Sparking the School Choice Movement in Illinois
February 12, 2025
Join us in addressing the organizational challenges facing school choice in Illinois and to collaborate on sparking a prairie fire movement for school choice in our state.
Agenda
8:00 AM – Registration Opens, Complimentary Breakfast
9:00 AM – Welcome & Empower Illinois 2.0
- Jonathan Greenberg, Empower Illinois
9:25 AM – Panel: Election 2024 Impact on Education Policy
- Moderator: Hilary Gowins, Chicago Tribune
- Panel:
- Greg Brock, Invest In Education
- State Rep. Margaret Croke (D-Chicago)
- Juan Rangel, The Urban Center
10:15 AM – 15 Minute Break
10:30 AM – Keynote Speaker
- Derrell Bradford, 50Can
11:05 AM – Panel: Blue State School Choice
- Moderator: Jonathan Greenberg, Empower Illinois
- Panel:
- Jim Perry, Madison Dearborn Partners
- Chris Ruszkowski, South Carolina Children’s Fund
11:55 PM – Lunch
12:15 PM – Keynote Speaker:
- Robert Pondiscio, American Enterprise Institute
12:45 PM – Brainstorming Sessions
- Facilitators:
- Jen Guzman
- Peter Lipsett
- Richard Lorenc
1:00 PM – Brainstorming Session
- What are the challenges?
- Top 5 things we should be doing, starting now, to lead to school choice in 2028?
1:45 PM – 15 Minute Break
2:00 PM – Breakout Presentations
- Jen Guzman
- Peter Lipsett
- Richard Lorenc
3:05 PM – Interview
- Anthony de Nicola, Invest In Education
- Jonathan Greenberg, Empower Illinois
3:50 PM – Closing Remarks
- Jonathan Greenberg, Empower Illinois
4:00 PM – Cocktail Reception
Speakers
Derrell Bradford
50CAN
Derrell Bradford is the president of 50CAN: The 50-State Campaign for Achievement Now. In his role, Derrell leads 50CAN’s SPARK work, and trains and recruits local leaders across the country to serve as executive directors of state CANs, advocacy fellows, and citizen advocates. He also leads the National Voices fellowship which focuses on education policy, media, and political collaboration.
Derrell previously served as the executive director at New Jersey’s Better Education for Kids. At B4K Derrell worked to secure passage of the tenure reform legislation TEACH NJ. Prior to B4K, Derrell spent nine years with New Jersey’s Excellent Education for Everyone (E3) as director of communications and then executive director. While there he also served on the state’s Educator Effectiveness Task Force.
Derrell frequently contributes to education debates in print, digital, radio, and TV media. He serves on several boards dedicated to putting the needs of students and families first, including Success Academy Charter Schools, yes. every kid., the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the advisory boards of the Alliance for Catholic Education at Notre Dame and the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, the PIE Network, and was the founding board chair of EdBuild. A native of Baltimore, Derrell attended the St. Paul’s School for Boys and received a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Pennsylvania.
Greg Brock
American Federation for Children (AFC)
Greg Brock is a Senior Advisor to American Federation for Children (AFC), the organization working in partnership with Invest in Education Coalition on the advocacy effort for passage of the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA). The ECCA proposes to expand private school
choice to all 50 states through a $10 billion tax credit scholarship opportunity.
Greg has worked in the national school choice movement for over twenty years. Prior to his work at Invest in Education Coalition, Greg served from 2009-2021 as Executive Director and then CEO of American Federation for Children (AFC), the nation’s leading voice for state-level educational choice policies and programs. He also served as Executive Director of All Children Matter (ACM), a political organization devoted to electing supporters of school choice to state- level offices across the country and as Executive Director of Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP), a political committee that worked to elect school choice supporters to state-level offices in Michigan.
Before working in the school choice movement, Greg served as Executive Director of the Michigan Republican Party under then-Chairman Betsy DeVos and on the staff of Michigan Governor John Engler.
Greg is a graduate of Hillsdale College and resides in Freeport, Michigan.
State Rep. Margaret Croke
State Representative for Illinois’ 12th District
Margaret Croke has served as the State Representative for Illinois’ 12th District since 2021. Prior to being elected, Margaret served as Deputy Chief of Staff for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO). In that position, Margaret managed various special economic development projects and developed her knowledge of infrastructure capital, grant making, and workforce development.
Margaret also served on Governor JB Pritzker’s transition team and was the statewide Women’s Outreach Director for Pritzker’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign where she strategically networked with stakeholders, elected officials, community groups, and progressive organizations.
She first ran for office in 2019 to fight for women, small businesses, and the LGBTQ+ community. She’s passionate about jump-starting our economy and helping our state attract new industries. Margaret has a wealth of knowledge on Illinois’ unique issues; that’s why she’s a strong advocate for sensible gun control measures, ethics reform and transparency in government, and fair taxation. As the mother of three young children, she has become a leader in legislative issues impacting young families and is a champion for affordable childcare and maternal healthcare.
