Blog

While this year has brought an array of challenges to many organizations in our Network, EdLoC stands resilient—driving our mission forward and equipping our members to do the same.  

We’ve listened to funders, members, and partners who are facing hard choices about how to sustain their work amid today’s political and economic realities. In these conversations, we see not just the strain—but the opportunity. And we find that we are called to serve our Network in a deeper way. EdLoC is uniquely positioned to lead in helping values-aligned organizations ensure that their important work not only endures but evolves. 

EdLoC is rising to meet the moment by deepening our role as a catalyst and incubator of collaboration, supporting members in sustaining the vital work of their organizations. As part of that work, we aim to foster and invest in partnerships that sustain and advance organizations that create opportunities for young people of color.  

Governor Gavin Newsom recently announced a plan to address loneliness and alarming suicide rates among boys and young men. As a former principal and a longtime education advocate who has seen young men struggle with social isolation, we welcome this undertaking. However, there’s a glaring hole in the plan: the lack of focus on addressing the needs of young men of color. This omission risks throwing money down the drain on initiatives that will fail to support the majority of young men in our state.

A few years ago, a former student reached out because he was feeling stuck in his career. Caleb* had graduated from college and was working at a grocery store when he joined Watts of Power, an organization that uses a community-based approach to recruit  Black male educators. Two years later, Caleb is teaching at a high school in Los Angeles—and is part of the 1% of Black male teachers in California. 

At 3:15 p.m., the school pick-up line is buzzing with conversation. Parents and caregivers are swapping stories, kids are bursting through the gates, backpacks swinging. It occurs to me, “What if the next great educator isn’t sitting in a college lecture hall, but right here holding their child’s hand, carrying the wisdom of lived experience, and ready to lead?” I believe that the talent our schools need is already here—rooted in our communities. Our job is simple: see it, nurture it, and watch it thrive.

At a time of heightened tension and political divides, EdLoC members traveled from across the country to unite in our Nation's capital to advocate for our shared values. Twenty-one members gathered alongside our allies to speak truth to power during Hill Week on behalf of their students, families, and communities.

With the new Congress focusing on short-term political wins rather than opportunities for the next generation of students, we knew the stakes would be higher. But after a policy advocacy training designed to educate members on our policy priorities and how to engage policymakers in conversations in this moment, members were ready to address today's urgent issues with their representatives.

Public education is one of the few pathways to generational economic advancement, but it can only fulfill this promise when students have safe and secure learning environments. The current dismantling of public education and school funding, paired with hostile immigration policies, is a direct attack on the opportunities young people of color need and deserve.

I’ve witnessed firsthand how public education can transform entire communities. I was one of four brothers and one of the few in my hometown to graduate high school, and among even fewer to pursue higher education. School was my safe haven in a community where so many struggled. Now as a superintendent, I am committed to ensuring that every student sees themselves reflected in their education and believes in their potential for a better tomorrow.

Coming together in community, especially with fellow leaders of color who are driving impact across systems, is always powerful. But at this year’s ASU+GSV Summit, the sense of connection felt especially vital. Through EdLoC’s Book Talk series, we created space to reflect, listen, and reconnect with why we do this work. These were not just panels; they were moments that revitalized our shared purpose and deepened our commitment to young people of color.

At a time when public dollars are being routed away from our students, and communities of color continue being sidelined, how we show up as leaders, how we define progress, and how we build systems that actually shift power back to our people matters.

This post is adapted from a blog originally published on School Leader Lab's website. Information reflects our understanding as of April 2025. School Leader Lab releases a monthly memo with other practical information for leaders. Sign up here.

School leaders across the country are navigating rapid changes in education policy. Recent developments have moved quickly from proposals to action: significant staffing reductions at the Department of Education, cuts to federal education program funding, and new certification requirements regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in K-12 schools.

Education leaders nationwide are asking critical questions: Which policies are actually changing? What's the timeline? What specific practices are affected? How will these changes impact our schools, staff, students, and communities?

As we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy today, we cannot ignore the inauguration of President Donald Trump. It is salt in the wound that his inauguration would fall on the day we honor our country's most revered—and willfully misunderstood—civil rights leader.  

We who do this work hold two competing ideas in our minds: the hope that the arc of the moral universe really will, through our collective efforts, bend toward justice, and the reality that progress toward racial justice is always met with backlash. But no one election and no one elected official was ever going to mark the end of our struggle. And we were never going to be in a place where our collective effort would not be needed.  

The EdLoC Network gathered in Baltimore last month for our National Convening to face head-on one of our most difficult challenges: How can we sustain multiracial coalitions amid, and in support of, our fragile democracy?  

At a time when our work and our very right to exist have been called into question, we know the only way forward is to go together. We see the forces working so hard to divide us; we won’t do their work for them. 

Advocacy Day is also a unique opportunity for leaders of color to speak truth to power by sharing their own stories with policymakers on both sides of the aisle about the issues impacting children and academic outcomes. With today’s increasing polarization and relentless attacks on education, the dehumanization in politics feels all too true. However, watching our members actively engage with policymakers at the nation's capital served as a profound reminder to myself: we have the power to bridge divides and connect with those holding different views. This experience rekindled my hope that we can still recognize and honor the humanity in one another.

At Jeremiah Program (JP), we often get the question, “Why focus on single moms?” We often answer, “Why not?” Women experience poverty at higher rates in our country, with American Indian, Black, and Latinx women being disproportionately impacted. These are facts.

We envision a world where poverty is no longer feminized, where race is not divorced from gender, where career and financial opportunities are not gentrified, and where women who experience poverty have a seat at the table to influence solutions for their families and their community.

I was proud to represent EdLoC at SXSW EDU 2024 and be among the disruptors and innovators who come together to push boundaries and drive progress. I was invited to represent EdLoC on two panels because EdLoC is that disruptor. We think bigger and deeper. We look beyond classroom walls. We apply a multi-sector, multi-racial lens. We connect dots that others do not. 

For students of mixed-status families, recent changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) have created barriers that jeopardize their opportunities to receive essential aid. Mixed-status families may include students who are legal permanent residents or U.S. citizens, and therefore eligible for federal financial aid, but whose parents are undocumented. 

Congress must act to ensure that the 400,000 children who will benefit from the Wyden-Smith deal, do so! And, it must not rest on this legislation. Our democratic future rests on all children living freed from the horrors of poverty.

This deal, imperfect in many ways—and yet, better than nothing they’d say—must pass.