August 29 - 

“Some of us don’t drop out—we clock out.”

That’s what Alicia told the intake counselor at 10:47 PM, badge still clipped to her Walgreens uniform, after her first shift ended and before her second one began.

She wasn’t trying to be poetic.
She was just tired.
Tired of working nights.
Tired of watching her GED dream stall out every time rent went up.
Tired of being told education had to happen on someone else’s schedule.

But that’s when she found El Amanecer—Spanish for “the dawn”—a night school designed for real life. Not teenage fantasy. Not suburban time slots.

And when I walked in, the classroom lights weren’t buzzing.
They were burning with purpose.

📉 When the Day Fails You, You Find the Night

South Phoenix has some of the highest adult dropout rates in the state.

But what’s harder to measure are the reasons:

• Workers who never had a flexible job to attend daytime classes

• Young moms locked out of school after pregnancy

• Older learners afraid they’re “too behind”

• System-impacted folks navigating parole meetings, not parent-teacher nights

When El Amanecer launched inside an old strip mall, people called it idealistic.

“Nobody’s gonna show up at 9 PM to learn algebra,” they said.

Except they did.
And they kept showing up.
Because for them, education didn’t end with the bell.
It began when the rest of the world quieted down.

🧱 Building a School That Never Sleeps

The founders were a trio of radical pragmatists:

• Reyna Chavez, a former high school dropout turned community college valedictorian

• Marcus Hill, a retired night shift manager who knew exactly how schedules kill dreams

• Dr. Nia Cole, an ed-tech leader proving asynchronous doesn’t mean impersonal

They offered:

• GED + ESL night courses

• Workforce credential programs with late-shift tutoring

• Parenting classes and diaper drives

• 24-hour virtual mental health counseling

• A literal meal cart at the door: “fuel first, test second”

Enrollment tripled in six months.
What they didn’t have? Funding to expand to five other neighborhoods that had already requested pop-up campuses.

That’s when they reached out to me.

🎩 Mr. Grant Money at Midnight

We met in the school’s staff breakroom. Someone handed me a plate of conchas and cafecito. I took one bite and knew—this place fed more than minds.

Reyna laid it out:

“We don’t need a million dollars in chrome hardware. We need childcare stipends, gas cards, laptops, and lights that don’t shut off when the grants do.”

I nodded.

“Let’s fund a school that runs on the same clock your students live by.”

🔍 The Midnight Funding Formula

We built a strategy around five principles:

• Flexibility is equity

• Food and fuel = student retention

• Community colleges are allies, not competitors

• Funding shouldn’t sleep at 5PM

• Trauma-informed ≠ tech-light

The grants we pursued:

• U.S. Department of Education’s Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA)
  ➤ For adult basic education + ESL—perfect match

• The Arizona Adult Promise Grant
  ➤ Covers tuition for adults pursuing high-demand career credentials

• Night Shift Equity Pilot (Ford Foundation)
  ➤ Quiet initiative funding night-time learning pilots for working-class adults

• Local business coalition investment, tied to regional upskilling and night-shift workforce stabilization

• “Parents Who Persist” Mini-Grant
  ➤ From a national women’s fund, covering diapers, childcare, and tutoring for single moms in GED prep
  ➤ A powerful wraparound service model

🌅 From Fluorescents to Futures

Within four months:

• $1.7M raised across six sources

• New campuses launched in Mesa and Glendale

• Childcare capacity doubled

• 200+ adults enrolled in bilingual workforce bootcamps

• 70% GED pass rate among night learners in Cohort One

Alicia?
She passed her GED.
She’s now training as a pharmacy tech—and helping other night learners prep for exams on their breaks.

Her quote now hangs at the front of the school:

“I didn’t need a miracle. I needed someone to keep the lights on when I showed up.”

🧭 Mr. Grant Money’s Rule #42:

“Fund the hours when hope’s still awake.”

Because the future isn’t always 9 to 5.
Sometimes it’s 11:30 PM, with a baby monitor in one hand and a textbook in the other.

If you’re willing to believe in learners who live outside the lines,
I’m ready to fund the schools that meet them there.

🧠 Discussion Questions

1. Why is flexible scheduling essential for adult learners, especially those balancing work, caregiving, or justice-system obligations?

2. How can education funding strategies shift to better support non-traditional learning models like night schools and modular campuses?

3. What role do wraparound services (like food, childcare, and transit support) play in retention and success for adult learners?

4. In what ways does funding night schools help not just students, but regional economies and workforce pipelines?

5. Have you ever learned outside the traditional classroom model? What helped—or hindered—your progress?