In June 2022, the Education Commission of the States announced California as the winner of the 2022 Frank Newman Award for State Innovation, the preeminent education policy award in the nation, in recognition of California's improvements in educating all students and closing equity gaps. California received this award for "its coordinated approach to educating all students from preschool to postsecondary, with explicit attention toward whole-child supports and services, as well as its historic financial investments to ensure educational equity."

UNITE-LA is proud of our contributions to this award. In 2018, UNITE-LA released its first Cradle-to-Career White Paper that laid out specific recommendations on ways to transform and strengthen California's cradle to career educational system. Recommendations included providing affordable childcare and preschool for all (Now: estimated to serve nearly 400,000 new four year olds); Recruiting new teachers and retain existing educators (Now: multi-billion dollar investments in the Golden State Teacher grants), Close Higher Education Attainment Gaps and Improve Outcomes for Underserved (Now: Developed an initial implementation funding for a roadmap for Higher Education aimed at ensuring that opportunity for success and economic mobility is equitable and available to all). UNITE-LA developed its 2022 Cradle-to-Career White Paper and looks forward to continuing to contribute to meaningful policy and system change for California's cradle to career education spectrum.