomes:

12.4% increase in the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula (UPSFF), which ensures funding reaches our students and educators no matter which public school they attend.
25% increase to the weight for economically disadvantaged students in the funding formula, translating to $55 million in equitable funding to serve our most at-risk students.
Over 3% guaranteed increase to the annual facilities allotment for public charter schools, bringing the FY2025 total annual charter facilities funding to $3,734 per student, an unheard of sum in any other state or jurisdiction.
$2.2 million for high-quality literacy instructional materials across both sectors and a total of $3.5 million through FY28 for kindergarten training and a coaching pilot at up to 20 schools.
Nearly $5 million for high-impact tutoring across both sectors.
$850,000 total for restorative justice technical grants to support restorative justice programs at 36 schools.
$27 million to provide grants to Learn24 Out-of-School Time (OST) program providers.
$21.8 million to expand career and technical education (CTE) programming.
$700,000 to maintain the District’s Dual Enrollment program.
A $638,000 funding increase to the Office of Education through Employment Pathways.
$28.3 million for school-based behavioral health services.

While enrollment has declined at more than two-thirds of our nation’s public schools since the pandemic, confidence in our city’s educational system of choice remains strong. Enrollment in both sectors this past year grew to more than 98,000 students, with the city adding 2,120 new students last year – 3,851 more students than were enrolled pre-covid. DC has long been an example of a school system that allows families to find the best-fit school for each of their children and a critical component of that system’s success has been ensuring that there is equality between both sectors in terms of school funding and that funding is centered on the student, not the sector.

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

In DC, nearly half of all public school students attend public charter schools, and even in the traditional public school system, the majority of students exercise school choice by attending a DC Public School (DCPS) other than their neighborhood school. In this education ecosystem, it is crucial to work across lines of difference and in coalition to drive positive change for kids.

The Nation’s Capital continues to stand at the forefront of education innovation and advocates have pushed for historic equitable funding – across both charter and traditional public schools, between Wards and communities, and for kids from every background. Over countless advocacy actions and testimonies, deep relationship-building with community and systems leaders, and powerful research to support policy change, the DC Students Succeed Coalition has made possible student-centered investments that led to improved outcomes for kids across the District. The Coalition is made up of 33 partner organizations including PIE Network members: PAVE (Parents Amplifying Voices in Education), EmpowerK12, DC Charter School Alliance, Education Reform Now DC, and D.C. Policy Center and engaged with each and every local policymaker in both the executive and legislative branch to keep education a top priority.

FINANCIAL INVESTMENT

Our advocacy contributed to a $290,000,000 investment in 101,000 students across traditional public schools and public charter schools (almost an additional $3,000 per student).

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

Our city-state remains a leader in funding equity between sectors showing that good policy that makes sure funding follows kids and encourages innovation to catalyze an entire city’s education system, a status that would not be possible without the tireless work in advocacy, policy, and organizing of the DC Students Succeed coalition and our constituents. While outside entities may have doubted all of these wins were feasible in a tough budget year – especially given the absence of federal COVID relief funding, we have shown what’s possible when you generate collective action and everyone does their part. These outcomes serve as models for the power of centering the voices and experiences of school leaders, educators, researchers, parents, and students in collective efforts to advance a great education for every child.

RESOURCES

Development and Passage of the Mississippi Student Funding Formula

Mississippi First, Teach Plus Mississippi

***Network Policy Pillar:* *Responsive Systems***

SUMMARY

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

FINANCIAL INVESTMENT

Our joint advocacy contributed an additional $218 million, increasing the investment in public schools across the state to roughly $2.96 billion.

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

RESOURCES

National Parents’ READ to RISE Campaign and Congressional Resolution

Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), Educators for Excellence, Educators for Excellence-Los Angeles, National Parents Union (NPU), The Education Trust

Network Policy Pillar: High Expectations

SUMMARY

This campaign and resolution encourages the recognition of a national literacy crisis and sets the basis for federal intervention in the lagging student progress across the country. The goal is to prioritize literacy and implement evidence-based reading practices so they can improve reading proficiency, close achievement gaps, and prepare students for academic and lifelong success. The Congressional Campaign reached all 435 members of the House of Representatives, all 100 Senators, the Biden Adminstration and the US Secretary of Education. The declaration reaches over 56 million K-12 students across the United States.

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

The National Parents’ READ to RISE Congressional Resolution, introduced by Senator Reed and Senator Cassidy, represents the beginning of a united federal approach to addressing the national reading crisis. By formally recognizing the science of reading and establishing September as National Literacy Month, this resolution brings unprecedented attention to the critical issue of literacy- and the responsibility of the Federal Government to intervene in our national literacy crisis. The resolution creates a sustained national conversation and a sense of urgency around reading proficiency. The resolution’s impact is amplified by its timing, serving as a precursor to the reauthorization of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), thereby influencing future federal stances on improving student achievement and funding decisions.This resolution not only raises awareness but also calls for accountability and measurable results, setting the stage for significant reforms and funding in literacy education. The impact on students includes increased access to quality reading instruction, improved literacy rates, and a foundation for lifelong learning and success.

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

We worked in coalition with a bipartisan group of legislators, educators, literacy advocates, and parents. This collaborative effort included input from diverse communities and organizations, ensuring that the policy addresses the needs of all students, particularly those from underserved backgrounds. Our partnerships spanned political, social, and economic lines, uniting stakeholders around the common goal of improving literacy outcomes. Some PIE Network Members gave feedback and supported the resolution including Educators 4 Excellence, DFER, Ed Trust and KIPP Foundation.

FINANCIAL INVESTMENT

Our advocacy contributed to continued investments in the Comprehensive Literacy Grant Program and the Innovative Approaches to Literacy Grants, benefiting schools, educators, and students nationwide in the 2024 Appropriations Package.

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

Fellow Network members can learn the importance of building broad coalitions, leveraging bipartisan support, and engaging directly with affected communities. Key strategies included data-driven advocacy, compelling storytelling to highlight the urgency of the literacy crisis, and persistent lobbying to ensure legislative action. Clear communication and setting measurable goals were crucial in gaining and maintaining momentum.

RESOURCES

NYC Solves: Leveraging Research-backed, High-quality Curricular Materials to Learn Math

Educators for Excellence-New York

***Network Policy Pillar:* *High Expectations***

SUMMARY

This policy ensures every middle school student in New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) will be using research-backed, high-quality curricular materials to learn math. It helps local NYCPS districts to train teachers on the most up-to-date, research backed practices and materials in math instruction so they can improve student outcomes. By homogenizing curriculum in each district, superintendents can better administer professional learning, so that teachers can receive more content-based training, with the ability to learn from their peers in nearby schools about how they deliver content to similar student populations. Basically, it takes the advantages of a strong school community and — done properly — expands that beneficial network to dozens of educators. This win builds off of E4E-New York’s successful advocacy for NYC Reads, which provided high quality instructional materials and aligned, district-wide professional learning for K-5 reading across the city last school year.

Our policy and advocacy will impact approximately 71,000 students in 2024-2025, and another 142,000 students in the following two years, with expected expansion to the full 937,000 students in NYCPS.

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

With their deep involvement in the creation and rollout of NYC Reads and NYC Solves, E4E-New York has fundamentally transformed the way that curriculum is selected in the largest school district in the country. By successfully advocating that NYCPS streamline the curriculum selection process and require the use of evidence-based materials, the team at E4E-NY played an integral role in ushering in a new era in NYCPS in which every student will be taught with evidence-based, high-quality curricular materials. Those materials are now being distributed in a way that enables content-based professional learning to be better administered from the district level.

