Deadline approaches for $1 million school choice award

By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

The June 1 deadline for a $1 million Yass Prize school choice award is approaching, and education providers nationwide are encouraged to apply.

The Yass Prize has awarded more than $60 million since its cofounders Jeff and Janine Yass launched it five years ago during the COVID-lockdown era in 2021. Since then, more than 225 school founders and education leaders in 45 states have benefited from the program.

“The effort is sector agnostic,” the Yass Prize explained. “Past winners and finalists span the full spectrum: from innovation and unique public models to private networks, charter schools, micro-schools and career and technical programs. What unites them is a relentless sense of urgency to make education work for every kind of student.”

The prize is an outworking of the Center for Education Reform. Applications are due June 1 by noon Eastern Time. The winner will be announced Oct. 6 in Philadelphia.

The $1 million prize will be awarded to an applicant who best represents four core principles of “sustainable, transformational, outstanding and permissionless education.”

Selected finalists will attend the Yass Prize Accelerator, a virtual and in-person intensive experience, paired with expert advisers and make their pitch for the $1 million grand prize.

Last year, there were so many outstanding candidates that additional prizes were awarded to finalists and semifinalists, Caroline Allen, founding director of the Yass Prize, told The Center Square.

This year is the five-year anniversary of the prize, which was only intended for one year during the COVID-era, Allen explained during an exclusive interview.

“There were there was so much tragedy and heartache during the pandemic, and the prize was one of those silver linings that came out of the pandemic,” she said. “It was initially created as a way to reward and celebrate education providers who were outperforming for kids during COVID.

“While we’re not in a pandemic now, we are still very much in a crisis in education in America,” Allen said. “Families are still vying for really terrific education options for their child. We know that demand is there from families. We know that parents want excellent schools and excellent school options.”

Allen, a former teacher and a mother, said giving families more options “is the best kind of gift you can give families. Not just options but excellent education options that vary.”

She was also involved with the Texas Yass Prize Education Freedom Award, which launched last year. It awarded $4 million to 11 education providers “to accelerate the growth of new opportunities for students and meet the growing demand from families seeking better options” in Texas once the state’s new Education Savings Account program is fully operational, The Center Square reported.

Texas’ first ESA program launched in February with 274,183 students applying, the most of any new ESA program in any state in the country, The Center Square reported. So far, more than 95,000 families have been notified about their acceptance to the school choice program.

Some Yass Prize recipients are “more trade-focused, some have no tech, some have lots of tech,” Allen explained. “They’re all really different. That’s the beauty of what education should be versus a one-size-fits-all approach.”

Eligible applicants must currently be working with students, be in the U.S. and serve pre-K-12 students.

Over the last few years, Allen said they witnessed how the prize was more than a prize.

Applicants who were initially competitors and became grantees are working together to find ways to innovate and improve education outcomes, she explained.

“One of the surprising moments that came out of this entire process that continues to drive how we think about the foundation and the grant making process,” she explained, was they “didn’t anticipate that grantees would learn and be empowered by one another.”

“It’s been beautiful to watch” how the grantees aren’t just “redefining what they do but they are strengthening their individual schools based on being in this community. It started as a competition for the $1 million prize but quickly turned into a community,” she said.

While Yass Prize grantees have expressed gratitude for the funds, which drives their mission and strategy, “we constantly hear from them time and time again” about the value of community and networking that’s arisen through the program, Allen said.

She also explained some of the criteria the Yass Prize looks for in potential grantees.

Finalists are selected based on “where they’ve come from and their outcomes and metrics, and the success they’ve had so far. They’re also rewarded for where they’re going, what their vision is how many more students they want to serve, what’s their strategic plan for the next five years,” she said.

“We knew we would find diamonds in the rough, who were doing exceptional things for kids,” Allen said. “That has definitely played out in our grant making process.”