Yass Prize Alumni Selected Through Competitive Process to Increase Parent Choices
WASHINGTON, DC – Following a rigorous, pitch-based competition among alumni from the first five Yass Prize cohorts, the Center for Education Reform (CER), on behalf of the Yass Prize, announced a new expansion initiative. Eleven alumni organizations were awarded a package of grants and interest-free loans to scale their outstanding models, while five additional organizations were awarded grants to support program growth and new student seats.
In total, these 16 organizations will receive more than $20 million, generating 37,000 total opportunities for students over the next two years.
“This new, refined Alumni Award program is the next step in providing some of our most accomplished awardees with critical support to expand their footprint in areas where families are actively seeking innovative education options,” said Yass Prize Founder Janine Yass. “It reflects what we are seeing every day – growing demand from families for new opportunities, and extraordinary leaders ready to meet that demand.”
This expansion investment – structured as interest-free loans – reflects a commitment to sustainable, transformational, and truly permissionless education. Sustainability means these schools can ultimately operate on the public funding already allocated for students. By providing seed capital to alumni to expand a current campus with a renovation, add locations to serve more students in their state, or move into new states, the initiative is designed to stimulate supply and demonstrate what is possible when funding follows students.
“We hope this model sends a clear signal to states: it is no longer equitable or effective to continue directing disproportionate funding to systems students are leaving,” added Mrs. Yass.
“Families, educators, and communities are asking for something different – and it is time for policy and funding to catch up with that reality.”
CER also announced that Building Hope has been selected as a partner of the Yass Prize to support this expansion initiative, leveraging more than two decades of expertise in facilities and operations and providing alumni organizations with access to its deep expertise in scaling innovative education models.
For more information about the Yass Prize, visit yassprize.org
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The schools receiving the new Yass Prize Alumni Expansion Investment are:
City on a Hill Christian Academy, Fairmont, West Virginia
HOPE Ranch Learning Academy, Hudson, Florida
KaiPod Learning, Multi-state
Liberty STEAM Charter School, Sumter, South Carolina
Liguori Academy, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Oakmont Education, Multi-state
Odyssey Charter School, Wilmington, Delaware
Onward Learning, Martin, South Dakota
Partnership Schools, Ohio and Texas
SOAR Academy, Augusta, Georgia and Tulsa, Oklahoma
St. Mary’s Academy, New Orleans, Louisiana
In addition, five organizations received Yass Prize Alumni Award grants to expand their work to serve more students:
Big Picture Learning, National
Charleston Classical, North Charleston, South Carolina
4 Learning, Minnesota and California
Rock by Rock, National
National Fellowship for Black and Latino Male Educators, National