New Advocacy Groups Shaking up Education Field

Overview & Synopsis

A new generation of education advocacy groups has emerged to play a formidable political role in states and communities across the country. Those groups are shaping policy through aggressive lobbying and campaign activity--an evolution in advocacy that is primed to continue in the 2012 elections and beyond. Though the record of their electoral success is mixed, such groups' overall influence appears to be growing, and it has already helped alter the landscape of education policy, particularly at the state level. The rise of such high-powered advocacy groups focused on school issues marks a shift from a decade ago, when few education organizations other than teachers' unions explicitly engaged in political activity beyond statehouse lobbying.