Margaret is a member of the House Democratic Moderate Caucus, Gun Violence Prevention Caucus, Green Caucus and Jewish Caucus. She is Chair of the House Financial Institutions and Licensing Committee, a member of the Gaming, Revenue & Finance, and Transportation: Vehicles & Safety committees.
Margaret is a proud University of Michigan graduate where she earned her B.A. in Political Science and Communications. An Oak Park native, she currently lives in Lincoln Park with her husband, Patrick, and three children PJ, Mary Pearl, and Hattie.
Tony de Nicola
Invest In Education
Anthony J. de Nicola is Chairman of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, a New York private investment firm, which manages over $31 billion in its various funds. Mr. de Nicola joined WCAS in 1994, he has served on the firm’s Management Committee since 2000, he was appointed President in 2007 and Chairman in 2021. Mr. de Nicola has led the firm’s investment activities in the technology industry and has been involved with some of the firm’s most successful and profitable investments. He serves on the board of directors for a number of the firm’s private and public companies. Prior to joining WCAS, Mr. de Nicola worked in the private equity group at William Blair & Company and the merger department at Goldman Sachs & Co.
Mr. de Nicola earned his BA degree from DePauw University, where he graduated summa cum laude with an economics major and a minor in computational mathematics. Mr. de Nicola also earned an MBA with distinction from the Harvard Business School.
Mr. de Nicola and his wife Christie have been married for over 35 years and are active members of the community including their extensive philanthropic work, with a focus on education, poverty relief, healthcare and supporting the Catholic church. Mr. de Nicola serves on several non-profit boards including The Hospital for Special Surgery, Invest in Education Coalition, The Inner-City Scholarship Fund and The Catholic Foundation for the Archdiocese of New York. He is also a member of the Finance Committee and the Pension Investment Committee for the Archdiocese. He is a founding board member of Brilla College Prep, a public charter school in the Bronx. Previously, he served on the Board of Trustees and the Investment Committee of DePauw University.
As parents of two Notre Dame alums, Tony and Christie have long supported the university. In 2019, the de Nicola family established the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at Notre Dame, promoting the university’s wider efforts to share the richness of the Catholic moral and intellectual tradition.
Catholic schools and scholarships have been a high priority for the de Nicola family, as a result, school choice has been a central philanthropic focus for Tony and Christie for decades. In addition to his day job, and to spending time with his wife, children and grandchildren, Tony also serves as Chairman of Invest in Education Coalition, a 501c4 organization dedicated to advancing school choice at the federal level.
Invest in Education (IIE) was co-founded by Tony de Nicola and colleagues in 2012. Invest in Education, is a policy and advocacy organization with a mission of promoting improvement in
K-12 education, increasing educational choice, and working to close gaps in educational achievement.
Tony is focused on passing the Educational Choice for Children Act, federal tax credit legislation that would expand school choice to all 50 states. This legislation was introduced by Representatives Adrian Smith (NE) and Burgess Owens (UT) and has over 150 co-sponsors. The identical Senate bill was introduced by Senators Bill Cassidy and Tim Scott and has over 30
co-sponsors.
Mr. and Mrs. de Nicola reside in Englewood, Florida, and they are parents to three adult children and four adorable grandchildren.
Hilary Gowins
Chicago Tribune Editorial Board
Hilary Gowins is a member of the Tribune Editorial Board. She began her journalism career as a reporter at the Northwest Herald, where she covered local government and wrote enterprise stories focusing on Illinois politics at the state and local level. Later, she joined the Illinois Policy Institute, where she worked for 12 years in various editorial and leadership roles. Gowins is a graduate of Kenyon College and also has a graduate degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
Jonathan Greenberg
Empower Illinois
Jonathan Greenberg is the Chief Executive Officer of Empower Illinois, where he is building a movement to ensure that every child has easy access to the school that best helps maximize their potential.
Jonathan came to Empower from the Jack Miller Family Foundation, a private family philanthropy, where he worked primarily to create a national movement for high quality, content-based civic education. He has extensive non-profit experience including as a Vice President at Illinois Policy Institute and as Midwest Political Director at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. His writing on foreign policy, civic education, and Jewish issues has been published widely.
In addition to his undergrad degree in Political Science, Jonathan has a masters degree in public administration, both from Indiana University. He was ordained a rabbi in 2006 at Hebrew Union College, the seminary of the Reform Jewish movement. He has three kids—one a senior at a public high school and two in private Jewish school.
Jim Perry
Madison Dearborn Partners
James N. Perry, Jr. is a co-founder of Madison Dearborn Partners, a private equity firm based in Chicago. He oversees MDP’s investing efforts in the telecommunications, media and technology services industries. He sits on the boards of directors of Asurion Corporation, Centennial Towers, Liquid Web, The Topps Company and Univision Communications. Jim joined MDP’s predecessor firm, First Chicago Venture Capital, in 1984.
