On the Ground and Pushing for Change: Grassroots Organizing

Grassroots organizers pushing for quality education led three separate sessions at the Seventh Annual Quality Education Conference, held June 7-8, 2007 in Washington, D.C., focusing on initiatives to close achievement gaps, successful collaboration strategies, and the national “Give Kids Good Schools” campaign.

Learn, Vote, Act to “Give Kids Good Schools”

Amanda Broun, from the Public Education Network (PEN), explained her organization’s national campaign, Give Kids Good Schools. Through its numerous local education foundations (LEFs) in 33 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, PEN works to promote public demand and mobilize resources for quality education in low-income communities. Give Kids Good Schools builds upon decades of public engagement campaigns conducted by various LEFs.

In planning the campaign, PEN organized focus groups in states across the country to find out what people think about public education, what more should be done, and who should be held accountable. Participants said they think all children have a right to a quality public education and that many children are not getting one. Education is a community endeavor, participants said, not limited to parents and teachers. In addition, in 2006 PEN polled registered voters and found that public education was of paramount importance to them, matched only by the war in Iraq.

PEN used what it learned to develop a call to action: “learn, vote, act.” First, citizens should learn what they can do to demand quality public schools. Then, they should vote in support of quality public education. Finally, they should act by demanding change in weak schools by participating in Give Kids Good Schools activities. The Give Kids Good Schools website provides questions to ask teachers and school board members and many other ideas.

Melissa Milios, from the Houston A+ Challenge LEF, recounted how her organization has worked with the public to improve education in its communities based on the “Give Kids” call to action. Houston A+ Challenge, a non-profit public-private partnership, has invested more than $100 million in Houston area schools in the past decade, working with school districts to build professional networks and develop school leaders who improve classroom instruction and student achievement. Milios explained how A+ built a strong public awareness and voter initiative that included all three elements: “learn, vote, act.”

Discussion at the session also covered how schools could best utilize limited resources, such as smaller classes, better buildings, pre-kindergarten, and libraries and technology. There was agreement that data is crucial for decisions on how to allocate money, and all agreed that substantial additional investment is neededto provide a basic education.

Closing Achievement Gaps in Arkansas, North Carolina, and Florida

A session on Organizing for Success: Closing the Achievement Gap Initiatives featured an impressive panel of grassroots organizers, including Bill Kopsky, Executive Director of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel and Citizen's First Congress. Both organizations work statewide, mostly in rural areas, on a broad range of issues, including civil rights and education. According to Kopsy, advocates face a number of barriers in closing the achievement gap in his state. First, the latest state supreme court decision that ruled the legislature has fulfilled a mandate for adequate school funding has removed pressure on politicians to seriously address the need for more equity in the system. Second, closing the achievement gap means dealing with the barriers and tensions of race and poverty. Finally, efforts to involve the public have been met with loud protests from those in power, who claim, ironically, that the public lacks the education to offer informed input.

The Panel commissioned research on the state of learning in Arkansas as a means of educating and engaging communities, particularly rural communities. The results – just recently released – show a three-to-one gap in literacy and a four-to-one gap in mathematics proficiency between white and non-white students.

The public has called for a more holistic approach to education, focusing on communities and the factors that affect a child before age three. Among their groups’ most recent achievements are campaigns to complete the phasing in of free high quality pre-school for all low-income children and another that led to the successful passage of a law to allow communities to gain possession of closed school buildings and convert them into community centers.

Angella Dunston, of the North Carolina Education and Law Project at the North Carolina Justice Center talked about the steadily increasing at-risk student population in North Carolina, including a large influx of immigrants. A recent lawsuit has guaranteed all students in the state a sound basic education and essential resources, but many schools have yet to see fulfillment of these promises.

In 2000, the Project released “Exposing the Gap in North Carolina Schools,” to force the issue on policy makers and into the public debate arena. Since the release of the first report, the state’s education department has included a section in its annual report dealing with the progress made to close the achievement gap.

