In states across the country, we are in the midst of an amazing push to provide a high-quality education for every child, regardless of their address.
With all of these local campaigns off and running across our network I wanted to take a moment to share with you the critical issues these leaders are taking on to help move their states forward.
Take a couple of minutes to read about these efforts below and click on any of the campaigns to learn more and get involved.
Protect excellent teachers. Allow economic furloughs for teachers, increase teacher tenure to five years and make layoffs and recalls based on teacher evaluations.
Freedom to succeed. Allow the creation of independent university authorizers for charter schools, increased academic accountability through a performance matrix and allow multiple charter schools to consolidate under the oversight of one board of trustees.
Funding reform. Secure a new funding formula that allocates state dollars based on real-time student enrollment and adds extra funding for students with the greatest needs.
Highly effective teachers. Ensure new teachers enter the field prepared by pairing them with only highly effective teachers during their student teaching year.
Quality school options. Improve charter school quality by requiring charter schools to meet student growth and proficiency targets.
Pre-K scholarships. Increase funding by an additional $20 million to expand parents’ access to high-quality pre-K programs and remove the current arbitrary scholarship cap of $5,000.
Investing in excellence. Secure a multi-year commitment to significantly increase base pay to regionally competitive levels and restructure the state salary schedule to reward great teachers.
Charter schools focused on equity and quality. Foster a top-notch public charter schools sector that serves the kids who most need high-quality options the most through widespread changes around authorizing, lottery rule changes and incentives for charters who provide services to help kids in poverty.
Quality pre-K expansion. Establish funding to increase full-day pre-K options for low-income kids, expand wraparound services at pre-K locations and increase eligibility.
Opportunity schools. Identify schools in that are beating the odds with low-income students and develop strategies so that schools like these serve more kids.
High-quality school options. Secure reforms to the charter law that ensure stronger authorizing, better accountability, more equitable operations and facilities funding, and more autonomy from red tape.
Aiming higher. Ensure faithful implementation of the Common Core State Standards, aligned assessments and teacher evaluations.
Recruiting great teachers. Enact legislation that repeals the residency requirement for teachers in the Garden State.
A statewide education conversation. Shape the conversation during the gubernatorial election year by making education policy one of the top issues.
Aiming higher. Ensure faithful implementation of the Common Core, aligned assessments and teacher evaluations.
Modern facilities. Provide an equitable and sustainable student-based system of funding for modern facilities for all public schools.