The Need for A Coordinated Effort
If Democrats are serious about rebuilding credibility on education, isolated reform wins like those listed above are not enough. What’s missing is infrastructure: a durable, party-wide coalition that connects reform-minded elected officials, advocates, researchers, organizers, and parent leaders across states and factions.
Education reform within the Democratic Party currently exists in silos—governors operating independently, mayors fighting local battles, legislators advancing policy without air cover, and advocates working state by state with little coordination. Meanwhile, opponents of reform benefit from national alignment, shared messaging, and institutional muscle.
This imbalance is not ideological—it’s structural.
Progressives are doing a decent job in coalitions resisting the Trump agenda but not so well at providing and advancing a proactive and comprehensive vision for change. While at Democrats for Education Reform in the mid-2000s, I led a reform coalition supporting the Obama education reform agenda—which was heavy on raising standards, fortifying assessments, deploying data, expanding choice, and overhauling low-performing schools—widely known as “Fight Club.” I can tell you that, for reasons that are too complex to go into here, nothing like that exists now.
Democrats can continue defending the system as it is—or they can start fighting in a strategic way for the outcomes families—and voters—actually want. A new education strategy grounded in evidence, innovation, accountability, and real choice isn’t just good policy. It’s smart politics.
It’s also essential for students, for families, for teachers, and for a party that once claimed education as its moral high ground—and should again.
