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School leaders can help lawmakers create better education legislation by keeping them informed of current challenges and offering pragmatic solutions.
It’s no secret to educators that students are not meeting literacy benchmarks. A recent report on reading performance from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) found that 63 percent of students in 4th grade are reading at a “basic” or “below basic” level.
As the legislative outreach director for a non-profit organization focused on preventing summer reading losses, I frequently talk with policymakers. The good news is that everyone—legislators, governors, educators, and families—understands the gravity of the situation and wants to improve it. Unfortunately, when it comes time to allocate money to help address the problem, literacy becomes just one more challenge among many in need of funding.
To make sure literacy initiatives are in the best position to get the resources they need, educators and their allies must position themselves as constructive partners to policymakers. As a former teacher with 23 years in the classroom myself, I understand that educating young students leaves little time for legislative advocacy. But there is still room for educators to make their voices heard and get their students’ needs met by lending policymakers their expertise, making use of the organizations devoted to supporting education, and treating lawmakers as allies.
Setting the Tone
The first thing educators can do to positively affect education policy may not be the most practical from a nuts-and-bolts perspective. It’s not going to bring money into the budget today, but it must inform everything else we do to work with lawmakers. To effect legislative change, educators must support legislators.