Blog

New Profit’s policy arm, America Forward, has been a leader in advocating for more innovative public policy that leads to better outcomes and more efficient use of public resources. Case in point: last year’s Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), one of the very few pieces of legislation passed in overwhelming bipartisan fashion by Congress and signed by the President in recent years.

More recently, America Forward and organizations in its 60+ member coalition have been focused on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the most significant and far reaching K-12 education legislation in America. Yesterday, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) released long-awaited draft legislation to revise ESEA, which hasn’t been updated since the the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

The details of the draft legislation are still being pored over, but a piece by the Social Innovation Research Center offers some initial analysis and detail on America Forward’s work to shape the important Pay for Success provision in the bill:

“Pay-for-Success: The bill makes pay-for-success an allowable use for Title I, Part D funds ($47.6 million in FY 2015) for children and youth who are neglected, delinquent or at-risk (Sec. 1011). It also authorizes pay-for-success as an allowable use of funds under Title IV, which funds programs addressing student health and safety (Sec. 4105). America Forward, a coalition of organizations supporting evidence and innovation, was among those supporting the pay-for-success provisions. “Opening up ESEA to pay-for-success initiatives will help schools and their partners leverage data and evidence to get better results, measurably improve student outcomes, and maximize the impact of federal resources,” said Lexi Barrett, policy director for the organization.”

Stay tuned for more detail from America Forward on ESEA and other issues in coming days and weeks. Follow @America_Forward on Twitter for daily updates as well.