The Project collaborates with community-based organizations to engage communities in overcoming the achievement gap and on other issues. The Project runs a community organizing training program, which has 200 graduates. These 200 organizers meet quarterly to strategize next steps and develop activities.

The work of Gypsy Gallardo, Close the Gap Campaign Director for the Concerned Organizations for Quality Education for Black Students (COQEBS), in St. Petersberg, Florida is at its early stages. In February 2007, her campaign launched a major outreach and education initiative, meeting with church and organizational leaders as well as the general public, to make them aware of the magnitude of the achievement gap and the problems with local schools and to call them to collective action. Through a PowerPoint presentation and flyers, COQEBS exposed social issues such as the county graduation rate for black boys – less than one in four – and the county’s juvenile arrest rate – the highest in the state.

The work of the Concerned Organizations for Quality Education for Black Students has just begun, but it is working to support pending litigation and force decision makers to acknowledge that the current system is failing black children in the community.

Statewide Collaborations

A session on Statewide Collaborations, moderated by Sandra Zelno of the Pennsylvania School Reform Network, who kicked off the discussion by calling for improved public engagement strategies, which she said are critical to success.

Lavina Grandon, founder and Executive Director of Advocates for Community and Rural Education, described events since the plaintiffs’ victory in the state’s school funding lawsuit. The governor touted “efficiency” as a way to reduce education costs, resulting in a policy shift toward school district consolidation. In response, organizers quickly coordinated a statewide resistance strategy, sending materials to 200 districts providing information on research demonstrating the problems with consolidation, as well as describing the actions they could take. This led directly to a statewide rally that was instrumental in blocking legislative proposals for consolidation. The legislature, however, did end up including consolidation of the smallest school districts in the operational and facilities funding reform they passed.

Janis Risch, of the Pennsylvania Collaboration, which consists of Good Schools Pennsylvania, the Education Law Center, and the Education Policy & Leadership Center, spoke about organizing to influence the political process. Pennsylvania, which has not had a funding formula in effect since 1991, relies heavily on local property taxes for school funding. This has led to an $11,000 gap in per pupil spending between the richest and poorest districts. After many disappointments in litigation, policy, and advocacy, the Pennsylvania Collaboration came together to work collaboratively on education advocacy, and it succeeded in having the state fund an education cost study.

Debbie Phillips, Executive Director of the Ohio Fair Schools Campaign, talked about collaborations in Ohio, where additional funding has been provided for facilities, but not for operations. Ohio has the benefit of a new governor who is committed to providing additional education funding, but organizers still need to build public pressure to get a more resistant legislature to follow him. At the same time, Phillips labeled the state’s charter school system “out of control,” saying that many groups in Ohio are more interested in privatization and vouchers than in fixing public schools.

The Fair Schools Campaign has worked to help parents understand what is going on in the state and to direct their anger toward productive purposes. The group has engaged in advocacy as well as academic and policy research, while working with organizers and litigators. The group has taken a pragmatic approach to dealing with the legislature, focusing on “winnable issues.” This effort has been supported by a coordinated “witness” strategy of youth organizing, which brings rural and urban students together to testify to their experiences in the state’s schools.

The discussion following the presentations focused on successful collaboration strategies. Arkansas organizers found that directly calling and lobbing elected officials, including legislators, was an effective strategy.

Pennsylvania organizers learned the value of consensus in bringing people together. When Good Schools Pennsylvania did not enjoy immediate complete success, it established political alliances and mobilized to call for a costing-out study. Pennsylvania organizers also sought to establish links between legislators who were amenable to reforming school funding, and targeted legislators who were considered “ripe” in terms of possible support for the cause. At the local level, organizers found that mayors could be mobilized around the related issue of property taxes.

In Ohio, advocates organized targeted campaigns in districts with Republican legislators where the new Democratic governor had done well in the election. Ms. Phillips explained that in addition to working with incumbent legislators, it i necessary to work with challengers.

Session participants also pointed out challenges, including funders’ impatience with the slow pace of progress inherent in these collaborative efforts.