Local Business and Education Partnerships

A common approach for business leaders to become involved in education reform is by founding or joining a nonprofit “business and education partnership.” These partnerships exist both at the state and local levels and are a key strategy for leveraging the voice and expertise of the business community to improve education.

Across the country, there are more than 30 statewide business organizations that have a long-term commitment to public education. Such business-led organizations have been at the forefront of efforts to improve early childhood education, K-12 public education and higher education for nearly two decades. Business leaders actively lobby for state academic standards, tests and accountability systems that report progress and hold educators, students and schools accountable for student performance. They support increasing public school choice, improving teacher and principal quality and reforming school finance and teacher compensation reform.

Statewide business organizations and senior executives who are engaged in education reform are not merely lobbyists. They have become the visionaries and the champions for reform in their states—across changes in political leadership and despite pushback from some educators and citizens. Groups like Battelle for Kids in Ohio, Maryland Business Roundtable for Education, Massachusetts Business Roundtable, New Jersey United for Higher Standards, and Oklahoma Business and Education Coalition have rallied political leaders and held together fragile coalitions of reformers. They have built widespread public awareness and support for higher standards. They have created initiatives and tools to help schools and districts change – and they have been a relentless voice for staying the course with reform, even when the going has gotten rough.

Find out about business organizations in your state by clicking on your state on the map. Local chambers of commerce often have education committees on which local business leaders serve, and local partnerships often grow out of the work of such committees. To review activity in local chambers, please visit the U.S. Chamber Web site at www.uschamber.com.