This historic investment in middle school mathematics curriculum and professional learning — $34 million over the next five years — addresses the city’s previously broken and inconsistent approach to curriculum selection. Under this approach, students were negatively impacted by inconsistent instruction that varied in quality from school to school, and educators received uneven support and training to implement the curriculum they were using. The result was inequity: 34.3% of students who are Black and 35.7% who are Latino demonstrated proficiency on their math exams, compared to 70.2% of white students and 77.6% of Asian American students.

The three research-backed curriculum options put forth by NYCPS for each superintendent to select for their district focus on building the problem-solving and mathematical curiosity of students, moving away from rote memorization and shortcuts that defined now-defunct curriculums. Research shows that by the second grade, students develop a self perception as either “good” or “bad” math students; by focusing on the process of investigation, newer curriculums like Illustrative Math (one of the three options put forth by NYCPS) take the emphasis off of finding the right answer, and onto the important skills of problem solving that builds students’ capacity to take on the questions of our future around artificial intelligence, environmental engineering, data analysis, and yet unknown challenges and opportunities. The curricula that NYCPS are adopting are designed to strengthen students’ curiosity and investigative abilities, building problem solvers rather than answer-finders, which is what older math curriculums focused on.

Aligning curriculum across districts will help schools share their successful strategies, identify the pain points that teachers with similar student populations have worked around, and generally create bigger, stronger, more supportive networks of experts. Ultimately, this policy change will raise math scores for students in NYCPS, close the equity gaps mentioned above, and open the door for many more high school students to enroll in advanced courses, pursue STEM in college, and excel in STEM-related careers thanks to strong elementary and middle school math foundations.

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

E4E-NY used the playbook that worked well for them when it came to advocating for early literacy curriculum changes in 2023 and executed once again. E4E-NY organizers and teacher members went school-to-school, collecting feedback and opinions from teachers in all 5 boroughs, gathering over 1,000 petition signatures, and repeatedly convening an impassioned teacher action team of math teachers—diverse across lines of race, age, gender, grade level, and other factors—to create policy recommendations.

E4E-NY used the bridges built during the NYC Reads campaign to secure meetings with Deputy Chancellors, learn where to push, and set up a panel event with Chancellor Banks in May. At that event, E4E-NY’s teacher action team showed his administration the groundswell they had built to call for these changes, and asked him and his advisers tough questions about what they had learned from rolling out NYC Reads, and how they planned to improve upon that model if they adopted the math curriculum recommendations.

FINANCIAL INVESTMENT

Our advocacy contributed to a $34 million initial investment over the course of the next five years in the professional development of teachers and high-quality instructional materials for New York City Public School students.

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

In the NYC Solves campaign, E4E-NY lived out E4E’s guiding principle: leveraging teacher power, to elevate the teaching profession and improve student outcomes. E4E-NY built off of the goodwill, strong relationships, and healthy adversarialism that they developed with NYCPS to achieve their NYC Reads win in 2023 to exponentially expand their impact and ultimately transform the curricula selection scene in the largest district in the nation. The winning recipe was to combine those valuable relationships with E4E-NY’s bread and butter: teacher-led policy teams sourced from all over NYC and armed with the opinions of hundreds more NYC math teachers.

The main takeaway from this campaign is that grassroots campaigns do not have to be exclusively adversarial. Once power is demonstrated through mass action like petitions, E4E-NY was able to bring that strengthened hand to the bargaining table, offering their advocacy targets the opportunity to publicly benefit from all of that hard work by allying with and adopting the demands of teachers.

RESOURCES

Game Changer Campaign of the Year Honorable Mentions

Advanced Teaching Roles

BEST NC

Network Policy Pillar: Great Educators

SUMMARY

Advanced Teaching Roles enables highly effective teachers to extend their reach to more students, support the professional development of a team of teachers, and receive higher pay for increased responsibility so they can improve outcomes for students.

BEST NC’s policy and advocacy on Advanced Teaching Roles (ATR) impacts more than 225,000 students and more than 10,000 teachers across North Carolina. This revolutionary strategic staffing initiative is on track to be implemented statewide, where it will eventually impact more the 1.5 million students.

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

Most schools silo educators into a century-old “one-teacher, one-classroom” model that fails to treat educators like skilled professionals. This outdated organizational structure stifles teachers’ ability to advance their careers, limits students’ access to effective educators, inhibits developing teachers’ access to meaningful professional support, and creates an unsustainable expectation that the principal should be the primary instructional leader for all teachers in the building, while also being in charge of everything from community engagement to student safety. This outdated model creates barriers that limit teacher collaboration and instructional improvement and hinder students’ ability to learn and thrive.

North Carolina is the only state in the nation with a statewide strategic staffing initiative that addresses these problems by changing the organizational structure and culture of schools. The Advanced Teaching Roles initiative is designed to incentivize and support schools and districts as they transition toward a staffing model that treats educators like the highly-skilled, collaborative professionals they are. These models modernize the outdated organizational structure of schools by:

Creating meaningful leadership roles and opportunities, with as much as $20,000 in higher pay and expanded professional growth for effective teachers;
Moving away from the one-teacher-one-classroom staffing model to a team of teachers and students where teacher capacity can better meet student need;
Providing embedded, real-time professional support for developing teachers; and
Improving student achievement by ensuring more students have access to great educators and great teaching.

Originally created as a pilot program in 2016, the initiative was made permanent in 2020 and district interest continues to build. To participate, districts opt-in by applying for a state-funded Advanced Teaching Roles grant that funds their technical assistance support. In 2023, the state further solidified its commitment to strategic staffing by providing recurring funding for Advanced Teaching Roles salary supplements.

This year, 27 of North Carolina’s 115 school districts are implementing Advanced Teaching Roles in 430 schools. A 2023 study conducted by the Friday Institute found statistically significant schoolwide impacts of ATR staffing structures on student achievement in math, as well as positive impacts on teacher working conditions. Additionally, schools that utilized this distributed leadership model report that they have a greater ability to adopt and implement new policies and practices, such as the Science of Reading.

In short, by fundamentally modernizing the systems and structures of schools, Advanced Teaching Roles is an innovation that improves student learning and makes other innovations possible.

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

When originally introduced, several educator and administrator organizations opposed the Advanced Teaching Roles policy because it provided differentiated pay for teachers. BEST NC persisted with positive, data-driven advocacy and strong communications through online materials and videos. The initiative attracted a coalition of willing district and school leaders who were eager to transform their outdated school models. Over time, as the benefits to both teachers and students became evident, the initiative has earned the support of education groups.

Despite the challenges from educator and administrator groups, BEST NC coordinated well with a wide range of stakeholders such as technical assistance providers, researchers, and educators.

Our most important partnership for Advanced Teaching Roles is the coordination with state agency staff. Like many state agencies, ours is not designed to identify and scale up innovation, but they were enthusiastic about Advanced Teaching Roles and welcomed our engagement. We have worked well together at every step along the way from designing policy, communicating with and convening school districts, and coordinating data collection and research.

FINANCIAL INVESTMENT

Our advocacy contributed to a combined $16.4 million recurring investment in ATR transition grants and teacher salary supplements, with a projected teacher pay investment of $200M at full implementation.

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

To thwart opposition, broaden the scope and pull in as best practices are identified. Start your policy framework by casting a wide net that emphasizes innovation and creativity around strategic staffing, then sift for the gold. Early adopters will leverage their enthusiasm and energy by identifying a number of strategies that might not have been anticipated at the outset of the initiative. As you move from the early stages to statewide implementation, identify the most effective approaches and refine the implementation guidelines/guardrails accordingly. This allows buy-in from early innovators, while providing well-defined policies and procedures that enable later-adopters to implement the models successfully and with fidelity.
Create Structures for districts to opt-in. To build momentum around strategic staffing, it is critical to start with a coalition of the willing and provide on-ramps and incentives for other districts to join as their leadership embraces the concept. For ATR, that included a handful of districts that emerged from the pilot program and remain role models today. These districts represent a mix of urban and rural districts, making the lessons that they share widely applicable. We still call on these leaders to advocate in support of the initiative and to share with other districts as it continues to expand.
Ensure schools and districts have communities of practice as they opt-in and implement strategic staffing models. To ensure continued momentum within and across districts, create communities of practice that focus on both the why and the how, innovation withers and the status quo seeps back in. BEST NC has collaborated with key leaders within NC DPI (North Carolina’s SEA) to host four ATR convenings each year. At each convening, implementing and interested districts gather in a school implementing ATR to see and hear from district leaders, principals, and teachers how it’s being put into practice in their district and school. The convenings have also become a venue for leaders from NC DPI and the state to share important policy updates and provide technical assistance for districts interested in submitting a proposal for funding.
Funding is essential to seed innovation. Shifting from an industrial organizational model to a more strategic one cannot be done in-house. Effective organizational transformation requires technical assistance for the design and transition. At first, funding can be philanthropic or local, but getting to full scale will likely require modest but meaningful transition funding, likely from the state.
A strong intermediary—and patience—s needed to build and maintain momentum. Any initiative, no matter how successful, can lose momentum with leadership shifts or other barriers. This is particularly true for an innovation like this that is shifting the entire culture and staffing structures of schools over many years. In North Carolina, this initiative has endured two gubernatorial changes and three state chief changes, plus countless local superintendent and legislative changes.
To persevere over time, it is critical to have a reliable intermediary to guide innovations from early adoption through statewide implementation. By securing recurring state funding for the ATR competitive grants program, working with a revolving door of policymakers on both sides of the aisle to increase funding and refine policy, and communicating the benefits of strategic staffing to interested districts as their leadership also changes, we have ensured ATR’s staying power and expansion over nearly a decade of implementation.

RESOURCES

Establishing Critical Supports for Indiana’s Struggling Readers

ExcelinEd, Institute for Quality Education, RISE Indy, Stand for Children Indiana, Teach Plus Indiana

Network Policy Pillar: High Expectations

SUMMARY

This policy helps students who struggle with reading proficiency to receive mandatory summer school and high-dosage tutoring so they can improve their reading skills and succeed academically.

In its first year, this law has the potential to impact more than 165,000 second and third graders throughout the state. In 2024 alone, nearly 15,000 second and third graders were below grade level in reading proficiency.

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

With one in five Indiana students currently finishing third grade without basic reading skills, this win matters because it represents a significant step toward addressing the literacy crisis in Indiana. Literacy is not just about being able to read and write; it is a crucial skill that affects every aspect of a child’s education.

This literacy rate (81.9%) on the state’s most recent IREAD-3 assessment is significantly lower than that of the 2012-2013 school year, which was 91.4%. Now, the state has set an ambitious yet attainable goal of 95% by 2027, a literacy rate that can be accomplished with the important policies established in Senate Bill 1.

The law has a number of provisions to help the state identify and support struggling K-3 readers, including:

Screenings for second grade students, with remediation plans for those at risk of not being proficient in reading by third grade.
Parent notification for any student with reading deficiencies and needing interventions.
Science of reading-aligned core instruction in all schools for grades K-8.
Science of reading-aligned summer school courses for students in grades 2-3 who are not proficient in reading.
High-dosage tutoring for 2nd and 3rd graders who are not reading on grade level.
Third grade promotion policy that provides students who are not proficient in reading by the end of third grade with an additional year of learning, with some exceptions.

The positive impacts will become immeasurable as struggling learners receive timely identification and targeted interventions, gain the foundational skills they need to learn to read and then read to learn and carry those skills into middle school, high school, and beyond.

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

Our coalition worked closely with Secretary Katie Jenner and the Department of Education to provide policy solutions and advocacy support for successful passage of this legislation. Our coalition was united in its purpose and represented a broad range of organizations, from local and national nonprofits to teacher-focused and community engagement organizations. Our coalition included bipartisan support from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, which was crucial in ensuring the successful inclusion of our amendments, and ultimately the bill’s, passage.

RISE INDY played a pivotal role in advocating for and securing amendments to SB 1, specifically focusing on the provisions for the science of reading-aligned summer school courses and high-dosage tutoring for second and third graders. They also specifically engaged in direct advocacy by testifying before the Senate Education Committee and the House Education Committee for the inclusion of the amendments that provide for the crucial interventions needed for student success. RISE also mobilized community support by having parents and students share their personal stories and the importance of literacy support.

This broad coalition and our efforts to build relationships across political and social lines were key to our success. We demonstrated that when working together—and including all voices—we can tell an effective story that leads to meaningful change.

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

Fellow Network members can learn the importance of building a broad and diverse coalition to support policy initiatives. Our approach included engaging directly with legislators, mobilizing community members, and leveraging personal stories to highlight the impact of the policy. We also emphasized the importance of flexibility and compromise, as seen in our support for amendments that strengthened the bill. Additionally, maintaining a focus on the ultimate goal—improving student outcomes—helped to align various stakeholders around a common objective. Effective communication, persistence, and a willingness to work across political divides were crucial elements of our successful campaign.

We also served as key thought partners to House Education Chair Bob Behning and other lawmakers in both chambers; coordinated expert testimony; developed policy resources to build understanding for the current literacy landscape and need for screeners and interventions; and deployed a geographically-targeted digital informational and call to action campaign that achieved more than 550,000 impressions and 7,700 clicks across multiple social media platforms.

RESOURCES

IGA | Senate Bill 1 – Reading skills
January 17, 2024, Senate Education Committee Testimony (video) – RISE INDY CEO Jasmin Shaheed Young (1:41:09)
February 14, 2024, House Education Committee Testimony (video) – Parent, Jasmine Black (1:58:16) – 3rd Grade Student, Yaiza Ramirez (2:01:06) – 2nd Grade Student, Janely Barco (2:03:24)
ExcelinEd in Action Graphic
Sample from SB1 digital campaign

Free, Public, and Open to All

National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, California Charter Schools Association, DC Charter School Alliance, Freedom Coalition for Charter Schools, Georgia Charter Schools Association, Illinois Network of Charter Schools, Massachusetts Public Charter School Association, Nashville Charter Collaborative, National Charter Collaborative, New Jersey Public Charter Schools Association, Public Charter Schools of New Mexico, Texas Public Charter Schools Association, Washington State Charter Schools Association

***Network Policy Pillar:* *Innovative Options***

SUMMARY

This nationwide advertising campaign helps parents to expand their knowledge of the charter school options in their area so they can ensure their child is attending a school that is right for them and understand what we already know—that charter schools are free, public, and open to all.

Our advocacy impacted the millions of families who want something different in education by opening their eyes to the options they have with charter schools in their communities.

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

This win matters because we know that, even after 30 years, many parents still do not know what a charter school is or their basic facts. This means that many students are kept in their default public school, even when it isn’t working for them for their families. More over, we know that once parents know the basic facts about charter schools—that they are free, public, and open to all—they are more inclined for support them and want to explore that option for their child.

Using a single set of creative assets, anchored in a unified message about charter schools being free, public, and open to all, this campaign ran in 20 markets and engaged nearly 30 local and national partners. In all, we garnered nearly 24 million impressions over the course of four weeks—with an average spend of about $10,000-15,000 per market. This ultimately enables students to find a new public school that may better fit their needs.

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

Through this nationwide campaign, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools united 19 unique on-the-ground partners—in red, blue, and purple states—to align on messaging and leverage similar creative assets. This allowed us to cut through the noise parents face every day and provide a clear message that resonates with them, as well as increased sector alignment nationally.

FINANCIAL INVESTMENT

Our advocacy contributed to a $200,000 investment in parent targeting for the ads.

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

An important indicator of success is the gratitude expressed by partners in the field, and their willingness to participate in this unified campaign and leverage the assets in creative ways. The nationwide alignment of proven successful messages can help drive home the message we want parents to take away and, through campaigns like these, we can help ensure all families can exercise their power to choose and access diverse, innovative, and excellent educational options.

RESOURCES

Free, Public, and Open to All video ads – YouTube playlist

March MATHness

Collaborative for Student Success

***Network Policy Pillar:* *High Expectations***

SUMMARY

The “March Mathness” campaign used a timely, fun, and engaging “sports commentator” and tournament bracket approach to help education advocates and allies spark national debate and conversation around sixteen highly technical—and frankly boring—math investments and policies.

Promotion of the winning March Mathness policy alone—Automatic Enrollment in Advanced Math Courses—has reached thousands through our videos, blogs, podcasts, social media and digital efforts. Did our work result directly in the policy being piloted in North Carolina, Texas, and Washington state? Of course not. But it did give our friends and allies a fresh and exciting way to brag statewide about an investment that promises to increase significantly the number of students of color and students from low-income and disadvantaged backgrounds who gain access to advanced math courses. BEST NC, for instance, was quick to highlight their tournament victory with as many people as possible.

Similarly, our boosting of the other fifteen investments—Alabama’s Numeracy Act, Kentucky’s Math Achievement Fund, Zearn, Delaware’s Math Coalition, New Jersey’s Tutoring & Coaching Supports, among others—helped reward state and organizational commitment to real and tangible bets on improving math competency across the country.

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

Student achievement in mathematics nationally has reached its lowest levels in nearly two decades and few clear, politically practical actions have emerged to provide education leaders with opportunities to advance or strengthen K-12 math education. The March Mathness tournament elevated a host of emerging math efforts, investments, and practices being employed now with strong effect – and substantively increased discussion of effective and politically palatable math policies, most notably Automatic Enrollment in Advanced Math Courses.

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

There were no “losers” in the March Mathness tournament. Each of the sixteen policies featured in the bracket was previously identified, described, and reviewed by a politically and demographically diverse panel of education experts and advocates via EduProgress (formerly EduRecoveryHub), which also included at least 10 PIE Network members, including the National Parents Union, EdTrust, CRPE, EdAllies MN, the Data Quality Campaign, and the George W. Bush Presidential Center, among others.

After launching the tournament through The 74 Million, we convened a panel of three expert judges to help us narrow the list and decide which practices would move on:

Dale Chu, a former educator, administrator, SEA staff, assessment and accountability expert, and commentator for the AssessmentHQ platform.

Jocelyn Pickford, former educator, school board member, high-quality instructional materials expert, and commentator for the CurriculumHQ platform.

Chad Aldeman, leading school finance expert, commentator for the EduProgress platform.

We further engaged representatives from state advocacy groups like Best NC and Ready Colorado to participate in public promotion of their state’s chosen policy through platforms like this podcast. We also provided tailored social media graphics for states and organizations to broadcast their success in the dance.

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

The March Mathness campaign demonstrated the value that an energizing, accessible, and FUN communications campaign can bring in engaging audiences on topics that have, thus far, failed to seize the attention of stakeholders, policy and decision makers, advocates, or community stakeholders like families and business leaders.

Amid historic learning declines, math education has largely struggled to receive the attention that, for instance, literacy has, despite comparable achievement concerns, due to the lack of a compelling and engaging national narrative (like the Science of Reading movement). The March Mathness tournament electrified discussion about leading and innovative math efforts that should be considered and replicated by districts and states across the nation.

RESOURCES

New York Campaign for Early Literacy

DFER New York, Educators for Excellence-New York, National Parents Union (NPU), The Education Trust-New York

***Network Policy Pillar:* *High Expectations***

SUMMARY

This policy helps educators and students to teach and learn to read through instruction aligned to the science of reading so they can be successful in school, life, and career. Our policy and advocacy impacted over 700,000 students (combined K-3 students in NYS).

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

Until April, New York was one of only five states that had not passed any legislation related to the science of reading and evidence-based literacy instruction. Recognizing this lack of urgency and student outcome data showing that only 35% of New York third-graders from low-income backgrounds scored proficient in reading, Ed Trust NY decided to make early literacy a top policy priority. We raised funds to complete a comprehensive, year-long landscape study of early literacy across the state that included a statewide poll of parents, focus groups with educators and students, data analysis, and interviews with stakeholders across New York. This culminated in April 2023, with our report, “A Call to Action: The State of Early Literacy in New York”, which was widely disseminated across the state and was well received by policymakers, school districts, and other key leaders.

Building on the report, Ed Trust-NY staff shared findings from the report across the state, often in partnership with the Right to Read documentary campaign. In late 2023, we developed specific policy recommendations related to early literacy that were shared with legislators and the Governor’s office. At the same time, we developed and launched the New York Campaign for Early Literacy, a coalition of over 100 diverse organizations and individuals committed to evidence-based literacy instruction and improved student outcomes.

Our work culminated in April, 2024 when the state budget included several early literacy provisions aligned with our recommendations, including $10 million for professional learning for educators and a requirement that all school districts must have their K-3 instructional resources aligned with the science of reading by September 2025.

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

Ed Trust-NY worked with a diverse array of partners across the state that were formally invited to join the NY Campaign for Early Literacy. The Campaign was intentionally designed to bring together communities that have not worked together in the past, including advocates from the dyslexia, civil rights, education, early childhood, and expanded learning communities. The Campaign currently has over 100 organizations and individuals representing these communities. Our advocacy work also brought together a bipartisan group of policymakers, including many that have not traditionally worked together.

FINANCIAL INVESTMENT

Our advocacy contributed to at least a $10 million investment in professional learning for current K-3 educators across New York State.

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

Identify an issue that is foundational to student and community success, easily explainable to a diverse group of audiences, and unifies diverse stakeholders.
Start by building awareness and urgency about the issue and use data to make the case.
Get people interested by focusing on why this issue matters—to students, families, schools, and communities.
Balance difficult data with an aspirational goal. For example, imagine what your school or community would look and feel like when 95% of students can read.
Leverage existing resources and advocacy efforts on the issue, including national partners with expertise. For example, we relied heavily on data from partners like the National Center on Teacher Quality and utilized the Right to Read documentary to draw people to events.
Leverage best practices and policies from other states to both show that the work can be done and put pressure on your state to not fall behind.
Utilize the media to continue to build awareness and urgency. For example, we worked with a diverse set of media, including the New York Times, WXXI public radio, Capitol Tonight, and The Buffalo News, which amplified our message and put pressure on state policymakers to act.
Provide an open and welcoming space for other partners to join your efforts, while also being clear about campaign priorities and what is expected of partners.
Recognize the efforts of prior advocates and organizations whose work you are building on.
Bring together a diverse range of partners from across the state to show policymakers the breadth of support for your issue
Rely on and highlight partners, both to extend internal capacity and provide opportunities for multiple organizations to have joint ownership of the work.
Hold public events that continue to build support and awareness, such as our public launch of the NY Campaign for Early Literacy
Always keep the message focused on students and why your issue matters for them.

RESOURCES

Nevada Facilities Fund

Opportunity 180

***Network Policy Pillar:* *Innovative Options, Responsive Systems***

SUMMARY

This policy helps high-quality charter schools serving historically underrepresented populations to obtain facilities that meet their specific needs so they can more equitably and effectively serve students, families, and the community and lower their monthly spend on a permanent facility from on average 30% to on average 15% of per pupil. These savings estimate an additional $150K-$200K that can be put directly back into classrooms.

Our policy and advocacy impacts 7,500 students over 10 years (specific to the Nevada Facilities Fund).

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

Nevada charter schools must spend a significant amount of per-pupil funds on facilities, as there is no dedicated facility funding source for charters in the state. This creates a significant barrier to schools in nearly every determinant of a school’s success: without a permanent, reliable facility, a school’s enrollment will suffer. Without adequate student numbers, it cannot support staffing needs or maintain its financial viability, and without financial viability, the school is at risk of violating its charter agreement. This challenge has led to schools looking to open or expand in the State having to go elsewhere, or not open at all. Additionally, schools have overspent on facilities and had to cut back on other key areas necessary to drive student achievement. Recognizing the challenge, Opportunity 180 sought to bring together local, state, and national partners to address this long-standing issue in a way that would benefit schools serving students with the greatest need.

The Nevada Facilities Fund is a bi-partisan, public-private partnership between Opportunity 180 and the Equitable Facilities Fund, the Office of Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, State Treasurer Zach Conine, and the State Infrastructure Bank, with the specific goal of providing a dedicated facility funding resource for public charter schools looking to open or expand in Nevada. In total, the Nevada Facilities Fund represents $100 million in new investment in the Silver State as a revolving loan fund that will recycle loan repayments to support Nevada classrooms in perpetuity. The model builds on EFF’s national loan fund, which has deployed over $1 billion in low-cost capital to high-quality public charter schools since 2018. Typical school borrowers will save an average of over $150,000 annually. In aggregate, the fund will support $25 million in savings and additional flexibility within school budgets that will flow directly to students and classrooms. The Fund also benefits from a $12 million Credit Enhancement Grant awarded to Opportunity 180 from the U.S. Department of Education, helping early-stage operators access much-needed capital.

To participate in the Fund, charter school operators undergo a formal application process. Opportunity 180 and EFF vet the applicants and lend to charter schools that meet a specific set of criteria. This includes serving historically underrepresented populations and expanding access to a high-quality education that prepares students for college and career success – ensuring that Fund recipients are serving the students and communities that need more high-quality education options the most.

Schools in the Nevada Facilities Fund pipeline include an elementary school in Reno where students graduate from that school with a biliteracy seal, with 98% of students identifying as a person of color; an alternative high school where credit-deficient students are guided through individualized learning plans to help them graduate and determine a college and/or career plan; an expansion of an existing campus to serve students on the autism spectrum; and both urban and rural schools throughout the state.

The Fund will impact 7,500 students over ten years, helping to put more financial resources into classrooms, curriculum, and student supports, instead of facilities. This is a game-changer for charter schools looking to open or expand in Nevada, leveling the playing field for innovative, nimble schools and expanding the number of students with access to these educational opportunities.

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

The Nevada Facilities Fund represents one of the largest bipartisan, public-private partnerships in Nevada history, reflecting an investment of $100 million in public and private capital to directly address the lack of adequate facilities funding for high-impact charter schools with a proven track record of student achievement and success. The investment infuses $100 million into the Nevada Facilities Fund’s revolving loan fund, including $80 million from Equitable Facilities Fund’s national funders and investors, $5 million in privately raised Nevada-based philanthropy, and a $15 million investment from the Nevada State Infrastructure Bank. The Infrastructure Bank funds began as an initial capitalization from Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak in 2021, finalized by Republican Governor Joe Lombardo in late 2023, with funds overseen by Democratic State Treasurer Zach Conine. This represents a bipartisan statement of support for charter schools in the state, sending a powerful message and providing a significant new resource for public education in Nevada.

Together, the Fund represents local, state, and federal funding paired with both national and local philanthropy for a true bipartisan, public-private partnership that can be replicated in other states.

FINANCIAL INVESTMENT

Our advocacy contributed to a $100 million investment into the Nevada Facilities Fund’s revolving loan fund.

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

Our team learned several important lessons through this process, with two major themes: first, remembering the ‘why’ behind the initiative, and bringing any objections or obstructions back to that point. For the Facilities Fund, it was always about bringing it back to students who continue to lack access to a quality school in their neighborhood, and ensuring that we were removing barriers for schools that had the evidence, the planning, and the experience to address those significant gaps in our community.

Second, we also did not assume partisanship was automatically a barrier. This policy began under a Democratic Governor, was championed by a Democratic State Treasurer, has received bipartisan support, and was ushered across the finish line by a Republican Governor. We were willing to meet with anyone to discuss the initiative, and did so multiple times to increase understanding, emphasize impact, and cultivate relationships around areas of commonality. Clear messaging that drove toward impact helped steer the initiative from what could have been a partisan minefield into a smart, pragmatic way to approach one of the most pressing challenges in the charter sector for Nevada. This bipartisanship and impact on students and communities was highlighted in the media and touted by all of our partners involved.

The Nevada Facilities Fund was developed with a “yes and” mindset, which led us to the bipartisan, public-private partnership that the Fund is today – and the creative, bold funding mechanism that will leverage philanthropy and public dollars beyond original expectations and intentions.

RESOURCES

Rolling Back Texas-Sized Red Tape

Texas Public Charter Schools Association

***Network Policy Pillar:* *Innovative Options***

SUMMARY

This policy helps charter school leaders minimize administrative burdens so they can focus on providing students with a high-quality education.

Our policy and advocacy impacts 420,000 charter school students + 76,000 more on charter school waitlists in Texas.

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

Texas created public charter schools in 1995. For the next 30 years, the state’s education department created more and more administrative rules to govern them — and didn’t look back.

These Texas Education Agency (TEA) rules became increasingly complex, burdensome, and inconsistent over time. They crept well beyond the law. Slowly but surely, this “regulatory Frankenstein” grew into a monster that threatened the autonomy and efficiency of public charter schools.

At the same time, many of TEA’s processes and procedures for regulating public charter schools weren’t codified by rules. Educators statewide viewed the agency’s decisions as arbitrary, inconsistent, and political — an indecipherable black box.

The overall result: Public charter schools found it nearly impossible to understand and meet all of the state’s ever-changing requirements. Staff devoted thousands of hours to paperwork, meetings, and phone calls — hours that should have been spent on addressing the needs of students.

Here’s just one example of what that looked like. In Texas, public charter schools are approved to serve students who live in specific geographic boundaries. If any student who previously lived in those boundaries moved outside of them, then the school would need to formally amend its charter in order to continue enrolling that student. This created enormous administrative headaches, from preparing multiple expansion amendments to tracking their progress.

TPCSA led a campaign to rewrite these rules and untangle 30 years’ worth of red tape. We brought together TEA staff, public charter school leaders, and legal experts to systematically formulate proposed changes. Then, we organized advocates statewide to publicly voice their support. This sustained effort over more than two years culminated with TEA formally adopting sweeping changes that will free public charter schools to focus on teaching and learning.

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

Two years ago, with encouragement and full support from TPCSA, the Texas Education Agency announced, for the first time since 1995, that it would be completely rewriting all rules related to charter schools and submitting them for public comment in 2023. Seizing this opportunity to alleviate burdensome red tape for the charter community, TPCSA assembled a team of school leaders and attorneys to conduct a line-by-line audit of Chapter 100 of the Texas Administrative Code. Here’s a basic timeline of the campaign:

March 2022: Working with the cabinet of charter school stakeholders, TPCSA began identifying problematic rules and solutions. We also conducted a policy survey to collect issues from school leaders across Texas.

January 2023: TPCSA kicked off a full line-by-line review of Chapter 100. The cabinet identified 174 areas in the rules that were misaligned with legislative intent, confusing or outdated, or creating an undue administrative burden for schools. Our team of legal experts and technical writers proposed solutions for every single one.

July 2023: We began meeting regularly with TEA Authorizing Division leadership to discuss the rules and our recommended changes. We conducted six deep-dive sessions over the next eight months.

