CEO Leadership of Education Reform

Company/Organization: State Farm Insurance Companies
CEO/Board Chair: Edward B. Rust, Jr., Chairman and CEO, State Farm Insurance Companies
State: Illinois
Level of Involvement: National, State, School, Student
Type of Initiative: Advocacy, Philanthropy, Expertise and Leadership
Target Education Priority: More Graduates Ready for College and Careers, More Innovation Workers in the Pipeline, Maximize Data-Driven Decision Making

“Globalization has forever changed the education landscape. Economic success for any country depends on the educational attainment of its population and the translation of that education into creativity, innovation and production. We have to accept the fact that the public education system has to be more flexible and responsive to the needs of all children. Partisanship and blame are of no use. The world has changed. Over the past decade, business faced shifting realities and had to realign operating and delivery systems to meet customer needs. The education system has to adapt to similar conditions.” -- Edward B. Rust Jr., remarks from the U.S. Chamber’s Education and Workforce Summit, October 4, 2006.

Strategies for Success
On the national and state levels, Rust exemplifies how chief executives can use their voice to make improving public schools a top priority for the public and policymakers. He lends his time and expertise to a number of business-led organizations and initiatives, all with the goal of improving the quality of education in the United States. Currently, in addition to serving on the board of directors of Achieve, Inc., he is a co-chair of the national Business Roundtable, a member of Business Roundtable’s Education and the Workforce Task Force and chairman emeritus of the Illinois Business Roundtable. He is also a director of the National Center for Educational Accountability and the James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy. He previously served as chairman of the Business Higher Education Forum, The Business Roundtable's Education Initiative and co-chairman of the Business Coalition for Excellence in Education, which was formed in 2001 as the business community’s voice in the creation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

Rust is a strong supporter of NCLB, and serves on the NCLB Commission, a bipartisan, independent group established to make recommendations to Congress and the Bush Administration to improve the federal law during its next reauthorization. He is also co-chairing the Business Coalition for Student Achievement, which was announced in 2007 as the business community’s effort to advocate for strengthening and improving NCLB during the law’s reauthorization. Rust's personal commitment to education has also been evident in his willingness to serve as a trustee and adviser to Illinois Wesleyan University, the University of Illinois and Stanford University. And he served on President Bush's transition team covering education issues and the National (Glenn) Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century.

In addition to giving his personal time, Rust has made education reform a priority for his company and his employees. A team of six staff people are dedicated to support State Farm’s involvement with public education through partnerships and organizations. Through the State Farm Learning and Teaching Exchange (S.L.A.T.E.), the company expanded its long-standing corporate policy of allowing employees to take one day off a year as a paid “Education Support” day and volunteer in a local school by coordinating the volunteer efforts of employees with partner schools so that partnered teachers can participate in professional development and the district can save the cost of hiring a substitute teacher. State Farm employees are regularly updated on education issues through a variety of in-house communication tools including an education newsletter that recaps key education news and programs.

State Farm uses philanthropy to support education reform as well. Additional support for teachers is provided by State Farm’s financial and in-kind support to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), a teacher-founded organization that seeks to improve the quality of teaching and provide a national credential for teaching excellence. State Farm has committed nearly $4.2 million toward quality teaching in America's schools through the Partners in a Learning Community program with the NBPTS. State Farm also has provided funds for new buildings, fellowships and other programs at colleges and universities across the country.

State Farm also strongly supports service-learning, a teaching strategy that engages students in solving real-world problems by using their classroom skills and academic studies to solve a community issue through service. In collaboration with three national service-learning partners, State Farm awards grants to K-12 school districts to increase the practice of service-learning through the development of mutually beneficial partnerships among schools, businesses and communities. Grantees collaborate with State Farm and the service-learning partners around issues such as teen driver safety, disaster preparedness, senior safety and financial education. In 2006, State Farm established the State Farm Youth Advisory Board, a group of 30 young people ages 17-20 from around the U.S. and Canada who lead a $5 million initiative to grant funds to schools and non-profits around key issues through service-learning. Youth Advisory Board membership was decided by a competitive process and allows young people true leadership experience.  

Rust and State Farm exemplify corporate leadership for education reform in several ways recommended by Business Toolkit for Better Schools, including:

• Use the bully pulpit to make the case that the global economy demands higher expectations, a renewed commitment to math and science investments and data-driven decision making
• Communicate with the public, media, employees and students about the importance of public education reform to companies, America's competitiveness, individual citizens and society at large
• Invest corporate resources, including charitable giving programs, dedicated staff positions and employee time, to public education 
• Join or start local or statewide nonprofit coalitions of like-minded business leaders to advance education reform
• Identify and support senior staff to focus their time on education policy and reform
• Serve on local, statewide and national school boards, commissions and task forces
• Keep the public conversation focused on the vision for the public education system
• Sustain the public's commitment to school reform over time

Indicators of Success
The countless corporate and personal resources that Ed Rust and State Farm have committed to improving America’s public education system are paying off. For example, the S.L.A.T.E. program now serves 185 schools representing 54 school districts in seven Illinois counties.  By the end of 2006, 667 classroom teachers had benefited from having a S.L.A.T.E. substitute teacher in their classroom through the State Farm Corporate program. The program has expanded to include State Farm retirees and the company has reached out to the greater business community to join the program as well, resulting in ten additional pilot sites in other states.

• State Farm’s Education Initiatives
• The S.L.A.T.E. Program
• Business Roundtable’s Education and the Workforce Task Force
• National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
• The State Farm Youth Advisory Board
• The National Youth Leadership Council
• The National Service-Learning Partnership
• Youth Service America

Presentations

• Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Education and the Workforce on Business Issues in Elementary and Secondary Education, July 1, 1999

Updated: March 2007