The last few years have dealt a challenging hand for California’s education systems and students — recovery from a global pandemic that shut most students out of classrooms for more than a year, two years of budget deficits and cuts, and ongoing threats to our schools’ and colleges’ efforts to address long-standing and systemic racial equity gaps in education. But challenging times also reveal leaders’ true colors. Will they stay true to their core values of fairness and justice or shrink in the face of political pushback and scarcity mindsets?

There will be many opportunities to stand for what’s right. We’ve articulated the most impactful steps the state can take in our annual policy agenda, which also guides our advocacy throughout the year.

As we look to 2025, our call to action for state education policymakers and education leaders is clear — stay true to the values of equity and fairness and continue to fund, implement, and monitor the state’s commitments to racial equity in education through current and new bold initiatives. At EdTrust-West, we use the term “equity champion” to refer to an individual who leverages their positional power to take risks in support of education equity. We are calling on all true education equity champions to lead with conviction and ensure that California’s students have what they need to learn and thrive throughout our TK-12 and higher education systems.