National School Choice Week begins this Sunday. With 16,140 events across the country, National School Choice Week (Jan. 24 – 30) will be the largest series of education-related events in US history.
The goal of National School Choice Week is to raise awareness of effective education options for children — such as traditional public schools, public charter schools, public magnet schools, private schools, online learning, and homeschooling. NSCW is a nonpartisan, nonpolitical, independent public awareness effort.
As you consider covering school choice issues and events in conjunction with National School Choice Week, we hope you will join us for a telephone press conference to discuss the state of school choice in America, the role of education reform as a uniquely bipartisan issue, and the importance of ensuring that parents have the tools and information they need to make quality K-12 education choices for their children.
The call will provide a preview of National School Choice Week and will also provide reporters an opportunity to ask questions. Speakers include Andrew Campanella, the president of National School Choice Week; Democratic strategist and FOX News analyst Joe Trippi; and education reform pioneer Lisa Graham Keegan, a Republican.
Telephone Press Conference
Previewing National School Choice Week with Joe Trippi, Lisa Graham Keegan, and Andrew Campanella
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
2:00 PM Eastern
Dial 800-211-5016
ANDREW R. CAMPANELLA
President of National School Choice Week
An enthusiastic advocate for educational opportunity, Andrew R. Campanella is widely recognized as one of the education reform community’s leading policy strategists and communications executives.
Andrew is president of National School Choice Week (NSCW), a dynamic, independent campaign to raise public awareness of the many K-12 education options available to children and families across America.
Under Andrew’s leadership, National School Choice Week has grown into the world’s largest annual series of education-related events – from 150 events in 2011 to 11,082 events in 2015. As president, Andrew and the NSCW team have developed partnerships with 13,000 schools, 1,000 homeschool groups, 1,000 local chambers of commerce, and 500 education and policy organizations.
Prior to joining NSCW, Andrew served as national director of communications for the Alliance for School Choice. In this role, Andrew managed large-scale public education campaigns to support school choice program implementation in Arizona, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Louisiana, and Ohio. In addition, he was the lead media relations strategist during the successful fight for Congressional reauthorization of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. Previously, Andrew served as national director of teacher recruitment and communications for the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence. While at ABCTE, Andrew developed partnerships with more than two dozen school districts; recruited 3,500 career-changers to become public school teachers; and successfully expanded teacher licensure policies in Florida, Idaho, Missouri, Mississippi, New Hampshire, and Utah.
JOE TRIPPI
Democratic Strategist and FOX News Analyst
Heralded on the cover of The New Republic as the man who “reinvented campaigning,” Joe Trippi has been at the forefront of movement politics for nearly 30 years. Trippi began his political career working on Edward M. Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1980 and has worked on numerous presidential, gubernatorial, senate, and congressional campaigns ever since. His is a FOX News Analyst.
Most recently, Trippi helped engineer a number of groundbreaking House victories for Representatives Tulsi Gabbard, Janice Hahn, Mark Takano, and Seth Moulton. In 2014, Trippi advised and produced media for Marine Seth Moulton in one of the most shocking come-from-behind House victories of the decade. The campaign overcame millions in outside spending to beat 18-year incumbent John Tierney in the primary and Richard Tisei in the targeted general election. In 2010, Trippi was a senior strategist and media consultant in Jerry Brown’s successful run for California Governor. The campaign’s ads were described as “clever” and “amazing,” and they were widely considered some of best of 2010. TIME magazine named one ad, “Echo,” the best ad of 2010, and the Brown ads received four “Pollie” awards for excellence in political media.
In 2004, as the National Campaign Manager for Howard Dean’s presidential campaign, Trippi pioneered the use of online technology to organize what became the largest grassroots movement in presidential politics. Through his innovative use of the Internet for small-donor fundraising, “Dean for America” raised more money than any Democratic presidential campaign to that point – all with donations averaging less than $100.
LISA GRAHAM KEEGAN
Former Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction (Republican) and Education Reform Pioneer
Lisa Graham Keegan is a sought after education reform expert who has worked with national education leaders, the media, U.S. Congress, state legislative bodies, business groups, policy organizations, community groups, and the education industry.
She currently serves as a Senior Advisor to National School Choice Week, an annual public awareness campaign to advance excellent choices in education; and as Executive Director of A for Arizona, a joint project of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and the Tucson Hispanic Chamber that seeks to accelerate the number of A quality public charter and public district schools in Arizona.
A Republican, Mrs. Keegan spent a decade from 1991 – 2001 serving as an Arizona state official, where she advanced clear and challenging academic standards gauged by publicly transparent assessments, and fought successfully for the implementation of school choice, including Arizona’s landmark charter school and tuition tax credit laws. She also led efforts to revise the state’s school finance formulas to reflect a commitment to equal access and choice of excellent schools…a job she considers unfinished.
Mrs. Keegan’s leadership in Arizona earned her a national reputation as a strong advocate for student-based education policies. In March of 1999, Drs. Milton and Rose Friedman personally presented Mrs. Keegan with the first Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation Award for Leadership in Educational Choice. In 2000 and 2008, she was education advisor to the John McCain Campaign for President, and was interviewed in 2000 by President-Elect Bush for the job of US Secretary of Education. In June of 2011, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce presented her with their Milton Freidman Award for visionary leadership in Arizona and in July of 2013 she was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools.