School Beat: Take Action

by Lisa Schiff, 2005-02-16

People in the education community are mobilizing. Around the Bay, the state, and the country, individuals and organizations are coming together to ask questions, learn from each other and make plans. These actions and events range from traditional letter writing campaigns to conferences with intensive trainings and campaign development.

Writing letters to elected officials is both easy and hard. It's a small step that requires such relatively little effort, we should all be sending a constant stream of commentary to our various representatives. And yet, precisely because it is a small, individualized effort, letter writing sometimes feels ineffectual, and this is what makes it hard.

But despite this, we know that letters are read and counted and can sway opinions. And so, because it is the very least we can do, we must pick up our pens. Several organizations are promoting large letter writing campaigns this week and next
The California PTA is hosting a day of action on Thursday, February 17th, and is urging PTA members to call and write the governor about his cuts to the education budget and his raid on the Proposition 98 funds. Everyone should join in on this, member or not. The PTA has done excellent advance work researching talking points and drafting out sample letters. You can download their advocacy packet and join the PTA at the same time to support their work on lobbying the Governor. http://www.capta.org/sections/advocacy/downloads/PTAStateBudgetAdvocacyPacket.pdf
Letter writing campaigns are occurring nationally too. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is sponsoring a letter writing campaign in response to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation. NCTE is asking people to write their governors and congress people by February 25th and has a sample letter that focuses on the expansion of mandatory testing at the high school level. In addition, they are asking letter writers to include a copy of a proposal for significant changes to NCLB. This document has been signed on to by more than 40 national organizations concerned with education, from the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund to FairTest The National Center for Fair & Open Testing. http://www.ncte.org/about/issues/slate/119595.htm
After writing letters, it's time to hook up with other folks ready to make some changes.

Starting locally, the Bay Area Parent Leadership Action Network is sponsoring "A Call to Action for Parent Leaders," on Saturday March 5th, 9-12:30pm in Oakland. Parents from around the Bay Area will be coming together to learn about the potential impacts of the Governor's budget, get educated on how the state budget process works, find out what different parent organizations are doing in response, and discover ways to get involved in challenging these cuts. The event will be held at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685-14th St. (3 blocks from 12th Street, City Center BART). For more information, call Melia Franklin, Bay Area Parent Leadership Action Network, 510-531-7526, email melia@parentactionnet.org.

Moving to statewide events, Californians for Justice, a statewide organization focusing on issues of racial justice, has an ongoing campaign for improving public education. On March 12th, they will be hosting a "Campaign for Quality Education Summit" in Los Angeles, with workshops covering topics from school funding reform, to equitable access to resources and safe buildings, to the issue of kids "disappearing" and dropping out. The sessions will culminate in an overarching planning session to develop strategies that can be taken away. The agenda and registration for the conference are on the Californians for Justice website http://www.caljustice.org, where you can also find out about their other important work, such as their campaign concerning the high school exit exam.

At the national level, the National Coalition of Education Activists (NCEA) will be hosting a national conference in late July in Philadelphia. NCEA is working to improve public education by helping education activists (parents, students, teachers and community members) address issues of social inequity as they occur in the realm of public education. At this point, the conference agenda is not set, which provides an excellent opportunity to propose workshops on the issues we feel are most pressing to connect on. Check out the NCEA website http://www.nceaonline.org/conference.htm to propose a workshop and (starting in March) to register for the conference.

No doubt there are more events happening locally, statewide and nationally. If you know of something going on, spread the word. If you don't see a way to jump in that you are comfortable with, create one and publicize it, because there are surely other folks who share your sentiments and inclinations.

Once you have written a letter or attended a conference, tell other folks. Share your accomplishments, small and large. Share not only what you've written and learned, but the energy that moved you to write and learn it. We can keep each other motivated. We can inspire each other to act. That is how this change is going come about.

Lisa Schiff is the parent of two children who attend McKinley Elementary School in the San Francisco Unified School District and the president of the board of directors of Parents for Public Schools of San Francisco (PPS-SF).