I'm trying to beat my post-election blues by getting involved in some different kinds of activism. As a teacher who plans on running for office in 2006 or 2008, it seemed natural to get involved with our union's legislative committee.
Our union (in Florida), it seems, is relatively weak and powerless. We have fewer than half our teachers as members. Dues are $500 a year. Anyway, the government relations committee exists on paper only, and has been defunct or only nominally active for several years.
Since a) I care about the issues and b) I need the Florida Education Association to support me when I throw my hat in the ring, I want to do a bang-up job with this.
So I need your help and suggestions!
I'm told a neighboring county has a pretty active legislative committee, and that they maintain some contact with one or two of our legislators. Yet there are at least two state representatives and two state senators (all Republicans) who are receiving no pressure from teachers in my county. We also have an all-Republican school board and an all-Republican county commission, each struggling to reconcile our status as a high-growth, low income county with their obligation to ensure the delivery of educational services to our students.
Here are a few of the things I'm hoping to get off the ground:
- Organization. I need a small core group of volunteers willing to work closely with me and reach out to the rest of our members for support. I would assume the committee should meet monthly or every other month, and more frequently before and during the legislative session (spring).
- Communication. We need to effectively let all our members know what the issues are, and give them as many ways to easily communicate their concerns to the appropriate officials.
- Public relations. Without outright demonizing officials when they vote against our positions, we need to put them on record in the most widely public ways possible. In particular, I want a constant stream of LTEs.
- Government relations. We need to be meeting periodically with all stakeholders, but particularly with the elected officials we seek to influence. Maybe we can change hearts and minds if persuasive face-to-face meetings are accompanied by gentle but steady public pressure.
What am I missing? What would you do? I already have people from the state association willing to help me get off the ground. But unfortunately, my passion and energy in this area vastly exceed my experience.
Full disclosure: I plan on running for the legislature, probably in 2006. So naturally, I want my work on these issues to bolster my own credibility as a spokesperson for educational policy, especially among other teachers if not among the community at large.
Further disclosure: I am not an uncritical NEA disciple. I hope I never become a slave to ideology, and I will never be an apologist for bad schools and bad teachers. I have read the so-called conservative educational reformers, and I find some of their ideas commendable. In my view, pragmatism trumps ideological rigidity in this regard. Education is that important to me. Yet I am unconditionally committed to workers' right to organize and bargain collectively, and I proudly stand in the tradition of progressive education policy.