A Bold Vision for Education Reform

January 27, 2025

Women Leading Ed (WLE), the nation’s largest nonprofit network dedicated to advancing women in education leadership, today announced a bold and actionable bipartisan vision to address the critical challenges facing U.S. education. The recommendations outlined in A Bold Vision for Education Reform, aim to improve student achievement, mental health, and workforce readiness while advocating for innovative federal and state collaboration. 

“Schools and systems across the country face deep and widening challenges to student success,” said Dr. Julia Rafal-Baer, CEO of Women Leading Ed. “Our vision is grounded in actionable reforms that empower educators, engage families, and prepare students to thrive in an increasingly complex world. This is not just a roadmap for the future of education, it’s a call to action to meet the urgent needs of our students today.”

With over 500 bipartisan district and state superintendents, charter school leaders, and c-suite executives across all 50 states, Women Leading Ed represents leaders serving 1 in 3 public school students nationally—more than 18 million in total. The vision emphasizes practical solutions in key areas such as early childhood education, student and educator mental health, workforce readiness, and the ethical use of artificial intelligence in classrooms.

Key Recommendations of the Policy Vision include:

• Early Childhood Education: Expand funding for child care and early learning programs, incentivize businesses to offer child care benefits, and include early educators in loan-forgiveness programs.

• K-12 Education: Increase funding for school-based mental health and anti-bullying programs, address chronic absenteeism through a federal campaign and resource center, pass legislation to improve online safety and regulate interactions between students and tech companies, and launch a National Call to Action on literacy focused on the science of reading.

• Artificial Intelligence in Education: Convene a White House Summit on AI in schools, create pilot programs to test AI’s impact on underserved students and those with disabilities, and pass laws supporting AI training and curriculum development for educators.

• Workforce and Career Pathways: Scale career-connected high school programs, expand funding for apprenticeship opportunities, including teacher apprenticeships, and establish a Federal Career Pathways Council to align education with workforce needs.

• Research and Development: Modernize education data systems and publish more comparative student achievement data, pass the NEED Act to create a National Center for Advanced Development in Education, conduct an updated and expanded data collection on the state of women in the workforce, and update the Civil Rights Data Collection to include data on principals and superintendents.