Overview

Across the country, education advocates are organized and actively pursuing:

equal educational opportunity and a quality or "adequate" education for all students, and
adequate and equitable public school funding.

Because education reform and education finance reform are usually local or state-based concerns, most advocacy organizations are local, such as the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, regional, such as eastern Kentucky's Forward in the Fifth, or state-based, such as The Public School Forum of North Carolina and the Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families.

Nonetheless, some organizations bridge state boundaries by having local affiliates in a number of different states, such as the Public Education Network (PEN) and ACORN, and some focus on specific education issues nationwide, such as the Rural Trust, working with rural communities in many states, and the Education Trust, working on behalf of low-income students across the country.

This section of the ACCESS website provides:

introductions to numerous public education advocacy organizations and their activities, State-by-State;

our "Know the Issues" series of handout materials for advocates and parents, which are one page introductions to certain key issues; and

Links among Advocacy, Litigation, and Higher Academic Standards

In many states, education advocacy organizations, school finance litigants and policy organizations have worked in coalitions or mounted parallel efforts for school funding reform to accomplish the goal of improving educational opportunities, especially for students in under-funded urban and rural schools. In states where litigation has not been tried or has failed, advocates have won important victories, such as in Florida through that state's initiative and referendum (I&R) process.

Recent Developments

Recent major developments in school funding and education advocacy include:

Advocates' victories in several states, where large threatened cuts to school funding were defeated;

Revenue shortfalls in many states; and

High-stakes testing for students in over 20 states, including Texas and Massachusetts.