Legislative advocacy requires consideration of important questions: How can a local school board member affect the creation of legislative policies? Once enacted, such policies become the laws that change the lives of students in classrooms throughout the school district, state, or nation. Is it practical to think that one school board member -- or even a handful of board members -- can have an impact on, and even change, such policies?
Margaret Mead once said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Before we are school board members, before we are even voters, we are citizens. It is that role that both gives us the right to advocate -- and places the imperative to advocate -- upon us. If we want a better world for our own constituents, and ourselves, we must take an active part in the legislative advocacy that affects our education system, and ultimately, our way of life.
Once we recognize the necessity for legislative advocacy, we can take the following constructive steps to make legislators aware of education issues:
• Build relationships with legislators. While this takes time and perseverance, it is well worth the effort. School board members have a unique role when it comes to lawmakers. Because school board members usually are elected officials, they represent thousands of constituents in the legislator’s home district, and they are voters, too.
It is simple actions, such as writing, e-mailing, and making phone calls, that will build this relationship. After a legislator receives several such contacts from one school board member, the legislator and his or her staff members begin to recognize the name and take notice when future contacts are made.
After the initial contact, consider inviting the legislator to be a guest or a speaker at a meeting, or better yet, to address a classroom of students.
The most effective type of contact is a direct face-to-face meeting. Go to the legislator’s office in the state capital, or if the lawmaker is a member of Congress, to his or her office in Washington, D.C.
Take part in legislative conferences that not only provide advocacy training, but also organize a “day at the Capitol,” in which these types of meetings are organized.
However, even without taking part in this type of event, you can easily arrange your own visit. All you have to do is call the legislator’s scheduling secretary, introduce yourself, and ask for an appointment with the legislator to discuss education issues that affect your shared constituents.
• Work with all political leaders, regardless of party. When the time comes to meet with legislators, don’t simply meet with those who belong to the same political party. It is critical to build working relationships with lawmakers from all parties. With such issues as education, that type of bipartisan activism is more likely to occur -- and is more necessary.
Remind the legislators with whom you build relationships, as well as your fellow school board members back home, that education is, and always will be, a bipartisan issue. Simply stated, education touches everyone’s life.
• Encourage the grassroots efforts of your constituents. Embrace the advocacy efforts of your own constituents when they contact you by listening and giving them feedback. And, when appropriate, direct those inquiries to state and federal legislators. When parents express concern over state funding for their local school district, for example, help them connect with the appropriate state legislators.
Hearing from school board members alone on the issue of education is not enough. For legislators to rank education as one of their top priorities, they need to hear consistently from as many voters as possible that education is our top priority.
While you are making regular contacts with legislators, remember to encourage the people you represent to also contact lawmakers through phone calls, letters, and visits.
Nothing is more powerful than a contact from a person directly affected, such as a parent, or better yet, a student, who can speak directly about a policy’s impact on local schools. Concrete examples, such as outdated textbooks due to inadequate funding, the withdrawal of Medicaid reimbursements for disabled students, or the lack of school security personnel, help get the message across.
In this country, speaking out and advocating for our beliefs is not only a right, it is a gift.
We should show our respect for that right and our gratitude for that gift by taking an active part in our democratic institutions and the creation of our education policies. In so doing, we will change the world of public education for children.
Loretta Haugh is a member of the Akron, Ohio, board of education, and is a member of NSBA’s Federal Relations Network.