50CAN is a nonprofit education advocacy group founded in January 2011 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States According to its website, 50CAN's mission is to advocate for a high-quality education for all kids, regardless of their address. The organization aims to find, connect and support local leaders in states across the country to help them improve educational policies in their communities.
History
50CAN grew out of ConnCAN and was incubated inside the Connecticut nonprofit in 2010 before being formally spun off as an independent organization in 2011. Marc Porter Magee left his role as ConnCAN chief operating officer to establish 50CAN. He become 50CAN's first president, later becoming the organization's chief executive officer. 50CAN employs 71 people, and it runs education campaigns in seven states.
Affiliate offices
50CAN currently operates policy campaigns in seven states: Minnesota, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, North Carolina and New Jersey and has run fellowships in Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, Oakland, San Francisco, Virginia, and Wisconsin. In 2016, it announced it would grow to additional states by merging with StudentsFirst, the group founded by Michelle Rhee, and that former StudentsFirst chapters would retain their branding within their states.
Trainings
50CAN offers several programs to engage local leaders in the education advocacy movement, including the Education Advocacy Fellowship, YouCAN, Education Policy 101 and Education Advocacy Essentials. In the fall of 2015, 50CAN published The 50CAN Guide to Building Advocacy Campaigns: 2nd Edition on iBooks and Kindle.
Campaigns
To date, 50CAN has run 74 advocacy campaigns across seven states and achieved 47 policy victories for public school children and their families. 50CAN counts among its policy achievements a large-scale expansion of preschool in Minnesota, an historic $282 million increase in teacher salaries in North Carolina, the opening of Achievement First public charter schools in Rhode Island and overhauling the teacher tenure system in New York.
