Why the current political environment in K-12 has changed who makes decisions and how

The political environment in K-12 education has changed enough in the last three years that vendors still running 2021 playbooks are getting surprised by conversations their products used to sail through.

The changes aren’t subtle. Federal funding that districts built programs around is in question. DEI-related programs that were priorities two years ago are now politically complicated in many states — and the district leaders responsible for those decisions are navigating that complexity carefully. The scrutiny that school boards are applying to purchasing decisions — particularly for curriculum, social-emotional learning, and technology — has increased in ways that extend sales cycles and add approval steps that didn’t used to exist.

What this means for vendors is specific. The person who used to be able to say yes may now need board approval for something that previously lived within their discretionary authority. The program that used to be positioned around equity outcomes may need to be reframed around academic performance outcomes to survive the current political environment in certain markets. The relationship with the superintendent may be less important than it was, and the relationship with the board chair may matter more than most vendors have been cultivating.

None of this is universal. The political environment varies enormously by state, by district, and by the specific program category. A reading curriculum faces different headwinds than a math program. A professional development provider operates in different waters than an SEL platform. The organizations that are navigating this well are the ones that have done the work to understand the specific environment in each market they’re selling into — not the ones applying a national read to a landscape that’s playing out differently in every state.

The districts haven’t stopped buying. They’ve gotten more careful about what they buy, how it’s positioned, and who approves it.

Vendors who understand that — and adjust their approach accordingly — are having shorter sales cycles than the ones still pitching to a market that no longer exists quite the way it did.