How Governors Aim to ‘Raise the Bar’ on American Education: The 74 & Walton Family Foundation to Present Axios Live Event This Friday

Axios executive editor Mike Allen on Friday morning will convene a gathering of governors from across the country to discuss the tactics and strategies being used to improve their states’ education systems. (See complete details of the D.C. event — and RSVP — right here.)

Cutting across regions as well as political parties, Allen will sit down for individual conversations with Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-Colorado), Gov. Roy Cooper (D–North Carolina), and Gov. Butch Otter (R-Idaho) for “Raising the Bar: A Conversation on Education in America,” guiding an in-depth conversation about states’ responsibilities in raising expectations for students and exploring what methods are now proving successful in lifting student achievement.

In a bid to bring attendees up to speed, The 74 has published education summaries for each state:

• The State of Education in Colorado: Strengthening rural schools, fighting over student performance measures, a massive funding shortfall & more
• The State of Education in North Carolina: Funding choices for low-income kids, the vast rural-urban divide, a new turnaround district & more
• The State of Education in Idaho: Low teacher pay & high turnover, secrecy on accountability, big hurdles for school choice & more

The Axios Live event, presented by The 74 and sponsored by the Walton Family Foundation, coincides with this weekend’s National Governors Association 2018 Winter Meeting being held in the nation’s capital.

“The best governors out there are problem solvers, and the best solutions to the toughest challenges are ones that transcend politics,” said Marc Sternberg, K-12 education program director at the Walton Family Foundation. “By working with families, educators, community leaders, and other key stakeholders across geographies, demographics, and political parties, governors will find the best solutions that put children, especially those with the most at stake, at the front of the conversation.”

Sixteen years after No Child Left Behind was signed into law, and three and a half decades since President Ronald Reagan’s A Nation at Risk, governors and state education departments have an increasingly important role in guiding and setting education policy under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.

WATCH THE ORAL HISTORY: INSIDE THE ENDURING LEGACY OF NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

The 74 will be covering the event live on Friday, as well as previewing the most critical education issues in Colorado, North Carolina, and Idaho in advance of #Axios360 and reporting on the conversations in the days to follow. For the latest updates, sign up for The 74 Newsletter — and follow @The74, @WaltonFamilyFdn, and the hashtag #EDlection2018 Friday morning beginning around 8 a.m. Eastern.

The 74 will be launching its new Election 2018 section to coincide with the Axios interviews, expanding on the site’s deep coverage of both candidates and key education votes from 2016, which began with the 2015 New Hampshire Education Summit. (Video Replay: Watch six former candidates for president lay out their education priorities)

With 36 gubernatorial contests this year — as well as countless congressional, state, and local races that will shape the future of the country’s education system — there will be no shortage of storylines over the coming months.

“When we launched The 74 in the midst of the 2016 presidential primaries, we quickly became an influential source of information on candidates’ education stances. In 2018, it is once again a priority for us to elevate education as an issue since it matters so greatly to our nation’s students,” said Romy Drucker, co-founder of The 74.

More Details: The 8 a.m. Axios event at AJAX, 1011 4th St. NW, is open to the public. Doors open at 7:30 a.m. Friday. Follow the hashtags #Axios360 and #EDlection2018 on Twitter for live updates; see the full Axios invitation here.

Disclosure: The Walton Family Foundation provides funding to The 74 and is the sponsor of this event.

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