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Public education needs positive stories.

Those of us who work in the field are fortunate to hear these stories daily: about students developing meaningful, real-world skills, about educators preparing engaged, motivated citizens, about school districts equipping young people for life beyond the classroom. We see up close the acts of compassion and care, the innovations supporting students and families and 鈥� even in tumultuous times 鈥� the countless reasons to hope.

But hope doesn鈥檛 make headlines. Cognitive scientists have long known that people are drawn far more to the negative than to the positive. For most of our history as a species, this negativity bias led humans to avoid enemies and predators. In 2025, it leads people to click on catastrophic news stories and absorb the doom-and-gloom narratives with which we鈥檙e so frequently bombarded.

That鈥檚 not to say bad news is unjustified. There are plenty of problems, particularly in education, that demand urgent attention, from declining reading scores to the crisis of chronic absenteeism. But bad news alone has colored too much of the perception of public education. Despite the positive momentum found in so many school districts, more than half of adults say education is heading in the wrong direction, and satisfaction with K-12 schools has hit an all-time low.

Now more than ever, the nation鈥檚 school systems need 鈥� people and places whose work should be studied, replicated and celebrated amid the challenges facing the field. And those beacons can be fostered only when leaders who are willing to think and do things differently are at the helm. 

Fortunately, they are all around. You鈥檒l find them, for example, from coast to coast in more than 150 districts that comprise the . A national network organized by , the league has member districts that work to co-create solutions to public education鈥檚 challenges. Together, they鈥檙e around the safe and ethical use of artificial intelligence in classrooms, to better prepare students for tomorrow鈥檚 workforce and to address chronic absenteeism. 

In western Pennsylvania, home to more than a dozen league districts, schools are . For those unfamiliar with the area, Pittsburgh鈥檚 legacy as a steel town might overshadow its evolution as a hub of educational innovation. But the region boasts the league鈥檚 largest local cluster of innovative school districts in the country. To tour western Pennsylvania schools is to find K-12 students violins to make an orchestra, in repurposed shipping containers, with help from baby lambs using computational thinking 鈥� a problem-solving approach that involves analyzing, organizing and modeling data 鈥� to make and test predictions in a fast-changing world.

This is the future of public education 鈥� and the kind of story that needs to be told. That鈥檚 why, this week, we brought more than 350 of America鈥檚 most forward-thinking superintendents, administrators, researchers and others to western Pennsylvania for . Featuring two full days of classroom visits to all 13 host districts, the convening shone a national spotlight on a region that鈥檚 proving what public education can do: where students learn math by , and work with robotics and biotech startups .

It wasn’t the first time the Steel City offered a beacon of hope. In 1968, another tumultuous time, a young Pittsburgher named Fred Rogers debuted his television program, Mister Rogers鈥� Neighborhood. For more than 30 years, the show demonstrated what a neighborhood, at its best, could be. It wasn鈥檛 perfect: There was conflict and grief alongside wonder and joy. Actress Mary Rawson, who appeared often on the show, wrote in the book that in Fred Rogers鈥� television world, 鈥渧iolence and war, hatred and intolerance [were] not painted out of the picture, but neither [were] they allowed to destroy the canvas.

He gave America hope that despite so much bad news, the canvas was worth defending.

The same can be said for public education. That鈥檚 why, taking a page from Mister Rogers鈥� playbook, the Pittsburgh-based and the League of Innovative Schools are launching 鈥淟earning Neighbor Grants鈥� designed to expand and enhance the field鈥檚 beacons of hope. Our organizations have granted each league member district in western Pennsylvania $10,143 (echoing Rogers鈥檚 use of the numbers 1-4-3 to say 鈥淚 love you鈥�) to develop innovations that prepare students for college, career and real life.

Working with other league members from around the country, as well as museums, libraries and other partner organizations, they will create a broadcasting program for young children; develop new workforce pathways (and combat the national shortage of bus drivers) by training high schoolers to earn a commercial driver鈥檚 license; and establish a competitive robotics team for neurodiverse students; and more. Each team will share its innovation at next year鈥檚 convening.

The goal is to seed beacons of hope in every community 鈥� and to keep telling the positive stories that deserve to be told.

鈥淕ood, more communicated, more abundant grows,鈥� wrote the poet John Milton. Those of us who work in public education know goodness is abundant already. So, it’s time to change the narrative and seek out, amplify and invest in the schools and educators that are proving what鈥檚 possible. The future of education isn鈥檛 just something to debate 鈥� it鈥檚 something to build. And the work begins with the stories about what public education can do.

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