September 2023: We formally submitted the bulk of our requested changes to the Texas Education Agency.

March 2024: Two years after starting our campaign, the Texas Education Agency posted the rules for public comment. We immediately launched advocacy efforts to pave the way for a smooth adoption. During the 30-day comment window, our community made more than 140 supportive comments. Detractors made only one joint, 15-page comment.

July 2024: Of the changes we proposed, 120 were adopted. This included more than 80% of our highest priorities — changes with the potential to reshape outcomes for years to come.

Some changes create a smoother process for high-quality charter school campuses to open and serve more students; others reduce administrative burdens or clarify confusing processes. Taken together, the changes roll back an enormous amount of red tape for our schools. This means less time on bureaucracy and more time educating students.

Ultimately, this was a team effort that required collaboration with various stakeholders, including charter school leaders, consultants and legal experts, state agency staff, and the broader community of charter school supporters.

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

There are three key takeaways for PIE Network members:

Sometimes the most impactful change you can make is in regulation and not legislation. As they say, “the devil is in the details,” and those details are often outlined in rule and not statute. When member schools cited policy issues in surveys or town halls, a majority of the time the issues were in rule or agency process and not law. While regulatory work might be less “sexy” policy work, its impact should not be underestimated.
There is power in intentional collaboration. Instead of taking on this project solo, TPCSA acted as a hub connecting legal experts, on-the-ground charter school leaders, and state agency leaders in an effort to complete a collaborative problem-solving process. This approach takes much more time and energy, but the end result is worth the investment.
You have to make advocacy engagement simple. Stakeholders are eager to engage, but they often don’t know how. We provided each stakeholder group with audience-specific talking points and step-by-step directions on how to submit public comments. We received excellent feedback on this approach. It’s something we will continue to do and recommend to other advocacy organizations.

Powerful Parent Movement: Data Transparency & The Hidden Literacy Crisis

Nashville Propel, Organizer Zero, The Memphis Lift

***Network Policy Pillar:* *High Expectations***

SUMMARY

These policies help parents receive data that is accurate, accessible and easy to digest so they can make informed decisions about their child’s education.

Our policy and advocacy impacted a combined 265,298 students in Fort Worth, Memphis, and Nashville.

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

In Memphis, Fort Worth, and Nashville, parents have done the hard work of building powerful parent movements dedicated to advocating for the best education outcomes for all students. Over the past few years, that work has focused on data transparency from schools and districts with parents. Last fall (and discussed in a PIE breakout session last year), a national Gallup poll was released that asked parents about their beliefs and experiences around education. In that poll, roughly 90% of parents surveyed believed their child was at or above grade level in reading and math, that 64% use report cards as their primary indicator of how their child is doing academically, and that 79% reported receiving mostly B’s on their report cards. The stark reality though is that in these cities, there is an average proficiency of about 25% in reading, and in low-income communities, that number is closer to 20% or less. The parent leaders of The Memphis Lift (TML), Nashville PROPEL (NP), and Parent Shield Fort Worth (PSFW – a member under Organizer Zero) took this data and named this information gap “the hidden literacy crisis.”

Through the support of Organizer Zero, these groups developed advocacy campaigns each centered around this crisis for their own local contexts. In all three cities, hundreds of parents were organized, educated, and mobilized to take action around the issue of data transparency. All sites ran literacy-focused fellowships to educate parents and had them take action by engaging in research meetings, speaking at the school board and in the media, and contacting their children’s schools and teachers to ask for the information they need, and importantly HOW they need it, to better understand their child’s academic progress.

In Memphis, TML delivered results in the first month of the new Superintendent’s tenure after she requested to meet with the team and hear more about what parents need from Memphis-Shelby County Schools. Dr. Marie Feagins immediately implemented what she heard and put students’ most recent reading levels on their report cards and will continue to do so. Data shows report cards are an effective communication tool for parents, and TML knows this from their work with parents, so this was an immediate and impactful win for closing the information gap. TML is hard at work now educating parents on this change and counseling them through their options.

In Fort Worth, PSFW captured a win after months of campaign implementation. In the build up to this win, they were able to secure a proclamation from the mayor of Fort Worth about the literacy crisis in the city, partner with the local Girls and Boys Club to run their literacy clinics (known as Freedom July), and eventually convince the district to change their data reporting platform to be more parent friendly and aligned with what neighboring districts were already doing. They have published a report giving local insights for parents’ understanding of literacy data and their child’s progress that has an unfortunate similarity to the poll completed nationally. Ultimately, these campaign wins have resulted in more accessible parent data through the website changes, recurring meetings with board trustees and the superintendent of Fort Worth ISD, and accessible tutoring opportunities for the families of the low-income communities they serve through the revamped versions of their Freedom July program.

In Nashville, PROPEL has been able to secure campaign wins in the form of important partnerships and unprecedented data collection culminating in powerful momentum in the fall. They partnered with Stanford University’s ROAR (Rapid Online Assessment of Reading) in order to test nearly 100 students reading levels in the spring and collect important information regarding best practices for reporting with parents (both for Nashville and ROAR). From there, PROPEL partnered with Embold Research to conduct a poll of more than 330 Nashville parents to better inform them on what parents were experiencing with their child’s education. This research was eye opening for many as it also told the same story as the national Gallup poll, with local and state-wide traction growing immediately and grasstops leadership eager to learn more from PROPEL about the implications of the data. PROPEL was also able to use this data in their fellowship to educate parents on the gap between report cards and literacy scores. If so many parents are relying on grades for a clear picture, educating them on what to actually look for is vital to mobilizing them in the work.

Each leader employed different approaches, and slightly different tactics, but were all grounded in data and the voices of those closest to the problem to achieve tangible results that will undoubtedly impact parents’ abilities to support their child in achieving significant academic progress. They have proven the power parents have when they organize and that the communities most impacted do not need to rely on officials in ivory towers who are disconnected from the issue to play hero.

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

First, and most powerfully, while this work was done in differing local contexts, the leaders of each of these organizations came together to plan their campaigns under the coaching of Organizer Zero. Despite the difference in local contexts, they united under the central belief that all students should learn to read and parents deserve accurate and accessible data to make sure their child is getting there. For this to become the national norm, it takes “fire-starters” across geographical boundaries to start and advance the conversation. The leaders in the Powerful Parent Movement are those fire starters.

In their respective work, each site took on building relationships with a variety of people, organizations, and entities to accomplish their goal of data transparency. From a diverse set of political affiliations, the range of experiences and backgrounds of the parents they serve, and the grasstops partnerships with other non-profit organizations, universities, and research firms, these leaders buried lines of difference with many in the pursuit of one common goal each person involved shared: that all students must be reading on grade level.

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

One significant difference in these leaders’ work and that of many others represented in these spaces is that what most would consider a tactic (“engaging” parent or community voice) isn’t a tactic for them. It is their whole work. That is an important lesson out of these campaigns; that when those closest to the problem are resourced (money & training) and given the opportunity to help solve it, they can deliver results. For the funders in this space, this is a lesson to invest in leadership and organization models like this.

For other advocacy organizations in the space, this is a lesson that it’s not only about “engaging” those closest to the problem (and how folks define engaging is its own conversation worth having), but instead find ways to hand over the reins of the work to these communities. Handing over decision-making power and implementation-power is not easy, but it’s how we achieve lasting and equitable outcomes for all students.

