Despite widespread concern about the state of public K-12 education, most Americans believe their own children receive a good education. They overwhelmingly support increased funding and higher teacher salaries. And families share a common vision: They want their children to thrive, contribute to society, engage with people from various backgrounds, and adapt to a rapidly changing world. 

Yet, K-12 schools face significant challenges. District leaders are still waiting to see whether a decrease in federal education funding will be approved by Congress. The administration continues its systematic dismantling of the Department of Education.

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And across the country, schools are grappling with increasing student needs, rising costs, and economic uncertainty. These compounding challenges will force many districts to make significant reductions in spending at the very moment they need to be investing more to accelerate learning.

The 2024 NAEP assessments revealed the stark reality: The bottom 25% of students saw significant declines in reading and math, with a persistent 25-point gap between Black and white students in reading. Three years after the pandemic, it’s clear the traditional “one-size-fits-all” approach is not meeting our nation’s needs. 

But within this reality lies an opportunity for transformation—driven by restructuring the way we design our schools and powered by hope. 

In 30 years of working with districts across the country, I’ve seen leaders enact significant transformation despite seemingly insurmountable challenges. I know that with the right support and vision, impactful change is not just possible; it’s within our reach. And reflecting on their accomplishments gives me hope for what can still be accomplished. Simply put, I believe in public education. 

Here are a few of the long-standing structural challenges that I’ve seen tackled—successfully and with great results for students: 

• Innovating school schedules and how we staff classrooms 

• Optimizing school portfolios to reflect the needs of each community 

• Rethinking teacher compensation, roles, and career pathways 

• Reorganizing high school to center both core academics, and college and career readiness 

These are major structures that can take courage and grit just to analyze and question, let alone transform. But I’ve seen it done by leaders who refuse to simply do “less with less.” While their colleagues in other districts may try to save money by eliminating whatever initiative happens to be the newest, making across-the-board increases to class size, or furloughing staff, there are district leaders who know this is unsustainable. Instead, they preserve valuable interventions with promising results, and make trade-offs in order to invest in research-backed strategies like high-quality instructional materials or strategically adjusted class sizes that ensure students receive more attention in core classes. District of Columbia Public Schools saw an increase of 55% more students prepared for college and career in ELA and 48% in math after the district made significant system-wide changes to teacher schedules and collaboration, which included strategically focusing extra coaching and co-planning time in their highest-need schools. Dallas ISD revamped its teacher compensation system to identify and reward its most-effective teachers and to provide additional stipends for teaching in high-need schools—with some teachers earning an additional $18K on top of their base salaries. And Indianapolis Public Schools is organizing around its Rebuilding Stronger vision for success, which involves making difficult trade-offs like school portfolio decisions to enable strategic investments in student experiences and outcomes. 

And let’s be clear: With the financial challenges ahead, many districts will likely need to make more traditional, less strategic cost-cutting moves. Some district CFOs predict up to a 25% decline in revenue for FY27. But the most successful superintendents I’ve worked with make these moves in concert with developing future plans to shift to new models. They understand that tackling these seemingly entrenched legacy systems is not only a path toward sustainability—it opens the door to the rich educational experiences that families want for their children. 

Making big shifts to school schedules, funding models, teacher compensation systems, and how we leverage technology and partners to target and expand learning opportunities: This is how great leaders create environments where students develop foundational skills while receiving timely support. It’s how they build schools where every child feels a sense of belonging, is known by caring adults, and experiences engaging learning that bridges in-school and out-of-school learning. 

Why, then, if we know the strategic path forward, does so much come down to hope? 

On top of the many tangible challenges we face, there exists a crisis of confidence. Amidst partisan politics and declining test scores, it’s easy to despair. It’s difficult for parents to believe every child can have access to the same opportunities, and for education leaders to believe they can advance significant change. 

But we must believe. We must believe that transformation in public education is achievable and that courageous district leaders can meet the moment. 

And they can’t do it alone. Their leadership can inspire systemic change, but only if we stand by them. We need state leaders to believe: to look deeply at their policies to enable innovation and incentivize districts to organize in new ways. And we need philanthropy to believe: to invest in the learning and provide a bridge where transitional funding is needed. 

Together, we can disrupt the status quo, innovate, and break down decades-old systems. We can meet the challenges of today while creating the future of education we know our children deserve. We need to start by believing it’s possible. And then we need to do it.