In April, I had the chance to moderate a discussion between former U.S. Secretaries of Education Arne Duncan and Margaret Spellings at the ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego. It was quite an honor.

At one point, Duncan expressed frustration that America has, in his words, “zero education goals.”

Notwithstanding the progress of a growing number of states moving the needle on educational outcomes, I understand where he’s coming from.

We are no longer in the midst of a standards and assessment movement. Gone are prescriptive federal funding programs like Reading First. College access and completion is not the singular focus it once was, and Common Core standards have been, for the most part, metabolized into state policies. And as I wrote last week, turning power to the states, however beneficial, is the inverse of a singular approach.

But if an event this week is any indication, we may be in the early stages of a bipartisan movement to redesign K-12 so that students are equipped to pursue a multitude of “pathways” after high school.

Sound vague? 

Well, the practices, definitions, and policies that undergird the pathways movement are becoming increasingly well defined.

In February, the XQ Institute provided us with the first 50-state analysis of the policies that need to be in place to evolve the high school experience. The Carnegie Foundation published definitions for the durable skills we know are so important for success post-graduation.

And the Commission on Purposeful Pathways (a bipartisan group of K-12 and higher education leaders, policymakers, researchers, and students), has provided a definition for pathways: “high-quality advising, accelerated coursework, and career-connected learning that cultivate purpose, belonging, and social capital—ensuring that students graduate high school with agency and momentum on purposeful pathways toward economic mobility.” 

This week, the Pathways Impact Fund, housed within StriveTogether and led by John Garcia III, brought together more than 200 philanthropic, policy, and industry leaders at the National Press Club to discuss how place-based organizations are strengthening and scaling pathways to better serve students in their communities. 

As John shared, the Pathways Impact Fund is “pooling philanthropic resources to invest in and scale the sort of evidence-based practices needed to ensure that every high school graduate can say with confidence, 'I know who I am, I know where I'm going, and I know who can help me get there.”

The Fund’s initial investments total $7.5 million and include Learn to Earn Dayton (which brings dedicated career advisors to schools across Ohio to expose students to their options for life after high school) and EdVestors (which aims to ensure that all 45,000+ students in Boston Public Schools graduate with a career-connected learning experience under their belt), among others.

Part of what I like about the pathways work is that it acknowledges the complexity of the challenge.

The challenge isn't simply acquiring proxies—credits and credentials that might matter—but ensuring students have the guidance, insights, and experiences they need to build real skills and translate them into labor market outcomes.

After all, none of us walk down to city hall and cash in our diplomas and degrees for a monthly stipend. We have to translate accumulated knowledge and experience into something that actually has value. Teaching students the skills to do that takes a very different sort of approach (like, connections with real employers) than most K-12 schools and systems have historically been set up to deliver.

At W/A, we’ve referred to the increased emphasis on the intersection of learning and work as the  “fifth wave” of reform.

With good reason, some have expressed concerns that focusing on shorter-term economic opportunity, alongside, say, college attainment, poses a risk of marginalizing already underserved students' populations. Or, as Duncan put it in the same panel: “Where I worry on the alternative pathways is that it’s almost always for ‘other kids.’ ‘That’s for Black and brown kids.’ ‘That’s for poor kids.’ If that’s what they want to do, fantastic, but I don’t want to say that path is for you, and this path is for kids that look like me.”

I understand and appreciate that critique. 

But it's one that thoughtful pathways champions like Garcia are working to address. The national report was intentional in explaining that alternative pathways are not about steering students toward short-term economic gains at the expense of pathways that may take longer, cost more, and require the sort of delayed gratification that seems to vex many of us these days. Creating that sort of balance in practice, however, requires that we celebrate more than college access and attainment after high school.

Of course, the tension between what we often think of as "higher education” and the  range of other valuable pathways other than college isn’t entirely new. ¹

When we invest in public education, toward what end? How do we reconcile inherent tensions between shorter-term economic opportunity, and the cost and delayed gratification associated with certain pathways? How do we ensure that our focus on skills doesn’t undermine the sort of rigor that comes through engagement with complex and important canonical texts? In a world of imperfect data, what can we do to unblock informed choice while avoiding the risks of shadow tracking and outcomes-distortions that break along racial or economic lines? 

None of these questions have easy answers. And there are no clearcut, national “solutions.” But the pathways discourse is taking on these and other hard questions and I'm encouraged that the work happening today may very well represent the seedlings of a new and—perhaps even cohesive—national agenda.

When Congress passed the federal fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill, it included language that explicitly restricted the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) ability to withhold funding. It was a bipartisan response to last July's fiasco, when OMB froze billions of dollars on the day funds were supposed to flow to grantees. Congress' response gave hope for fiscal regularity. We may, however, need to temper those expectations.

Last Friday, OMB issued proposed rules to convert the technical Uniform Grant Guidance (UGG) into the new Uniform Grant Regulations (UGR). Unlike guidance, these rules would carry the force of law. That distinction is extraordinary, and its implications are far-reaching.

The proposed UGR represents a sweeping restructuring of federal appropriations and grantmaking. While there is no doubt this rule will face legal challenge, the OMB is not waiting for the courts. The comment period closes July 13, 2026, and the administration intends to have this rule final and in place by October 2026. Read it at the Federal Register, here. 

The fourth annual Solutions Summit, co-hosted by Whiteboard Advisors and ISTE+ASCD, takes place Sunday, June 28 in Orlando, Florida, ahead of the co-located ISTELive and ASCD Annual Conference—bringing together education executives, product leaders, philanthropists, and entrepreneurs committed to driving meaningful innovation in teaching and learning. 

This year's programming will look at where AI in education is actually headed (with a keynote on reimagining human connection in the age of AI), feature candid conversations on product impact (including how to talk about evidence with education leaders and an evidence hackathon), and examine the market signals shaping the next era of edtech—funding shifts, compliance pressures, outcomes-based contracting, and what's emerging beyond the U.S. market.

This week, the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) unveiled its FY27 appropriations bill. The bill’s provisions advance several of President Trump’s key budget priorities for education as reflected in his administration's “skinny budget” proposal, including a 10% cut to the Education Department’s budget from FY26. Here are a few highlights: 

Importantly: All funding would be contingent on guarantees that educational institutions do not “withhold or conceal” information regarding students’ gender identity from their parents, or that allow transgender girls to participate in women’s sports.

This morning, the House LHHS Subcommittee passed the draft LHHS appropriations legislation along party lines in a 11-7 vote. The bill will now be sent to the full House Appropriations Committee for a markup next week, followed by a full House vote, which is yet to be scheduled. The Senate will develop its own version of appropriations legislation simultaneously, and the chambers will then agree on a final version using their respective drafts as the starting points for negotiations.

The LHHS bill carries funding for most federal education and workforce programs, but it is only one piece of the yearly federal budget process. Congress is simultaneously working on funding for all other government agencies and activities including homeland security, agriculture, and veterans affairs among others. Unless the government passes a continuing resolution to extend the deadline, it must pass appropriations legislation that funds all government activities by September 30, the end of the federal fiscal year. 

Complicating the process is the OMB proposed rule addressed above. The OMB is fast-tracking their proposed rules, with the goal of them going into effect by October 2026. The new UGR would allow the agency full discretion over the second part of FY26 and all of FY27 (now being negotiated). Stay tuned.

HCA Healthcare announced a deal to acquire The College of Health Care Professions (CHCP), subject to regulatory approvals. HCA says the acquisition will help strengthen its workforce pipeline amid ongoing healthcare labor shortages by expanding access to education, training, and career pathways for future clinicians, and CHCP will continue to provide services to all health care providers in the markets they serve. The deal reflects a deep structural integration of education and employment to prepare talent and meet future healthcare demands. CHCP currently serves 8,000+ students across 10 campuses. 

Read more about this acquisition, and 13 other education industry transactions, in this week’s edition of The EdSheet.

This week, North Carolina became the 31st state to opt into the federal scholarship tax credit program, also known as the Education Freedom Tax Credit (EFTC). It became the third state to do so through a legislative veto override, following Kentucky and Kansas. The override was more about timing than substance: Gov. Stein had already indicated that he intended for North Carolina to participate in the program, but said he preferred to wait until the U.S. Treasury Department released final implementation rules, which are expected later this summer.

North Carolina is unlikely to be the last state led by a Democratic governor to opt in. Governors in several states—Oregon, Hawaii, New Mexico, and most recently, Maryland—have said they are continuing to evaluate their state’s participation as they await the final rules to be released. [Enlace Latino NC]

Check out W/A Jobs, which features 3,717 career opportunities from 318 organizations across the education industry. A few roles that caught our eye over the past week: