Stirring Public Interest Through an Alliance.

As education budget numbers were plunging in the House and Senate earlier this year, AASA decided to do more than the traditional lobbying efforts of the past.

We were dealing with a crowd in Congress, particularly in the House, that refused to believe in the efficacy of public education. The AASA Legislative Corps had been doing a terrific job of contacting local members of Congress, but it was beginning to look like we needed something extra since some members of Congress consider educators just another special interest group more concerned about themselves than with children.

So in concert with several other elementary and secondary education groups, AASA joined the Education First Alliance. We pooled resources with the national organizations representing teacher unions, school boards, chief state school officers, principals, the major urban school districts, and the PTA. The alliance approached a professional lobbying firm to see what might be proposed to lift education higher in the consciousness of national legislators, particularly those doing the bargaining with the White House.

Diversified Strategy

The strategy recommended by the firm and its subcontractors was a grassroots effort, using local television and radio, plus "cold calls" to local citizens to urge them to contact their congressional representatives in support of education. Coalition staff went to work in states of key members of the negotiating process, and contacts were made with local chambers of commerce and other business leaders to win them over.

We did not expect it would be much of a problem to find committed people since education stands high in the national polls as an investment worth preserving, but the key is finding those individuals and getting them to agree to be in touch with their national legislators. That was a task we knew we could not take on as individual educational organizations.

The wrapup statistics show the staff of the Education First Alliance did succeed: the phone bank contacted 22,854 citizens in key states and congressional districts, of that number 8,151 or 36 percent agreed to be "patched through" to their congressman or senator's office right away to argue our cause. The news media outreach campaign resulted in alliance message placements in more than 29 states by means of radio interviews, television satellite hookups, op-ed newspaper articles, a conference call with local reporters, and paid radio/newspaper/television ads.

The alliance coordinated its efforts with the Committee for Education Funding, the traditional lobbying coalition to which all alliance members belong. CEF provided the legislative analysis that drove the field efforts each week.

Impending Loss

When Congress extended its legislative term into the new year to send money extensions to keep the federal government running, AASA and the Education First Alliance members agreed to another push.

Why was it necessary to keep the pressure on from so many different sources and angles? Because without a solid budget agreement, elementary and secondary education could have lost--and may still lose--some $3 billion, with $1.2 billion of that coming out of Title I. This would result in a loss of Title I services in 1996-97 to 1.1 million students.

Impact aid districts have been feeling the pain of stop-start-stop-start federal government. Most school districts receive their federal funds in July. But with planning under way now for 1996-97 budgets, can school districts absorb a 20 percent loss in federal aid without pain? Not likely.

That's why AASA has been pushing with all its might through the highly effective AASA Legislative Corps and the leading edge Education First Alliance to make education first on everyone's budget plate--from the lowliest freshman House member to the president himself. We cannot take anyone for granted in this goofy game of budget making.

Count on AASA to be there for you, no matter how poor the odds, because children and our investment in their schooling come first, always.