Building solutions from a strong foundation of data was critical to the success of the literacy campaign these cities enacted. They used the alarming story told by national data, researched that same story in their local contexts, and developed policy and practice solutions that aligned with what the data said was needed. Centering the experiences of parents at every step of the way allowed for greater buy-in from the leaders’ communities and drove the support they needed to get local leadership and elected officials to act. Finally, a critical lesson is the importance of shared experience rather than geography. In local work, it can be so easy to get stuck in the silo of a local context. Our leaders were able to make each other’s work and approaches stronger by sharing experiences and perspectives with each other. The campaign planning process that Organizer Zero facilitated allowed leaders to take a shared problem and enact tailored solutions for each site that was based in the wisdom each leader shared with one another and the needs of their local community base.

This work also points to an important possibility of solving national crises with local efforts. The gallup poll described an issue that parents across the country are facing, and our leaders were able to make changes locally that, when combined, have state and national implications. When enough of these “little fires” are started, it’s able to create wide-scale momentum resulting in a large fire for change. So when organizations are looking at nationally relevant issues, rather than trying to take on that issue in the large scale of national action, these leaders demonstrate how a local focus can build into something much larger. Folks nationally have been talking about the work of each of our sites, not only drawing the light on the issues these cities are facing, but helping other groups put the work in the perspective of their locality and what a little fire for change might look like there.

RESOURCES

#SameKidsSameNeeds Charter School Facility Campaign (A4496/S3247)

New Jersey Public Charter Schools Association

Network Policy Pillar: Responsive Systems, Innovative Options

SUMMARY

This policy helps New Jersey public charter schools secure low-interest loans to construct, rehabilitate, or upgrade school facilities so that every public school student in the State can access a safe, healthy, and modern school building. Over the last several years, the New Jersey Public Charter Schools Association (NJPCSA) has taken steps to address a longstanding inequity in public education in the Garden State. Using a multi-year and multi-phase approach, NJPCSA secured major policy wins, which resulted in public charter schools receiving funding for school facilities for the first time in their nearly 30 years of existence. This loan program is designed to be used in tandem with the Charter and Renaissance School Emergent Projects and Capital Maintenance Fund, established three years ago to provide per-pupil funding to public charter schools for emergent needs such as replacing HVAC systems.

Our policy and advocacy impacted 62,000 public charter school students and their families.

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

For nearly 30 years, New Jersey public charter schools have not received facilities funding, while the State has provided more than $18.6 billion to regular operating school districts, vocational schools, and School Development Authority districts (New Jersey’s 31 most under-resourced communities) for school buildings. New Jersey was one of the few remaining states that did not provide this vital funding to public charter schools. On average, New Jersey charters pay $2,000 per student from their operating budgets for school facilities. A survey estimated that charters in the Garden State have more than $1 billion in facilities costs over the next decade. This overwhelming unmet need was financially challenging to New Jersey’s charter community and used critical resources that would be better spent on increased teacher salaries, classroom supplies, and technology. Every student, regardless of their zip code, deserves to attend school in a safe, healthy, and modern building.

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

Over several years, NJPCSA worked with a diverse coalition to push for a policy change that would give direct per-pupil facilities funding to public charter schools, while also creating a framework for a low-interest (1.75 percent interest rate) loan program for school building costs not covered by the per-pupil funding. The Association assembled a broad coalition of schools, parents, students, elected officials, education stakeholders, faith leaders, and business groups (see collateral for a complete list, including a signed support letter and press releases). This coalition signed a support letter for the bill, which was then sent to key legislators and Governor Murphy. Additionally, select members of the coalition testified in support of the legislation and participated in numerous advocacy actions, including lobby days in Trenton and legislator meetings. Parents even called Governor Murphy’s monthly radio program and hand-delivered 10,000 signed support postcards to him. The coalition applied constant and consistent pressure on lawmakers to advance the bill. They also demonstrated there was massive community support for the legislation.

FINANCIAL INVESTMENT

NJPCSA has played a pivotal role in securing $44 million in direct per-pupil funding for public charter school facilities across New Jersey. Moreover, recognizing the critical need for sustainable and robust facilities solutions, NJPCSA also worked to pass legislation, which created a framework for a loan program. This will enable charter schools to access low-interest loans for more substantial facilities projects. The final funding for the loan program is still being determined as the regulations for the loan fund are currently being promulgated. However, it is expected that the loan program will receive tens of millions of dollars, if not more, in funding.

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

Through NJPCSA’s experience, we learned the value of patience when navigating significant policy shifts. Our extensive campaign spanned several years, strategically divided into manageable phases. Initially, we meticulously researched and authored a comprehensive white paper. Subsequently, we secured per-pupil funding to address immediate charter school facility needs. Building on this groundwork, we established a robust coalition and crafted a multifaceted surround sound campaign featuring targeted materials, such as postcards, paid media advertisements, a dedicated website, one-pagers, and op-eds. Our approach culminated in more than 125 legislative meetings where NJPCSA worked to create a framework for a low-interest loan program. This policy represented a sustainable and impactful solution to a decades-long inequity. There was also a strategic decision to integrate the policy into a broader legislative proposal rather than a standalone measure. This method ensured our initiative garnered the necessary support and attention within the legislative process.

RESOURCES

Drafts of call to action, commercials, social media, one-pagers and more

Seal of Climate Literacy Diploma Endorsement SENATE BILL 24-014

Lyra Colorado

Network Policy Pillar: Responsive Systems

SUMMARY

This policy helps prepare high school students in Colorado to lead in addressing the economic and social impacts of a changing climate so they can gain the skills, knowledge, and personal agency to comprehend and adapt to the impacts of climate change, benefitting both them and their communities.

Lyra’s policy and advocacy impacts ~280,000 high school students in the state of Colorado.

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

Students, educators, schools, and school districts around the state recognize that Colorado is experiencing significant environmental changes.

Colorado’s industry needs a workforce that is prepared to adapt to and address new challenges in energy, agriculture, forestry, outdoor recreation, and other fields that are transitioning in the face of a changing climate. There is a 10.3% projected growth in green jobs in Colorado over the next five years.

The Seal of Climate Literacy diploma endorsement is granted to students who have gained skills and knowledge on the impacts of climate change. This endorsement goes beyond the classroom; through a combination of coursework and experiential learning, it’s about equipping high school learners with the personal agency to comprehend and adapt to the impacts of climate change, benefitting both them and their communities. It is a way for students to signal their commitment to addressing a changing climate in their regions as well as their attainment of knowledge and skills for higher education and employer partners.

With Colorado as a proof point, Lyra seeks to support the scaling of the legislation across the United States over the next five years, similar to the Seal of Biliteracy.

Before the 2024 legislative session ended, 16 students had already conferred the first Seals of Climate Literacy.

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

Lyra was intentional about engaging a diverse representation of grasstops education organizations including the Colorado Rural Schools Alliance, Colorado Education Association, Colorado Association of School Executives, and Colorado Association of School Boards to garner support and understand areas of concern across different party lines. None of these organizations expressed opposition to the bill.

Lyra also supported 20 students from a diversity of rural and urban school districts to provide testimony at the house education committee on behalf of the Seal of Climate Literacy. Students conveyed a wide range of reasons why they support the legislation, from conservation of traditional agricultural practices in the Yampa Valley to sustainable fashion practices in Denver. The committee vote following this powerful student testimony was bipartisan in favor of advancing the bill.

FINANCIAL INVESTMENT

Lyra’s advocacy for a Seal of Climate Literacy diploma endorsement will contribute to a 10.3% projected growth in green jobs in Colorado over the next five years.

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

The Seal of Climate Literacy diploma endorsement was born from an understanding that young people in Colorado want to have a greater sense of agency and ability to address the climate crisis in their communities. Through Lyra’s work across 20 rural school districts in the state of Colorado, the organization observed the desire from students to have more tangible ways to learn about and address climate change through their high school education.

