The Alliance for School Choice is the nation’s vanguard organization for promoting, implementing, and enhancing K-12 educational choice. In collaboration with a host of national and state allies, we create opportunities for systemic and sustainable educational reform that puts parents in charge.
Mission Statement
To improve our nation’s K-12 education by advancing systemic and sustainable public policy that empowers parents, particularly those in low-income families, to choose the education they determine is best for their children.
The Alliance for School Choice works to build support for, and implement, publicly funded school choice programs that provide low-income families with educational opportunities. In doing so, the Alliance not only protects those programs that are already serving families in need, but also expands and enhances them and—most importantly—initiates new, larger, and even more effective models.
The Alliance's key activities can be categorized into two areas:
State-based Activities
The Alliance for School Choice regularly assesses the best opportunities for creating and expanding publicly funded school choice programs such as vouchers and tax credits across the country. Based on those assessments, the Alliance targets states for intensive support. This support includes the direct allocation of financial resources, assistance with public information campaigns, and activist training programs. At later stages, our companion organization, Advocates for School Choice, often initiates lobbying activities to help pass legislation. .
National Activities
The Alliance for School Choice maintains an ambitious national agenda, leading the school choice movement through the strategic cultivation of resources and leaders. These activities include:
Facilitating an innovative development operation to cultivate funding for effective school choice models;
Hosting leadership development conferences to cultivate state and national leadership on issues such as program design and implementation;
Hosting a series of task force summits to identify solutions to issues critical to the success of the movement. Topics for these task forces include coalition building, bill design, and accountability; and
Hosting regular gatherings of allies, activists, scholars and philanthropists in the movement to discuss strategy and to galvanize the movement.
John Schilling was named Interim President of the Alliance for School Choice in November 2008. He previously served as the Alliance's Chief of Staff and Director of National Projects. John has been deeply involved in K-12 education reform since 1997.Prior to joining the Alliance, he operated a successful public policy firm whose clients included Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2003 gubernatorial campaign and the Educational Testing Service (ETS).
He also served two years as Chief of Staff for the Education Leaders Council in Washington, D.C. John's state government service includes four years as Associate State Superintendent and Chief of Policy & Planning for the Arizona Department of Education.During this time he helped enact, implement, and defend reforms and policies such as the individual school tuition organization tax credit, expansion of the state’s charter school law, and an accountability system that tracked student achievement and education spending.
During his early career, John was involved in elective politics at the federal and state levels. He has served in senior legislative positions for two United States Congressmen and was a gubernatorial appointee in California.John currently lives in Virginia with his two children.
Administration
Rita Gainer
Executive Assistant to the President
(202) 280-1976
State Projects
Scott Jensen
National Consultant for State Projects
Lori Drummer
Director of State Projects
(202) 280-1975
Anna Varghese Marcucio
Director of State Projects
(202) 280-1973
Robert Teegarden
Director of State Projects
(623) 594-7592
Zack Dawes
Consultant for State Projects
(512) 343-0220
Development
Fonda Anderson
Director of Development
(202) 280-1971
Crystal Corriveau
Development Manager
(202) 280-1978
Joe Manzari
Research Associate
(202) 280-1983
Josie Ortega
Development Associate
(202) 280-1983
Liz Moser Dreckman
Development
(480) 223-2769
Communications, Marketing & Research
Andrew Campanella
Director of Communications and Marketing
(202) 280-1985
Geoffrey Goodman
Research Manager and Senior Writer
(202) 280-1988
Ashley Ehrenreich
Communications Coordinator, School Choice Works Manager
(202) 280-1986
Finance
Jennifer Miller
Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer
(202) 280-1972
The Alliance’s Commitment to Learning and to America’s Libraries
The Alliance for School Choice stands out from the education nonprofit crowd when it comes to partnering with libraries and universities in providing accurate and reliable resources for public consumption.
As an educational organization, the Alliance for School Choice is dedicated to providing high-quality publications that educate the American public on the benefits of school choice. With a mission of promoting public policies that benefit low-income families, we work closely to ensure that our research benefits all citizens. Accordingly, we are dedicated to ensuring that individuals who utilize America’s pulic libraries have access to our research and publications.
While Alliance publications are most certainly dedicated to advancing our cause, our research and data has become widely respected for its fair and unbiased nature. We take great pride in the accuracy of our School Choice Yearbook, the organization’s flagship publication.
Librarians can order copies of the School Choice Yearbook at no cost whatsoever. The ISBN number of the current version of the School Choice Yearbook is 978-0-9816482-0-0. The cost to libraries for ordering this book is free; the retail cost of the book is $9.95. This 60-page perfect-bound book provides fully-sourced data on school choice programs throughout the country, as well as examples of the progress being made by the school choice movement.
Preorder the 2009 School Choice Yearbook Today
Librarians interested in pre-ordering copies of the School Choice Yearbook 2008-2009 can fill out the form below. If you would like to request another publication for your library
Interim President John Schilling
