Policy Solutions

Scaling Local Results Into National Impact

Education

America Forward Coalition members are working on early learning, elementary and secondary education, post-secondary, and Whole-Learner education. Our Coalition organizations work in thousands of schools and institutions of higher education across the country and serve large numbers of students, parents, and teachers, and school leaders from under-resourced communities. Their missions, while varied, boil down to a simple purpose: to ensure all children, whatever their background, receive a first-class education. Click on the images below to view America Forward’s education policy solutions for the 118th Congress.

Early Learning

K-12

Higher Education

Whole-Learner Education

Economic Mobility

As the demand for workers grows, millions nationwide still face systemic barriers to economic mobility, especially in historically under-resourced communities. Providing innovative and effective solutions must be reflected across domains – from the workforce development system to public benefits to our education system – to advance economic mobility, enable people to thrive, and build a more robust, more equitable economy. Click on the image to the left to view America Forward’s economic mobility policy solutions for the 118th Congress.

Social Innovation

Social Innovation Policy

Every day, social entrepreneurs nationwide work to create, test, hone, and expand creative solutions to address stubborn inequities and improve outcomes for individuals, families, and communities across the country. Across policy domains – from early learning to affordable housing to workforce development – policymakers must prioritize investments in these innovative, effective, and equitable strategies. And across the board, we must invest in the capacity that governments and social innovation organizations need to achieve transformative results. Click on the image to the right to view America Forward’s Social Innovation policy solutions for the 118th Congress.

Budget and Appropriations

Every year, America Forward engages with Congress and the Administration to advocate for our Coalition’s federal funding priorities. As part of our work, we develop, with input from our members, letters to congressional leaders with our funding recommendations for programs in education, economic mobility, democracy, social innovation, and national service.

We also strongly support a refocusing of government funding on rewarding what works. To do this, we urge policymakers to support funding for innovation and evaluation, the use of tiered-evidence approaches to target federal funding to programs that have greater evidence of effectiveness, and the inclusion of performance-based funding provisions to link funding to measurable outcomes. This approach will help ensure we know what works and what does not.

Click on the image to the left to view America Forward’s Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriations Request Letter to Congress.