Legislative Action: ‘Today is just the first step,’ Billy says
Conference fuses local, statewide advocacy
Published: May 17, 2011
Changes this year rejuvenated CSBA’s Legislative Action Conference in Sacramento May 15-16, much the way an innovative “buycott” replaced the familiar boycott strategy for community activism in the Pasadena Unified School District.
Ed Honowitz, vice president of the Pasadena Unified board and a member of CSBA’s Delegate Assembly from Region 23, shared the buycott strategy with nearly 200 other governance team members and friends of education during a panel discussion of grassroots advocacy strategies at this year’s conference. Presented in collaboration with the California County Boards of Education, Legislative Action included budget, policy and strategy briefings from CSBA’s leadership, insights from guest speakers and a day of lobbying in the state Capitol.
Legislative Action talking points- School funding was cut $20 billion between the 2008-09 state budget and Gov. Jerry Brown’s initial 2011-12 budget proposal
- Further cuts cannot be tolerated
- The only way to avoid further cuts is to retain current tax temporary rates
- Revenues must be extended at least for one year
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In his presentation, Honowitz told the conference how a $120 parcel tax proposal for Pasadena Unified schools fell short of the necessary two-thirds majority last year, in large part due to opposition from Pasadena’s chamber of commerce. District supporters wanted to boycott the businesses they held responsible, but a more constructive alternative emerged from community discussions: “Buy In PUSD”—a proclaimed buycott complete with window stickers and an online directory recognizing businesses that contribute at least $150 in support of the district’s schools.
Other speakers on the panel—Region 9 Delegate Tami Gunther of the Atascadero Unified School District, Region 16 Delegate Caryn Payzant of the Alta Loma Elementary School District, and Region 8 Director Sherri Reusche of the Calaveras Unified School District—told of effective advocacy efforts in their communities, such as:
- submitting an education commentary that was prominently featured in the local newspaper
- inviting a legislator to an education forum, leading to a constructive and continuing dialogue
- reaching out to charter schools as well as neighboring school boards, superintendents and county offices of education on areas of common interest
Such grassroots efforts were a major theme of the conference, as was integrating local, regional and statewide advocacy in support of public education at all levels.
“It’s a response to the changing political environment we are facing,” CSBA Executive Director Vernon M. Billy said in his welcoming remarks. The target for strategic advocacy efforts “is not just the legislators,” he explained, “it’s the broader public.”
“The work that starts today is just the first step,” Billy continued, as CSBA refines its statewide and regional organizing and advocacy materials, its policy analysis and other services to help local school board members be more effective in their governance responsibilities and their communities. Beginning in 2012, the Legislative Action Conference’s once-a-year format will give way to smaller but more frequent and targeted advocacy efforts that bring school governance teams from regions around the state to Sacramento, and that support lobbying efforts in the state capital with contacts in legislators’ home districts.
Fluor to legislators: ‘Do your job’
CSBA Assistant Executive Director for Governmental Relations Rick Pratt briefed conference goers on the state budget crisis and strategies for improving the funding prospects for schools. Speaking less than 24 hours before Gov. Jerry Brown released the May Revision to his January budget proposal, Pratt detailed the fiscal and political decisions behind more than $20 billion in past and proposed K-12 budget cuts, which have severely constrained public schools in their mission to prepare California’s children for college and careers.
Pratt urged his listeners to tell legislators—and their own communities—how those cuts have affected the children served by public schools.
“What are the stories behind those cuts?” Pratt asked. “What are the consequences?” Citing a modest decline that was recently reported in English learners’ performance on the California English Language Development Test results, Pratt said, “This is what happens when we begin disinvesting in education.”
After three years of steady growth in CELDT results, the decline shows that “There comes a time when that momentum is lost. … You can’t do more with less,” Pratt said. Inevitably, “you begin doing less with less.”
CSBA President Martha Fluor was blunt in the message she said legislators should hear: “Do your job. Get the revenues” that are needed to at least sustain schools at their current funding levels, Fluor urged conference goers to tell their representatives in Sacramento. “Get the votes” needed to fund schools at the levels children deserve.
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