Advocating for Fair School Funding

When schools get the resources they need, they can prepare students to succeed in school and in life. However, school funding can be complicated, which makes it difficult to explain why policymakers and communities should pursue change. These resources are designed to help advocates make the strongest case for more fair school funding across the South.

Want to know how fair school funding is in your state? Check out our State Ratings Rubric.

Training

This video breaks down effective messaging on school funding, walks through the Action Guide, and spotlights examples of impactful messaging in the South. Learn from our expert partners at RALLY about how to use this resource to strengthen your advocacy.

Check out our Action Guide

The Action Guide includes core messaging about the urgency of school funding in the South and issue-specific messaging about why school funding matters for students with additional needs and our Southern communities as a whole.

What’s included in the action guide?

  • Core Messaging: These messages outline the heart of the problem and explain why school funding reform is essential across the South.
  • Issue-Specific Messaging: These messages dive deeper into how education funding impacts specific communities and long-term outcomes, such as multilingual learners, rural schools, or students from low-income backgrounds. The talking points touch on key values for faith communities, businesses, and bipartisan groups working across the political spectrum.
  • Advocacy Tools: From best practices for drafting opinion editorials and guidance in delivering legislative testimony, these tools are intended to alleviate capacity constraints so Southern advocates can easily deploy communications tactics to support increased education funding throughout the South.

See how Southern advocates are using strong messaging