Jim’s philanthropic interests are focused on efforts supporting education, and assisting low income and vulnerable populations. Jim is the lead investor in Sunshine Enterprises, based in Chicago’s Woodland neighborhood, which provides instruction and coaching to inner city entrepreneurs. Jim is also a director of the Lumen Christi Institute, affiliated with the University of Chicago, and is also a board member of Chicago Public Media, which operates the public radio station WBEZ.
Jim was a founding member of the School Board of the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2008 and stepped down as Chairman of the Board in November to serve as chairman of the board of Empower Illinois. He and Molly, his wife, co-chaired the Archdiocese’s capital campaign for education that has raised more than $400 million to date. Jim served as one of the first lay board members of Catholic Relief Services between 2003 and 2009 and he now serves on the CRS Foundation Board. He and Molly are actively involved with the work of Catholic Charities in Chicago.
Jim is a 1982 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and he received an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 1985. He is a member of the Board of Advisors for Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters and a member of Booth School’s Private Equity Council at the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Robert Pondiscio
American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
Robert Pondiscio is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and an affiliate of AEI’s James Q. Wilson Program in K–12 Education Studies, where he focuses on K–12 education, curriculum, teaching, school choice, and charter schooling.
Before joining AEI, Mr. Pondiscio was a policy analyst and education reform expert at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education policy think tank. He previously worked for the Core Knowledge Foundation and as an adviser and civics teacher at Democracy Prep Public Schools. Mr. Pondiscio became interested in education policy issues when he started teaching fifth grade at a struggling South Bronx public school in 2002. Before that, he worked in journalism for 20 years, including in senior positions at Time and BusinessWeek.
Mr. Pondiscio is the author of many books, including “How the Other Half Learns: Equality, Excellence, and the Battle over School Choice” (Avery, 2019), which is about Success Academy Charter Schools and was widely reviewed and praised. He is the coauthor of a bestselling series of books for young readers, including “The Ultimate On-Line Homework Helper” (HarperCollins, 1996) and “Kids On-Line” (HarperCollins, 1995). In addition, he is the author of “The Future: An Owner’s Manual” (Harper Trophy, 2000) and “Get on the Net” (HarperCollins, 1999).
Mr. Pondiscio has been extensively published in the popular press, including in The Atlantic, Education Next, the New York Daily News, and The Wall Street Journal. As a frequent speaker, he is often interviewed on radio and television to discuss education issues. His appearances include CNN, Fox News Channel, and hundreds of local TV and radio programs.
Mr. Pondiscio has an MS in elementary education from Mercy College and a BA in English from SUNY Empire State College.
Juan Rangel
The Urban Center
Juan Rangel has a 35 year history in Chicago’s non-profit and political arenas and now serves as CEO of The Urban Center, a non-profit created to give voice to Chicago’s centrist communities by taking action on a common sense agenda.
Prior to founding The Urban Center, Juan served as Senior Director of Empower Illinois, a scholarship granting organization providing opportunities for low income children to attend private and faith-based schools in Illinois. He also served as CEO of the United Neighborhood Organization (1996-2013) and founded the UNO Charter School Network (now Acero Schools) one of the largest Latino-led charter school management organizations, serving over 7500 students, 98% minority and low-income kids. Juan began his public service career in 1989 as an elected local school council member and continues to be a highly recognized leader in Chicago’s civic community.
Chris Ruszkowski
South Carolina Children’s Fund
Christopher N. Ruszkowski was recently named Chief Executive Officer of Meeting Street Schools in South Carolina, a unique network of independent and public schools of innovation that makes a twenty-year commitment to its students, from early childhood education to college scholarships.
Ruszkowski served as New Mexico’s Secretary of Education under Governor Susana Martinez (R), where the state achieved record-high graduation rates and record-low college remediation rates while increasing standards for earning a diploma. New Mexico doubled access to AP and dual-credit coursework, created new personalized learning pathways, expanded broadband access, quintupled Pre-K enrollment, strengthened the public charter sector, implemented America’s most robust teacher effectiveness system, launched a statewide teacher-leader network, and developed the nation’s top-rated State Plan under the Every Student Succeeds Act. During his time as New Mexico’s State Chief, he visited over 200 schools, all 33 counties, and all 89 school districts as part of the NM-True Straight-A Express and NM-True Excellence in Teaching tours.
He previously served for six years as Chief Talent Officer and Associate Secretary, Teacher & Leader Effectiveness, at the Delaware Department of Education. There he co-led implementation of President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top initiative under Governor Jack Markell (D), which invested over $100 Million in innovative education initiatives. His education career began teaching middle-school social studies as part of the inaugural corps of Teach For America-Miami-Dade and serving as Site Director of Miami Teaching Fellows at The New Teacher Project.
Raised in the Midwest, Ruszkowski is a first-generation American who began golf caddying at the age of 13. He ultimately logged 500+ “loops” and earned an Evans Scholarship and BA from the University of Minnesota. He wrote his senior thesis on democratization at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He holds an MA in education policy, organization, and leadership studies from Stanford University, where he is currently appointed Distinguished Policy Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Executive Director of the Hoover Education Success Initiative.
