The Education Trust

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 1, 2026 CONTACT: media@edtrust.org Federal Voucher Program is a Win for Wealthy Taxpayers at Students’ Expense Statement from Denise Forte, president and CEO of EdTrust, on Treasury Regulations for Tax-Credit Scholarship WASHINGTON — Today, the Trump administration opened another chapter of the Great American Heist in public education with the creation of regulations implementing a new federal tax credit that further erodes the federal obligation to educate all...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Chanthy Lopes at Clopestoro@edtrust.org September 25, 2026 Statement from EdTrust in Massachusetts on the Release of the 2026 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) Results BOSTON  — The newly released MCAS results are deeply concerning, with too few students across the Commonwealth meeting expectations in English language arts and math.

Statement from Tramelle Howard, J.D., State Director, EdTrust in Louisiana FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 25, 2026 Contact: Keiara Skipper kskipper@edtrust.org The State of School Choice in Louisiana Statement from Tramelle Howard, J.D., State Director, EdTrust in Louisiana BATON ROUGE, LA – When we talk about public school choice in Louisiana, the conversation should begin and end with a simple question: Is a student getting the education they need to thrive?

For more than 22 years, prison taught me to stop dreaming about certain things. There were dreams that became too painful to hold onto, when I did not know if I would ever come home. Being a father was one of them. I entered prison as a young man and was sentenced to more years than I could reasonably imagine surviving. Eventually, you learn to put certain possibilities away: A career. Marriage. Children. Taking your son to school. Hearing someone call you Dad. Prison does not only take your freedom.

I was released from prison at 23 years old. Three months later, I started college, and not long after that, my kids’ mom went to prison. So, I was a first-generation college student, fresh out, suddenly raising a three-year-old son and five-year-old daughter on my own. My college education did not erase my record, but it gave me something to fight back with. It gave me knowledge, credentials, relationships, options, and a way to create opportunities that the system had tried to close off.

The choices families make are personal. The conditions that force those choices are not. EdTrust examines what it will take to build a public education system that works for every student Nikole Hannah-Jones’ recent essay on the choice she made as a Black parent in New York City has sparked a national conversation about what families are up against, and what they’re willing to do for their kids. It’s a conversation we expect to keep growing as we head toward the midterms.

As a mother, I had to make tough choices when it came to my child’s education, and none of them were about how much I loved him. They were about a system that makes Black parents work twice as hard just to get a fair shot. When he tested into Gifted and Talented at age four, there were no seats available at the elementary school I wanted to send him to. So, he was relegated to his zoned school, which was majority Black and in a low-income community in Brooklyn.

I haven’t stopped thinking about Nikole Hannah-Jones’s recent New York Times piece and the questions it raises about Black parents, public education, and the choices we make for our own children. My grandparents attended segregated schools in Jim Crow Mississippi. My Nana only made it through sixth grade. My Granddaddy, a sharecropper, made it through ninth.

The impossible choices Black families for their child’s education make reveal what America must transform When I read Nikole Hannah-Jones’ deeply personal essay, “In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own?,” I did not read it first as an education advocate. I read it as a Black father. I felt the weight of a question that Black families have carried for generations: What are we willing to sacrifice to give our children the education they deserve?

School has always been a safe space for me. Growing up as a Black girl in Detroit and attending school in the metro area, I was privileged to be taught in diverse classrooms with devoted staff who truly changed my life and inspired me to dream big. My early educational experiences instilled in me a love of learning and a passion for student leadership.