Advocacy Angle: Federal Advocacy Conference and the Power of Storytelling
By Kristin FitzgeraldThis past September, 17 IASB school board members traveled to Washington, D.C. for the COSSBA Federal Advocacy Conference.
With IASB guidance, school board members worked hard to capture the data and stories of the students in their district even before arriving in D.C. After a day of briefings from Congressional staff and other speakers such as journalist Bob Woodward, IASB provided an additional workshop led by an executive speaking coach on how to tell the stories of their students and the importance of the federal funding that helps to make them successful.
Our school board advocates then went to Capitol Hill to meet with 13 of their Illinois Representatives and both Senator Dick Durbin and Senator Tammy Duckworth.
Just as they arrived, the news that the recent National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) scores were the lowest ever recorded was announced. This news was a somber reminder of the importance of our message. In meeting after meeting, IASB was met with support for the messages that our school board members carried with them to Washington, D.C. Congressional Members and staff from both parties expressed deep gratitude for our school board members’ work and shared passion for our students.
At our final meeting, Illinois school board advocates sat in the storied office of Lyndon B. Johnson in the U.S. Capitol. U.S. Senator Dick Durbin regaled them with the history of our meeting place and the man who had occupied this very office. After listening to the group share the stories of the students in their districts, he gave them a word of advice, saying that the very best meetings he attends begin with these words, “Let me tell you a story…”
And so, with those words of advice, let me tell you a story.
The story begins with a girl. The girl loves to read. She reads all the time. At her elementary school she is only allowed to check out two books per week. Her mom goes to school and fights that rule and soon she can check out as many books as she wants. The girl learns a lesson about the power of advocacy. She keeps reading. Her favorite class is political science because it ignites in her a passion about the power of public policy to change the things that aren’t working. She goes off to college to study policy. She is hired as a Congressional staffer. She works to strengthen the very public schools she attended.
Some time passes and the young woman becomes a mom. Her daughters love reading just like she did. And just like her mom before her, she fights for those girls. As she knew it would, education ignites their passions and gives them a world of promise.
The woman, not so young now, knows that not every student in her daughters’ classrooms loves to read. Not every student has a mom who is able to fight. Not every student’s passion is ignited. Not every student gains a world of promise.
So that woman runs for school board. She runs for those students, so that she can fight for them. She doesn’t know them, but she knows their data. She knows how many of them are succeeding and it isn’t enough.
Then the woman meets those students. She meets their moms. She hears their stories. She sees the heaviness of the loads they are carrying. She sees how hard their schools are working to help them. They aren’t data; they are friends. She works with all her heart to help her friends be successful, but it isn’t enough.
The woman goes back to Washington. She tells the stories of her friends. She tells their data. She tells how hard their school boards, administrators, teachers, support staff, and communities are working to help her friends. She knows that public policy’s promise isn’t being realized by her friends. So, she keeps working. She recruits more people to tell the stories of the students in their classrooms. More students are successful, but it isn’t enough.
How will this story end? If you haven’t guessed by now, this is my story. This is the reason I ran for school board and the reason I came to IASB. I am grateful for my mom who taught me to fight. Because in that fight an advocate was born, one who knew in her heart her passion to fight for those who need a champion.
What is your advocacy story? What drives your passion for students? Regardless of your story, it is likely the main character is the same: students.
In this tumultuous and divided time, our advocacy must surmount divisive efforts that aren’t the main character for this simple reason: Far too many of our students are missing the ending of a world of promise. As our IASB school board advocates can attest, commonality exists when we work to build understanding of the ways in which we are working toward the shared goal of student success. Despite the polarized time, we must continue to advocate because our students’ very lives depend on it. The power of advocacy is that it changes the ending of our students’ stories. With almost a direct relationship, Students + Advocacy = Greater Success.
Don’t miss your chance to change the future for our nation’s students.
Kristin Fitzgerald is Senior Director of Governmental Relations for the Illinois Association of School Boards. Readers are invited to join IASB in our advocacy efforts. The Advocacy Ambassadors Kick-Off for the coming year is December 10.