Studies show that the most impactful way to engage youth around climate issues is through hands-on learning in their own local communities. Youth may feel overwhelmed by the scale and consequences of climate change, and completing a project relevant to their own life experience can not only expand academic and professional opportunities but it may also support a young person’s mental health and wellbeing. This hands-on experiential learning is a critical component for a student to be able to attain the seal.

An LEP-approved experiential learning project could be a soil management experiment on a student’s family farm, an apprenticeship installing solar panels, an internship measuring snowpack levels in a mountain community, or an analysis of the effects of carbon reduction from trees in a city park. A project could also be a painting, a short story, a digital film, a social media campaign, or however a student feels able to make an impact and difference.

Lyra has always believed in being rooted in community. Lyra advises fellow Network members to get students involved early and often. The student voice is powerful, and they have impactful stories to share.

RESOURCES

Supporting State Advocates Across the Country to Achieve Data Policy Wins

Data Quality Campaign

***Network Policy Pillar: High Expectations,* *Responsive Systems***

SUMMARY

This policy helps PIE Network members in states across the country to advocate for data policies and practices that support data access for individuals, the public, and policymakers so they can improve education and workforce outcomes.

Our policy and advocacy impacted millions of students and jobseekers and those who support them as well as state leaders and policymakers who need information to make decisions.

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

With the advocates pounding the halls and knocking doors in their state capitols, DQC had their backs as they pushed policies to make data work for people. Advocates across the country pursued policies that enhance access to data for individuals, the public, and policymakers who need information to make education and workforce decisions. As the only national advocacy organization focused singularly on data, DQC was there to support advocates in a number of states, including PIE Network members in Alabama, California, Colorado, Kansas, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and others. The hard work of state advocates combined with DQC’s knowledge of data policy best practices and what has worked (or didn’t) in order states came together to support policy wins including the passage of data governance legislation in Colorado and funding for the state’s new data system in Alabama.

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

Good data policy is nonpartisan, period. DQC is committed to working with organizations working to advance those policies, and to give legislators and governors of every political affiliation the opportunity to do right by their constituents to make data work for them. The Data Quality Campaign partnered closely with our colleagues across the country to share knowledge, strategies, and tactics—and policy wins were the result.

FINANCIAL INVESTMENT

Our advocacy contributed to millions of dollars invested in data policies that enable access for individuals, the public, and policymakers—including the development of robust statewide longitudinal data systems as well as cross-agency data governance structures that create governance bodies required to bring together leaders from accountable state agencies side by side with members of the public.

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

We can’t do this work alone. Each state context is different, but the common thread is that as advocates, we are better together. The best tactic is to bring together people inside and outside your state to share knowledge and expertise while working toward a shared goal.

The Department of Early Childhood: A New, Unified Single Agency in Illinois for Young Children

Advance Illinois

***Network Policy Pillar:* *Responsive Systems***

SUMMARY

This policy helps to unite early childhood services in Illinois to make access to programs and services simpler, better, and fairer for families with young children so that they can be more effective and a more efficient use of state resources.

Our policy and advocacy efforts impact over 800,600 children age 5 and under across the state of Illinois.

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

Currently, most early childhood programs and services are split across three state agencies making processes burdensome for parents and providers to navigate. With the passage of SB1, the new Department of Early Childhood will make the ECE system more cohesive and streamlined and allow the state to reimagine early childhood with families at the center.

As of SY22-SY23, only 30% of all students in Illinois demonstrate Kindergarten readiness in all three developmental areas – social and emotional development, language and literacy development, and math. Further, the percentage of students demonstrating Kindergarten readiness in all three domains varies widely across lines of income, language and learning style. With the unified agency, the state can begin to tackle long-standing systemic policy issues to improve children’s kindergarten readiness and reduce disparities.

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

In 2019, Governor Pritzker created the Illinois Commission on Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Funding. This bipartisan commission, for which Advance Illinois was a member of, was charged with making recommendations on funding goals and mechanisms with the ultimate goal of advancing equitable access to high-quality early education and care services for all children ages 0-5 in the state of Illinois. In 2021, the Commission released its report and included the recommendation to create a single state agency. Since then, Advance Illinois alongside other advocates have used the Commission’s report as a ‘north star’ and have maintained a steady drumbeat of advocacy to operationalize the recommendations. As part of this steady drumbeat, Advance Illinois is a core member of the We, the Village Coalition, a group of advocates, non-profit organizations, child care providers, school districts, parents and others who have come together to fight for the well-being of Illinois’ youngest children. This legislative session, We, the Village and other partners helped rally nearly 300 parents, providers, and supporters came to Springfield to participate in Early Childhood Advocacy Day. Together with advocates, we raised our collective voices about the importance of funding and the need for the new Department of Early Childhood.

FINANCIAL INVESTMENT

Our advocacy contributed to a $14.2 million investment in the new Department of Early Childhood for this fiscal year with an expectation that in the upcoming two years, there will be more transformative policy changes and increased appropriations to follow. In addition to the funding for the new agency, our policy and advocacy efforts were crucial in increasing appropriations for early childhood programs and services by $244.5 million.

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

Presenting compelling research and data to convey the need to legislators and other key partners in positions of power
Frequent coalition meetings with diffused responsibilities among partners and clear expectations among the coalition partners
Include parents, providers, and educators in public testimony and prepare participants appropriately so they feel confident and well-prepared
Message our points early and often
Met every week to discuss legislative strategy and coordinate among partners communication strategies to key legislators and budgeteers
Met weekly with the governor’s office to align on strategy
Mobilize parents, providers, and educators to convey the need for a unified agency

RESOURCES

Transportation Funding for Illinois Charter Schools

Illinois Network of Charter Schools

***Network Policy Pillar:* *Responsive Systems, Innovative Options***

SUMMARY

This policy helps state-authorized charter schools in Illinois to provide transportation more widely they can serve more families most in need of school choice.

Our policy and advocacy impacts close to 2000 students.

WHY THIS WIN MATTERS

State-authorized charter schools are considered their own school districts (or LEAs) which means they are subject to all the responsibilities and expectations of a school district; however up to now they haven’t had access to all the funding streams that Illinois districts are provided. By ensuring that state-authorized charter schools receive their proportionate share of transportation funding, INCS and the charter community have ensured that charter families are receiving the resources and services for which they are eligible. For the most part, state-authorized charter schools serve a wider area of eligible students, and by being able to more easily serve students from more underinvested parts of the community, the schools will be closer to fulfilling their missions of ensuring more students have access to a high quality school choice.

WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS

This was a multi-year effort led by INCS with the state-authorized charter schools to shore up support on both sides of the aisle in Springfield but also build bridges with staff at the state board of education. During the legislative session, INCS convened frequent calls with the affected schools to better understand the funds they were currently expending, the communities and students they could serve with transportation dollars that weren’t coming out of their operating budget and connections they had made with local leaders. Through INCS Action, INCS has created a bipartisan charter-friendly group of legislators that helped us pass House Bill 5480 unanimously out of the House.

FINANCIAL INVESTMENT

Our advocacy contributed to a $400,000 to $800,000 investment in state-authorized charter schools that serve almost 2000 students, most of whom are students of color from low income families.

ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN

This policy win came as a result of a three-pronged strategy to push for charter transportation funding legislatively, through a change in state board of education policy and inclusion in the state budget. Previously INCS and the charter community focused on the state board and statehouse leadership. In 2024, INCS engaged legislative allies like Representatives Delgado and Moeller to introduce and push House Bill 5480 which moved easily out of the House. The bill was also voted out of committee in the Senate. Concurrently, INCS was working with our partners in Springfield leadership for inclusion of charter transportation funding in the state budget. The state board, currently being led by an anti-charter superintendent, was not helpful. However, the convergence of leadership pushing for inclusion of the funding into the budget and the bill moving forward, led a final state budget that include transportation funding for state-authorized charter schools.