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Every year, our state CANs pursue policy campaigns to give every child in their state access to a high-quality education. In the spirit of open advocacy, we share out the full list of what we’re trying to accomplish together, and report a midyear and year-end campaign report card to see what we’ve been able to do for students, their families and their communities.
While the policy goals are often wonky, it boils down to this: working together, our local leaders are bringing meaningful changes to the lives of more than 11 million kids.
Here’s what we’ll be working on in 2017:
DelawareCAN
- Ensure that the Every Student Succeeds Act planning process includes a diverse set of stakeholders and focuses on transparent and meaningful accountability for schools and education leaders.
- Ensure the faithful implementation of the Excellent Educators for All plan and promote the need for excellent educators in high-needs schools.
- Adopt a school funding formula that provides sufficient flexibility and accounts for student poverty and English-language learners.
GeorgiaCAN
- Move Georgia to a student-centric state education funding formula.
- Improve Georgia’s charter school environment.
- Expand options for children to have access to the school of their choice.
JerseyCAN
- Expand the number of high-quality schools in Camden and Newark and create a supportive ecosystem for growth in response to parent demand.
- Protect high standards, aligned assessments and accountability as the state transitions to ESSA and new leadership.
- Protect and preserve high-quality school options by removing policy barriers and defending against problematic legislation that would halt the growth of high-quality charters.
- Ensure equitable funding for all public schools—traditional public schools, charter schools and all other types of public schools.
MarylandCAN
- Develop a core group of high-performing Baltimore principals who will advocate for greater school-level autonomy within the district.
- Secure the ability for non-county entities to employ principals and teachers and authorize a new class of schools in Baltimore City.
NorthCarolinaCAN
- Establish an Education Savings Accounts system for students with special needs in North Carolina.
- Advocate for a comprehensive school accountability system including student academic achievement and growth.
- Ensure charter schools receive more equitable and timely funding.
- Ensure the robust implementation of the new Achievement School District.
NYCAN
- Increase the number of charter schools in New York City and across the state.
- Increase options for low-income and working class families by passing the Education Investment Tax Credit.
- Support the continued implementation of high standards in New York State and their linked assessments.
PennCAN
- Ensure that the Every Student Succeeds Act plan addresses the challenge of chronically underperforming schools.
- Retain effective teachers by passing legislation to end “last in, first out” furlough policies.
- Protect and preserve the new school funding formula and continue to support the Campaign for Fair Education Funding.
- Pass comprehensive charter reform to ensure that high-performing charter schools have an easier path to expand and that low-performing charters are provided with meaningful interventions or closed.
- Create a supportive ecosystem for the growth of high-quality schools in Pittsburgh.
RI-CAN
- Ensure fair and equitable funding for Rhode Island’s charter schools through equalizing facilities reimbursement.
SouthCarolinaCAN
- Ensure the state’s accountability system accurately identifies student achievement gaps and is publicly accessible for all.
- Launch a new parent empowerment program to elevate parent voice and drive policy change in education locally and statewide.
- Foster school turnaround and improvement driven by data at the local level.
TennesseeCAN
- Support a policy to collect information on student placement practices.
- Support the implementation of fiscal transparency policies that provide more information on how education funds are spent.
- Support the implementation of school accountability frameworks.
- Pass legislation to support the charter school environment in Tennessee.
- Secure legislative support for private school choice.
- Support school turnaround options across the state.
Keep up to date with our work by checking back in at The Catalyst and following the #FromtheField posts on Twitter. For a complete list of all that we’ve accomplished together to date, check out our policy wins, secured since 50CAN’s founding. We look forward to sharing our progress together.