Partnership for the Future of Learning is a network of over 100 organizations advocating for education and left-of-center social policy. Several organizations within the partnership include the Ford Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the National Education Association. The organization does not have its own tax-exempt status, and states that it is “housed and supported by the National Public Education Support Fund.” ¹

Founding and History

The Partnership for the future of Learning was formed following a 2012 meeting of the Education Funders Strategy Group. At this meeting it was concluded that a new method was needed to facilitate cooperation and coordination between the numerous education policy and funding institutions on the left of center. ²

The project is hosted by the National Public Education Support Fund and is comprised of 18 foundations and approximately 100 networks, organizations, districts, and institutions. ³

Funding

Because the Partnership for Social Learning is not an independent non-profit organization, but rather a project housed by the National Public Education Support Fund, it does not have public financial filings. However, on the project’s website it lists the financial funders of the partnership. These include the Bay & Paul Foundations, the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Foundations for a Better Oregon, the Grable Foundation, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, the Edward W. Hazen Foundation, the Heinz Endowments, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the National Education Association, the NEA Foundation, the National Public Education Support Fund, the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the Sandler Foundation, the Schott Foundation for Public Education, the Southern Education Foundation, the Stuart Foundation, and Voqal. ⁴

Issue Areas and Reports

The Partnership for the Future of Learning seeks to promote policies that advance its conception of strong public education in the United States and focuses on critical race theory-inspired advocacy. The organization states that the current public education system is weakened by “historic racism and inequity.” ⁵ The member organizations are united around a shared policy framework that seeks to transform the American educational system and improve its quality, from a left-of-center perspective. ⁶ To that end, the program publishes and promotes a variety of reports related to educational policy. ⁷

The Partnership for the Future of Learning provides a messaging guide for teachers and administrators to defend critical race theory in the classroom. The guide states that critical race theory can be used to demonstrate that American social structures are rife with racial inequities that are reproduced in systematic and structural ways. The guide recommends that educators make a focus on race central to their educational vision and provides sample recommendations and resources for promoting critical race theory in the classroom. ⁸

The group has also released a report using the language of racial reparations to argue for more funding for government schools. The report argues in favor of increased taxation for “the wealthy” using the language of class warfare and randomly comparing the pay of various teachers and business executives. The report also attacks charter schools and calls for a moratorium on their expansion. ⁹

The project also publishes a narrative guide that was compiled by the Framework Institute. The guide encourages educators to defend government schools by attacking voucher systems and charter schools, promoting a “positive vision” of the government schools that is focused on race and intersectionality, and to tell “aspirational” stories about government schools. ¹⁰

1. Partnership for the Future of Learning. “Who We Are.” Accessed September 24, 2021. https://futureforlearning.org/who-we-are/.
2. Partnership for the Future of Learning. “Who We Are.” Accessed September 24, 2021. https://futureforlearning.org/who-we-are/.
3. Partnership for the Future of Learning. “Who We Are.” Accessed September 24, 2021. https://futureforlearning.org/who-we-are/.
4. Partnership for the Future of Learning. “Who We Are.” Accessed September 24, 2021. https://futureforlearning.org/who-we-are/.
5. Partnership for the Future of Learning. “What We Do.” Accessed September 24, 2021. https://futureforlearning.org/what-we-do/.
6. “A Policy Framework for Tomorrow’s Learning,” 2017. https://futureforlearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/PFL-policy-framework.pdf.
7. Partnership for the Future of Learning. “Resources.” Accessed September 24, 2021. https://futureforlearning.org/resources/.
8. Partnership for the Future of Learning. “Truth in Our Classrooms Bridges Divides: A Messaging Guide,” August 2021. Accessed September 24, 2021.  https://futureforlearning.org/2021/06/03/truth-bridges-divides/.
9. “Confronting the Education Debt.” Partnership for the Future of Learning, September 2018. Accessed September 27, 2021. http://educationdebt.reclaimourschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Confronting-the-Education-Debt_FullReport.pdf.
10. Fraemworks Institute. “Changing the Narrative on Public Education.” Accessed September 27, 2021. https://www.frameworksinstitute.org/toolkit/changing-the-narrative-on-public-education/.