Education & Civic Formation

Vision

West/Southwest IAF affiliates see public schools as institutions essential to equal opportunity and democratic self-government. Rooted in congregations, schools, and neighborhood organizations, leaders work to ensure that access to quality education does not depend on zip code or income alone. This means building cultures of trust and shared purpose inside schools, investing public dollars with accountability, and shaping systems that support growth rather than impose punishment.

In Texas, Alliance Schools strategies transformed campus culture by organizing parents, principals, and teachers around collaboration and high expectations, gains later reflected in improved student performance. Building on that model, Texas IAF leaders secured over $50 million for teacher development, parent engagement, and after-school programs. In Arizona, affiliates mobilized voters to leverage more than $800 million in new state funding for public education. In New Mexico, leaders replaced a punitive A–F grading system with a diagnostic accountability model focused on improvement. In Colorado, communities won investments in early childhood education and digital infrastructure to ensure families were not left behind.

Education is not a private commodity. When schools cultivate both excellence and civic responsibility, communities are stronger — and democracy is more secure.

Impact

1. Developing a Culture Where Students Thrive

   The Alliance Schools strategy grew out of relationships between community institutions and the public schools in their neighborhoods to organize parents, principals, and teachers in under-resourced schools. An independent Annenberg study documented significant gains in trust, collegiality, shared purpose, and student test performance from efforts by Austin Interfaith (now Central Texas Interfaith). The model was replicated across the West/Southwest.

2. Expanding Access to Quality Early Education in Colorado

   In 2025, Mountain Voices Project educated and mobilized thousands of families in Colorado's Roaring Fork Valley to leverage a $12 million public investment to reduce childcare costs, raise wages for early childhood educators, and expand preschool availability.

3. Increasing Funding for Public Schools in Texas and Arizona

   In 1983, Texas IAF leaders pushed the legislature to take up school finance reform and played a critical role in passing House Bill 72, the state’s first attempt at school finance equalization. Building on Alliance Schools, they later won the creation of the Investment Capital Fund, securing more than $50 million for teacher professional development, parent engagement, and after-school programs in public schools.

   Over its history in Arizona, Valley Interfaith Project leveraged $473 million for public schools and after-school and summer recreational programs in Tempe, Scottsdale, El Mirage, Chandler, and Gilbert through a combination of local bonds, overrides, and local and state funding.

4. Bridging the Digital Divide During the Pandemic in Colorado

   In response to COVID-19, Coloradans for the Common Good and educator union allies secured $20 million for student digital infrastructure and broadened high-speed internet access for low-income and undocumented families nationwide.

5. Advancing Accountability & Early Childhood Education in New Mexico

   Albuquerque Interfaith worked with legislators to establish a new state Department of Early Childhood Education and replace a punitive A-F grading system with a diagnostic accountability model focused on improvement and student growth.

6. Increasing Educational Attainment in San Antonio

   Uniting businesses, communities, school districts, and universities, COPS/Metro leaders launched the San Antonio Education Partnership in 1989, providing college advising and scholarships to 3,000 public school students annually (more here).