Jason Willis

Overview

Jason Willis is a recognized national expert in American public finance and policy issues, with a focus on school funding formulas; system support and accountability levers; and integrated care change strategies in education, health, and social services.

Willis believes deeply in making the child, adult, and family the central focus of how public-serving systems deliver high-quality and equitable support. This means leveraging the collective resources across and within governmental and nongovernmental organizations. Fully recognizing that this is not the “well-worn path” in how public systems operate, his recent writing, research, and work with systems have aimed to carve a new path for how systems are financed and serve the public good.

Willis has worked with over two dozen states as well as national education organizations and commissions on the formation of funding and accountability systems. Many of these states, including North Carolina, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Kansas, and Maryland, have adopted transformative school funding policies allocating billions of additional resources to support public education in a quality-focused and equitable manner. He has also advised the National Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislators, and the National Equity and Excellence Commission on issues of school funding and accountability. Willis also sat on the Technical Working Group advising the first national study on the impact of weighted student funding systems.

Previously, Willis was the Assistant Superintendent of Community Engagement & Accountability for the San Jose Unified School District, where he managed the implementation of its 5-year strategic plan. Prior to San Jose, he was the Chief Financial Officer at Stockton Unified School District and Budget Director at Oakland Unified School District.

Willis is also a Clinical Professor of Public Policy at the McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific, where he teaches courses on systemic change, societal capacity, and public finance innovations. He also lectures at the Yale School of Management on education finance, politics, and management topics.

Education

• Certification, Chief Business Official, California Association of School Business Officials
• Certificate in Urban School Leadership, The Broad Residency, Yale School of Management
• MA in education policy and finance, Teachers College, Columbia University
• BA in education studies and psychology, The Catholic University of America

Select Publications

Breaking Barriers. (2023, February). California’s children & youth behavioral health ecosystem [Working paper]. California Health & Human Services Agency.  

Willis, J., Diaz, J., & Richman, P. (2021–22). Budgeting for Educational Equity Podcast. WestEd and California Association of School Business Officials.  

Doutre, S. M., Willis, J., Krausen, K., Barrett, T., Ripma, T., & Caparas, R. (2021, July). California special education funding system study, part 2: Findings and considerations for changes to special education funding in California. WestEd.  

Willis, J., Jacobson, A., Ennis, J., Silverstein, J., Brown, A., & Fermanich, M. (2020, January). Utah education funding study. WestEd and Augenblick, Palaich and Associates.  

Willis, J., Krausen, K., Berg Jacobson, A., Taylor, T., Caparas, R., Lewis, R., & Jaquet, K. (2019, April). A study of cost adequacy, distribution, and alignment of funding for North Carolina’s K–12 public education system. WestEd.  

Willis, J. (2017, September). Public financing equity and excellence in schooling. Haas School of Business, University of California–Berkeley.  

Hough, H., Willis, J., Grunow, A., Krausen, K., Kwon, S., Mulfinger, L., & Park, S. (2017, November). Continuous improvement in practice [Report]. Policy Analysis for California Education.  

Honors, Awards, and Affiliations

Sustainability Financing Advisor. Oakland Thrives Regional Collective. Oakland, CA. 2022–Present.

Finance Chair and Board Member. Alder Graduate School of Education. Palo Alto, CA. 2017–Present.

Recent Media Appearances

• Willis, J. (in press). Attention to trends in enrollment, improving service coordination could increase the effectiveness of California’s K–12 funding formula. EdSource.  
• Schiess, J., & Willis, J. (2022, May 2). Schiess & Willis: Lesson from Pennsylvania School Funding Lawsuit–the Amount of Money Matters, But So Does How It is Used. The 74. 
• Jones, C. (2021, July 30). Special education funding should be more streamlined, report finds.