EdPWR’s Ten Commitments
for Public Education

Public education is America's most important long-term strategic investment.

It is more than a social program or a budget line.

It is the institution that produces the citizens, scientists, entrepreneurs, nurses, teachers, and workers who will decide whether this country still leads the world in ten years and beyond.

Our public education system strives to achieve one essential guarantee:

Every child, regardless of background or zip code, deserves a public school that provides them with a real opportunity to learn and fulfill their potential.

The Ten Commitments

EdPWR has worked with partners to propose these Ten Commitments for state and federal education policy leaders to make over the next ten years that are designed to help fulfill the promise of public education, restore confidence in our public schools, and equip every student with the knowledge, skills, and opportunities to thrive.

  • Ensuring kids are safe, welcome, and supported at school is essential. Nothing else matters if kids are not safe - and don’t feel safe to explore and learn.

    Our guarantee to parents and families is that your child will learn in a school where they are known, safe, and supported.

  • Description text goes hereGreat teachers are essential to student success and we will invest in the support, resources, and professional opportunities they need, while doing all we can to attract, train, retain, and sustain diverse and talented educators. We must move beyond one-size-fits-all pay by compensating more for the most demanding roles, creating salary structures and pathways that improve retention, and redesigning roles to be more sustainable and effective.

    Our guarantee to parents and families is that your child will be taught and supported by well-prepared, well-supported, and effective teachers, school leaders, and other educators.

  • Every family has the right to know how their public school is performing, to help ensure collective responsibility for results - including that gaps among student groups and between our highest and lowest performing schools are closed - with better outcomes for every student.

    Our guarantee to parents and families is that you will have honest, easy-to-understand information about how your child's school is performing, where it can improve, and options to ensure no student attends a school where they are not learning.

  • Every young person should have access to and graduate with the foundational and future-ready skills needed to thrive in college, careers, military service, and civic life - and create a path to financial stability.

    Our promise to parents and families is that your child will graduate with a diploma that represents meaningful achievement, demonstrates that they have the essential knowledge and skills to succeed, and opens doors to the future they choose.

  • Reading is the foundational skill that unlocks all other learning, and we should aim for universal literacy to ensure every child has the opportunity to succeed in school and beyond.

    Our guarantee to parents and families is that every school will be equipped to teach your child to read. 

  • The evidence is clear: education funding matters for student success. Every student deserves full and fair funding, with investments tailored to student needs rather than determined by geography or luck.

    Our guarantee to parents and families is that your child's opportunities won't depend on their zip code. Every student will have access to the resources they need to succeed.

  • We must ensure that every school and teacher has the resources and training that enable all students to build the digital literacy, AI fluency and readiness, and responsible-use skills needed to thrive in the future - while maintaining humans at the center of education and protecting students from the risksand harms of technology by establishing clear guardrails around its use in schools. AI and connected technology are shaping how our kids learn, work, and live, and the kids who learn to use them well will have every advantage. Our job is to make sure every child gets that advantage, and that no child pays for it with their privacy, safety, or well-being.

    Our guarantee to parents and families: your child will have access to and fluency with the technology that matters, taught by teachers who know how to use it. Your child's privacy, safety, and well-being come first. You will know what tools your child is using, what data those tools collect, when AI has informed a decision about your child, and who is accountable when something goes wrong.

  • The benefits of AI should be broadly shared, including through sustained investments in public education that equip every student with the skills and opportunities needed for the future. By 2036, nearly $100 billion annually from AI companies and the “productivity dividend” that AI provides to other companies will be invested in American public education.

    Our guarantee to parents and families is that the benefits of AI will be shared widely across the state and country to help support and strengthen public education so students are equipped to flourish in a workplace impacted by AI.

  • We should further empower families through informed, accountable public school choice, ensuring that students can find the schools, programs, and pathways that best align with their goals and potential.

    Our guarantee to parents and families is that you will have the information and options needed to make the right public school choice for your child.

  • These Big Commitments will be anchored by a Student Bill of Rights - a guarantee to parents that every student, regardless of background or geography, has the right to a high quality public education with the resources, opportunities, and support necessary to thrive.