The Bipartisan Promise of Opportunity Schools

It’s not too much of an exaggeration to say that in the highly politicized world of education policy, there’s virtually no idea or initiative or reform that we can all agree on. But over the past several years, I’ve come to see that there is one issue that brings us together across political and ideological divides: the urgent need to provide much better school options–what we at Groundswell call “Opportunity Schools”--for our most at-risk young people.

Groundswell Network, the organization I founded and lead, has set out to do just that. We scour the country to find innovative Opportunity Schools where these students thrive, and we are building a network of educators, policymakers and community leaders that is committed to making outstanding Opportunity Schools the norm rather than the exception in every community.

Everyone recognizes the stakes. Right now, there are over 2 million students in US high schools who will eventually leave school without a diploma. These students are disproportionately low-income, students of color, or involved in systems such as foster care or juvenile justice. Left unsupported, their likelihood of dropping out and facing cycles of poverty or incarceration rises dramatically.

This problem doesn’t care about state lines or voting patterns: urban centers like Memphis, New York City, and Los Angeles face the same challenges as rural districts in Tennessee, Oklahoma, or Ohio. The families of these students all want the same thing: Opportunity Schools that don’t give up on their children and help them transform their lives in school and beyond.

In Tennessee, a bipartisan group of legislators listened to those families, passing a law that allows for the creation of a brand-new type of school in the state called “Opportunity Public Charter Schools.” These schools will be the first schools in Tennessee designed specifically to serve highly at-risk students, such as those who have dropped out, have been in the juvenile justice system, or have fallen far behind their peers.

Context is important here: Tennessee is a place where right now the debate about education is robust. School choice is expanding, the state is mulling a takeover of a major school district, and the challenges of declining urban enrollment, racial achievement gaps, and tensions between districts and charter schools are as acute in Tennessee as anywhere.

But that didn’t stop the Republican Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton from championing this innovative new legislation, and it didn’t stop Democratic legislators from lending their support as well.

Transformative change is coming rapidly for Tennessee’s most vulnerable students. The state’s first Opportunity School, The Rock Academy, was just approved to open in 2026 in Nashville, and Groundswell is working with several proven Opportunity Schools from around the country to bring their models to the state over the next several years.

The partisan divides in public education are daunting and complex. Opportunity Schools–and the students they serve–provide a rare and important opportunity for people of all political persuasions who are focused on creating better schools for the most at-risk students to do important, transformative work–together.