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Arkansas, Iowa, Oklahoma Educators Up for New Award from The Yass Prize

  • June 27, 2023

The $5 million awards celebrate states that expand education opportunity

 

WASHINGTON – Governors of Arkansas, Iowa and Oklahoma have been tapped by The Yass Prize, the most prestigious award in education, to nominate 10 education providers in their respective states for The Yass Award for Education Freedom. Each of the winners will receive a share of the new $5 million award to serve more students.

“We are thrilled to announce Arkansas, Iowa and Oklahoma as the inaugural states for The Yass Award for Education Freedom,” said JANINE YASS, the American philanthropist who established The Yass Prize with her husband, Jeff Yass. “Every child should be educated in a way that best meets his or her needs, and every educator should be free to deliver that education. We are proud to accelerate and help scale these efforts.”

Governors Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, and Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma will nominate education providers that demonstrate their commitment to education transformation and their capacity to grow. 

“These states were selected because they went from nearly zero to 100 in offering families the ability to use their state education dollars to make all educational decisions for their children,” said JEANNE ALLEN, director of The Yass Foundation for Education and Founder of the Center for Education Reform. 

Arkansas, Iowa and Oklahoma were chosen for the inaugural Yass Award for Education Freedom based on their legislative accomplishments:

Arkansas: As part of a comprehensive education package, a new Education Freedom Account program allocates 90% of state education dollars, $6,614 per student, to be used for a student’s education of choice, with access growing to all students by FY 2025. 

Iowa: The Students First Act provides up to $7,598 per student, starting with families whose household incomes are at or below 300% of the federal poverty level. The program anticipates serving roughly 14,000 students in FY 2024 and all K-12 students subsequently.

Oklahoma: The Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit Act provides refundable tax credits up to $7,500 per child to cover the cost of education, beginning in January 2024. Within the first year, 20,000 families will be eligible to receive the tax credit, and that number will grow steadily each year.

Details for The Yass Award for Education Freedom are as follows:

  • The governors of Arkansas, Iowa and Oklahoma will each nominate 10 eligible education providers by June 30. These education providers must be able to expand and meet the needs of eligible families using new education freedom programs. 
  • Upon receipt and review by a select judging panel, the organizations will be invited to apply for The Yass Award for Education Freedom via The Yass Prize Award portal. 
  • The Yass Award for Education Freedom applications are due by July 15, 11:59pm EST (same day as The Yass Prize applications). 
  • The Yass Award for Education Freedom will announce winners Sept. 14.

 

Media Contact:
CATHLEEN HEALY
202-365-4636
[email protected]

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The Yass Foundation advances the four core STOP principles: Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding, and Permissionless education. Each year, the Foundation will reward dozens of organizations, building a growing network of innovative providers that
demonstrate these qualities in their commitment to new ideas, technologies, and approaches to learning that bring education into
the 21st century. The Foundation is powered by the Center for Education Reform (CER) in partnership with Forbes.

Success happens after many pivots and changes.

Michael Moe
Founder and CEO,
Global Silicon Valley

Unfortunately, the bureaucracy that’s behind the school system is more interested in perpetuating jobs and keeping the system in place, rather than giving children the freedom they deserve.

Janine Yass
Founder,
The Yass Prize

What is good for families is good for the school because families want great schools.

Ceci Schickel
Senior Director of Organizing and Advocacy,
Mastery Charter School

I'm deeply humbled and grateful to be part of this group.

The last month has been a tremendous experience and I'm so inspired and motivated by the amazing work this group is doing. Collectively, we’re working towards a real-world goal and it’s leaving me empowered and motivated to apply what we learn.

Jeffrey Imrich
Co-Founder,
Rock by Rock

If you get to the accelerator after the application process, go in knowing you already won.

The fact that you are now with a group of your peers you really get to see how world class the education profession is.

Christopher Simmonds
Principal,
CARE Elementary School

When you are trying to advance and think beyond the status quo, this can be a lonely place, because our systems are structured to do the same thing.

It is important to surround yourself with like-minded individuals who foster innovation.

Phyllis Lockett
CEO,
LEAP Innovations

We realized long ago that there’s a lot of money in the system, and it’s just not directed to the children.

Janine Yass
Founder,
The Yass Prize

The real source of wealth in society is the human mind, not material things, because with the human mind, great wealth can be created.

Steve Forbes
Editor-in-Chief,
Forbes Media

I am still processing the magnitude of this experience and so grateful for meeting each and everyone of you.

I look forward to continuing our transformative work in our communities and together.

Taylor Shead
Board Member,
Dallas Education Foundation

The fact that education has become partisan is upsetting, and I just hope that this award will encourage more states to view this as a bipartisan issue.

Janine Yass
Founder,
The Yass Prize

The pandemic didn’t stop our families, scholars and educators from learning, growing and thriving.

Patricia Brantley
CEO,
Friendship Public Charter School

Remember, you are doing the work of civilization.

You are planting the seeds of a better world, despite any bad news, you’re doing great things.

Steve Forbes
Editor-in-Chief,
Forbes Media

We see the Pulitzer prizes, we see the MacArthur Genius Grants, we see the Pritzker prize for architecture.

But for the one field that drives everything, education, there is no definitive prize. The Yass Prize has filled that vacuum -- it's more than just the money. It's about spurring ideas, it's about spurring innovation. We are very very proud to be a part of it.

Randall Lane
Editor,
Forbes

We may not agree on much of anything, but one thing that is a uniting force that we all agree on is that education opens doors, it’s the great equalizer.

Alyssa Farah Griffin
Co-Host on The View and CNN Political Commentator,

You are in a moment in history that we have never seen before.

Any of us with a disruptive idea have a shot at trying to prove something.

Randall Lane
Chief Content Officer,
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This is the fundamental basis of what we are doing.

Carl Schramm
University Professor,
Syracuse University

What has been created here at the accelerator is truly incredible.

We may never know how pivotal this really is for education in America right here, right now. This group of people will work together to force real change permissionlessly.

Rob Blevins
Executive Director,
Discovery Center of Springfield

I hope you all think about the fact that the impact you are having, you will never even know how widespread it is.

That’s the beauty of education, you impact lives in such a deep way.

Alyssa Farah Griffin
Co-Host on The View and CNN Political Commentator,

We often jump to the what, without thinking with the community about the why.

Michael B. Horn
Author,
From Reopen to Reinvent

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