The WirED Marketer: What marketers need to know about school choice 🏫 - 2/10/26

Hey Marketing Pals!

Phew. January is over, hallelujah. And boy, was it a doozy. Thanks to everyone who sent in ideas on how to keep my feral children occupied while school was closed for over a week. You guys are the best around.

I’ll keep this intro short and sweet. But first, one last (semi desperate) plea for you to take my reader survey. I’m picking two winners for Amazon gift cards, and you’ll make my day by taking it.

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Your WirED Marketer,

—Melissa, Senior Director, Marketing at Education Week

P.S. — 📩 Did someone forward you this email? Sign up here.ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ‎⠀⠀⠀⠀

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✨ In this edition you’ll find:

• Private school choice + why this should matter to edmarketers
• Federal education funding – bills were signed, how’d it shake out?
• Webinar - The Ed Market in 2026: 7 Trends You Can’t Ignore

What’s Trending ✨ Private School Choice

Get up to speed on school choice: Here’s a 2 min. video explainer.

The Latest on Private School Choice | 3 Things You Need To Know

1. Enrollment in private school choice programs has exploded in recent years. Billions of dollars are being poured into subsidies for families in mostly red states.
2. So far 28 states have agreed to participate in private school choice programs
3. Three states are far ahead of the pack – Florida, Arizona and Ohio are pouring more money into these programs.

DO THIS 👇 Actionable advice on marketing edtech 👇

OK so you read about school choice, now you’re probably like, “Well Melissa, what do you want me to do about it?” Here are a few places to start:

• Adjust your total addressable market assumptions. In states with aggressive choice programs, district enrollment (and funding) may soften. Revisit account prioritization and forecasts, especially in FL, AZ, and OH.
• Broaden the buyer map. Private schools are becoming more influential buyers. Make sure your messaging and targeting doesn’t just focus on public districts.
• Think about public school branding needs. District leaders under enrollment pressure care deeply about retention, differentiation, and outcomes. Position your product as a tool to help districts compete, not just operate.
• Coach your sales reps on the policy context. Reps don’t need to be policy experts, but they do need to sound informed and empathetic when choice comes up in conversations.
• There’s more where that came from. Tomorrow’s (members only) EdWeek Market Brief quarterly briefing webinar will cover opportunities in the expansion of private school choice. Read on to learn more. 👇

Events on our Radar 🎯

[Webinar] The Education Market in 2026: 7 Trends You Can’t Ignore – Carve out an hour tomorrow at 2:00 PM ET to learn about:

• District purchasing demands amid tightening budgets
• Opportunities in the expansion of private school choice 
• Factors impacting increased competition for K-12 dollars

This webinar is for EdWeek Market Brief members only. Register here.

[In Person] Want to understand where the K-12 market is headed before everyone else does, go ahead and buy your ticket now for the upcoming November 2026 Market Brief Summit.

This event brings data, district leaders, your peers, and the real talk, plus a little Music City magic – it’s taking place in Nashville this year. So, grab those cowboy boots and saddle up, EdMarketers, hope to see you there! 👢

POLL 📊

Last edition we asked people what they’d rather have, an unlimited budget for one channel or a modest budget across most channels. The response? 53% of people said they’d want a modest budget across most channels while 47% said unlimited budget for one.

My 2 cents: diversify your channels – don’t rely on a single one. Change happens too quickly these days with all things digital. Relying on one, even a really strong one, feels risky to me.

This edition’s poll:
We’re talking lead gen campaigns. Would you rather have:

What We’re Reading 📚

[Article – 2 min read] Congress Has Passed an Education Budget. See How Key Programs Are Affected by Mark Lieberman

A few key takeaways:

• Federal education funding didn’t get slashed, but I wouldn’t expect money to come out of the woodwork now, like the ESSER days.
• The good news? Districts now have budget certainty, which means buying conversations can move forward… but under a microscope.
• District Leaders will be scrutinizing ROI harder than ever, prioritizing tools tied to compliance (Title I, IDEA, etc.) staff capacity, and impact.

Quick funding cheat sheet 👇

• Title I – unchanged ($18.4B)
• IDEA (special education) – unchanged ($15.5B)
• Head Start – slightly up (from $12.3 to $12.4B)
• Title II (PD) – unchanged ($2.2B)

Read the full article here.

Meet An EdMarketer👋

Valerie Saba Wettlaufer, Regional Manager

OK, fine, she’s in sales, but she works with edmarketers every day. My colleague, Valerie Saba Wettlaufer is a regional manager on the Marketing Solutions team. She’s a huge music lover and a classically trained opera singer whose first job was singing in Italian at her local Macaroni Grill. Nowadays, she performs with several different community groups across the Raleigh-Durham (Triangle) area.

Here’s what she had to say 👇

What’s keeping you up at night? 
“In the current climate, there are what feels like too many up at night challenges and too little time--continued academic declines in core curricular subject areas like reading and math, increased funding and budget pressures, student and educator mental health & well-being, teacher shortages, tech equity, and that’s only scratching the surface.

As a K-12 company, if you demonstrate an in-depth understanding of these constraints and lead with practical guidance for how your solution fits into this complex reality, you’re immediately differentiating yourself from the masses.”

What’s a trend in K-12 marketing you wish would go away?
“Broad-sweeping claims that speak little to actual impact, e.g. “Our product is trusted by X Million Students and used in Y Thousand Schools”. Most K-12 companies make some form of this statement, and all might sound like an impressive scale of product usage on paper.

District leaders care more about learning from districts like theirs than total reach. What’s reassuring is the ever-increasing focus that edmarketers are placing on peer validation, sharing relevant messaging based on similar district size, state, demographics, or funding model.”

What’s a trend in K-12 marketing that you love?
“Two things.

1. Role-specific storytelling for buyers and influencers—K-12 purchases are committee-driven, and marketing should truly reflect that.
2. Leveraging Generative AI as a starting point for our work, including more efficiently personalizing campaigns, and gathering data-driven insights.  For example, with GenAI I’m able to take what you might call “one size fits all messaging” and add nuance specific to roles. For example, “take this messaging written for an elementary school principal and rewrite it so that it speaks to the pain points of a superintendent." 

Say What?! 🦜

What we’ve heard at the watercooler, on social, out and about…

In a recent survey I asked readers of The WirED Marketer to tell me why they recommended the newsletter, a reader said, “I recommended it to our Sales team because it contains amazing insights for them.”

Marketing Pals – take this reader’s advice and share this newsletter with your sales teams! While it’s written for marketers, our pals in sales can definitely learn a thing or two. They can sign up here.

That’s all folks. Thanks for reading. See you again in 2 weeks.

Your WirED Marketer,
Melissa AND team, because every marketer knows, it takes a village.

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