How Cumulative Efforts Pay Off.

What an incredible ride education funding experienced during the past two years!

First came the massive turnover of both chambers of Congress to the Republican Party, a quake-like experience unprecedented since the Truman administration. Then the new leadership--spearheaded by 9th-term, former backbencher Newt Gingrich--sought to devastate education funding by more than $3 billion, an overall 33 percentjolt.

The new leadership wanted to cripple Title I, do away with the Education Department, and give only token support to special education. In the end, the Senate, led at that time by the steady hand of Sen. Robert Dole, D-Kan., persuaded the lurching House to back off. Education was saved in that the department was not abolished and most major programs were frozen at their spending levels for the prior fiscal year. Education went from being cursed as a pariah for brainwashing young minds into legislative limbo. No pluses, some minuses, and a seemingly endless wait for final approval of our line item in the budget.

Turnaround Signs

But during that political handball game where spending bills bounced between an aggressive Congress and presidential vetoes, we began to hear the word "education" raised. The president cited education, environment, and poor children as his leading excuses for vetoing the funding bills that kept the federal government shuttered last winter.

Cynics will point to his signing of the welfare reform bill as the president's genuine lack of concern for poor children, but, cynicism or not, he stuck with education, even though we only won a freeze. Some victory.

Then, in 1996, we started out again in limbo. From the House of Representatives came a freeze. From the Senate Appropriations Committee, another freeze. Then our bill, the Labor/Health and Human Services/Education Appropriation for FY 1997, was slated for Senate floor action. You, your colleagues, and the education community kept up the steady pressure on members of Congress with the message, "We must see real increases for education." You said it during the budget process early in 1996, during the House appropriations process in late spring, during the House floor consideration in the summer, and during Senate Appropriations Committee action in late summer. The numbers on the Senate chart were a little better in some areas but still amounted to a freeze for education for the second consecutive year.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the Senate Republicans unveiled a floor amendment that gave education a $2.3 billion increase. The Democrats had been preparing their own amendment to increase education by $2.2 billion. We were in a bidding war. The education community was pleasantly stunned. Then just as we were getting folks on the phones from all over the nation with the incredible message, "Vote yes for the Republican leadership's education appropriation package," came the news that the final increase wouldn't be $2.3 billion. The Republican leadership of the Senate was aiming for an increase of $3.5 billion. In my 11 years as an AASA representative on Capitol Hill, I have never experienced either party proposing a serious, leadership-sponsored increase of that magnitude.

Collective Action

What made it happen? Quite simply, you. You and your colleagues who called Capitol Hill when we asked you to call; wrote when we asked you to write; and came to Washington and stormed The Hill during the We Care Legislative Conference. No one would have taken us seriously without the cumulative effect of those actions.

When you call once or write once, you get a common reply: "Thank you for contacting me. I certainly will keep your thoughts in mind when this issue reaches the floor." I know. I used to write letters like that. But when you call or write a second time, someone on your House or Senate member's staff begins to take you seriously. Do it a third time, and you receive more attention, maybe even a returned phone call! And after a fourth connection, you've become a genuine contact with that staff member on education issues. In fact, the staff may call you to solicit an opinion about an upcoming bill.

So congratulations for influencing a truly earth-shaking event for education. Just remember that we'll be dealing with a lot of new faces next month, and we'll have to start the whole process anew. The trick is to stay in touch with AASA (easily done through our World Wide Web site-http://www.aasa.org) plus call or write when we ask you to.

Collective action, in large numbers and at the appropriate time, can have enormous impact on Congress. Don't rest on laurels. The next battle for education is just around the corner when the FY 1998 budget resolution is released in late January or early February. We can do it. So let's stick together and do it again.