This week, W/A Senior Advisor and Director of Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab Marguerite Roza is filling in for Ben.

School district finance involves rigorous accounting. Federal, state, and local tax dollars are tracked with a common set of account codes recording source, function, and object and then audited, reported, and made public in board meetings. By and large, most K-12 finance offices do this accounting part of their job well.

But there's another category of money moving through schools that doesn't get the same treatment, and it's been hiding in plain sight for decades. It's payments made by students, families, and community members: the $30 for a locker, the $10 for the field trip, the $3 at the gate for Friday night football, the $20 for the holiday fundraiser.

These funds move through a cash box in the front office, a folder of checks, or a coach's personal Venmo account. For as long as anyone can remember, this has been treated as small money for small things—uniforms, an end-of-year party, supplies for ceramics class.

The tracking has never been particularly formal, and until recently, that didn't seem to matter much. But stories of senior class trip funds going missing are no longer rare enough to dismiss as one-off bad luck, and the numbers back that up, suggesting most district finance leaders have dealt with financial incidents related to locally generated school funds.

It should then be of no surprise that parents are starting to notice. The following report finds that less than half of parents said they were "very confident" that this pool of funds would end up being used for their intended purpose. It's tempting to read this hesitancy as an indictment, but the real risk isn't bad actors. It's that this money doesn't appear important, or well-managed. There's little accounting of what payments have been made by whom, how much was generated, nor what it paid for.

Of course, the survey that informs this analysis is by no means exhaustive, but it offers a valuable perspective on an issue that is both costly and timely. Adding urgency to this issue are two factors:

Ultimately, with renewed value placed on each dollar due to budget constraints and the influx of money into the education system through the federal program, getting the accounting right at all levels of payment isn't just a nice-to-have. Leaders need tools to show the world they've got this under control.

As 2026 continues to trend as the “year of math,” debates within the math world are taking on more nuance. How are districts making sure that students are reaching their maximum potential in math coursework?

A growing number of states are answering that question with automatic enrollment policies—placing students into advanced math coursework by default once they meet academic criteria, rather than requiring a parent, counselor, or teacher to opt them in. North Carolina (2018), Texas (2023), Arizona (2026) and others have already enacted versions of this policy, and more states are expected to follow next legislative session. The logic is straightforward: students who are ready for advanced math are too often left out of it simply because no one enrolled them, not because they can't do the work.

A recent report from Just Equations found that Black students make up 15% of the public school population but just 6% of AP math enrollment, and that Black adults represent 12% of the U.S. workforce but only 9% of the STEM workforce. The report traces part of that gap to middle school: as many as 39 percent of middle schools still don't offer 8th grade Algebra I, and the schools that do are less likely to serve high concentrations of Black and Hispanic students in the first place. Access to that single course is one of the clearest predictors of who ends up on track for calculus and who doesn't.

“We lose new ideas, perspectives and solutions that could benefit everyone,” said Dr. Lya Snell, director of building capacity for innovation at the Dana Center. “We lose potential. Every student deserves the opportunity to see themselves as capable of succeeding in these fields. Investing in and believing in Black learners strengthens innovation, creates a more inclusive workforce, and helps ensure that the future of STEM reflects the diversity of the communities it serves.”

While state policy is opening the door to new math options for many students, districts are the ones responsible for walking students through it, and some are already doing it well. The National Math Improvement Project (NMIP) was hosted by Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) earlier this month to visit math summer school classes and discuss this very problem. Across the six districts in the NMIP community of practice, all have made concerted efforts to expand access to Algebra I in 8th grade, with significant gains already demonstrated in Chicago. According to LAUSD, roughly 30,000 middle schoolers across the district currently meet the criteria for an accelerated pathway, and will be encouraged to enroll in the fall. 

Automatic enrollment is a policy mechanism that many states are enacting, and the NMIP districts provide a reminder that policy alone doesn't close the access gap. Implementation, often dependent on critical but unglamorous infrastructure (data dashboards, staffing, summer seats) and student motivation look like the keys to successful auto-enrollment programs. As more states move towards enacting these policies, it will be on districts to implement comprehensive systems of support for students, teachers, and counselors to expand opportunities and ensure success.

Carlos Ignacio Zavala has been appointed Senior Vice President at Whiteboard Advisors!

In this new role, Carlos Ignacio will help shape the next chapter of our communications practice while continuing to deliver the strategic counsel and creative thinking our clients have come to count on.

As a PR agency that sits within a broader, multidisciplinary firm at the intersection of education policy, practice, and the media, W/A brings deep subject matter expertise and an abiding sense of purpose to everything we do. W/A is recognized by EdTech Digest as the top agency in the sector.

To learn more about our strategic communications practice, please visit our website.

This week, the Gates Foundation unveiled its updated U.S. Program strategy, which emphasizes successful transitions between high school and postsecondary education and career readiness.

The strategic shift is largely driven by a ticking clock: the foundation must spend down $200 billion by its planned closure in 2045, announced by Bill Gates last year.

By 2030, the foundation is now targeting roughly 80% first-year course pass rates, a 5-point increase in first-generation college enrollment, and a rise in successful credit transfer from 32% to about 40%. Notably, the foundation’s new “North Star” is for young adults ages 18-34 to earn 10,000 more “credentials of value” by 2045—doubling the growth rate over the next two decades. [Education Week, subscription model; The Chronicle of Higher Education, subscription model]

The Gates Foundation’s updated strategy was paired with six major leadership transitions:

In a 13-9 vote today, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) advanced a bipartisan bill (S. 5046) that would prohibit the Education Department from transferring some of its offices and programs to other federal agencies without congressional approval. The bill—co-sponsored by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)—aims to prevent ED from shifting the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services and the offices of Elementary and Secondary Education, Postsecondary Education, and Indian Education to other agencies through interagency agreements. The legislation does not, however, address ED’s other agreements with the Labor, Treasury, or Justice Departments. The bill now heads to the full Senate for consideration. [POLITICO; USA Today]

Stellic, in partnership with Anthropic and Lovable, just launched the Pathfinders Challenge: a national competition for college students to design and build real apps solving problems they've actually lived through in higher ed. No coding experience is required. Students are given free credits to build with Lovable (describe your idea in plain language) or the Claude API if they want to code it themselves. $12,000 in prizes, including a $5,000 grand prize and a career conversation with Stellic's leadership team. Open to any enrolled student 18+ in the US, Canada, Mexico, or Australia. Submissions close August 21. Questions? Email [email protected]. 

Check out W/A Jobs, which features 3,486 career opportunities from 321 organizations across the education industry. A few roles that caught our eye over the past week: