Chloe Clark PTA at Focus Day 2008
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| AnneMarie Agers & Julie Hubbard at the Capitol in Olympia |
WSPTA Focus Day at the Capitol
by Julie Hubbard,
Chloe Clark PTA President
This past school year I have been privileged to serve as President of the Chloe Clark Elementary PTA. In addition to being a mother of two young children, serving as a volunteer at our vibrant DuPont school has allowed me to meet and work with many members of our wonderful community. With our commitment to be informed and involved, most of us share the same goal—we want our children to have access to the best education possible.
Few would argue that providing a quality education for our children has tremendous benefits. While we agree on this issue, though, most of us are lost when trying to figure out what we as individual citizens can actually DO to help ensure that a quality education is available in our schools. To that end, I recently went with our PTA Legislative Chair, AnneMarie Agers, to the Washington State PTA (WSPTA) Focus Day at the Capitol Building in Olympia to learn how to put advocacy into action.
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| Govorner Christine Gregoire addresses the WSPTA |
Focus Day, held this year on February 13, is the once-a-year advocacy event that the WSPTA organizes so its members can meet with state legislators and discuss current education issues. As voted on by WSPTA members, this year’s priority issue for Focus Day was the establishment of an updated definition of “basic education” and a basic education funding formula that reflects current education practices and requirements.
Over the past decade our children have seen significant changes in what is taught and what is expected of them in terms of achievement. Because the basic education funding formula has not substantially changed since 1977, Washington State legislators established a task force to study how to update the formula. Our primary goal at Focus Day was to meet with individual legislators and ask them to support Senate Bill 6879, which would set a December 1 deadline for completion of work by this task force. It’s time to put the study to rest and present a plan!
After learning how to “work the doors” at the House and Senate Chambers, AnneMarie and I set off to meet with our legislators from District 28. “Working the doors” is a way to access your Legislator during floor sessions. Anytime the House and Senate are on the floor, advocates can walk to the Chamber doors and write a note on the provided note pads. This note is handed to the security guard who then delivers it to the requested legislator.
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| AnneMarie, Rep. Tami Green, Rep. Troy Kelley, and Julie |
Our first stop was the House Chamber doors. After locating the necessary seat number for Representatives Tami Green and Troy Kelley on the map in front of the door, we composed our notes requesting a meeting and passed them off to the security guard for delivery. As we stood back to wait, AnneMarie turned to me and said, “What do you think the chances are that they’ll come out to meet two soccer moms from DuPont?” We were pleasantly surprised when, within two minutes, both Reps. Green and Kelley walked out. . .notes in hand!
We proceeded to have a very nice discussion about their views on K–12 education funding and whether or not they knew about SB 6879. Both Reps. Green and Kelley were very receptive and interested in hearing our take on this issue. Since the bill is still in the Senate they recommended that we go down the hall to the Senate Chamber and talk to our Senator, Mike Carrell. They said to tell him that if he would move the bill forward to the House, they would vote in its favor.
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| Julie, Sen. Mike Carrell, and AnneMarie |
AnneMarie and I thanked them for their time and proceeded to take the short walk down the hall to the Senate Chamber doors. The process to reach Sen. Mike Carrell was exactly the same, and he also responded immediately to our request for a meeting to discuss education funding.
We asked Sen. Carrell to please support SB 6879 and its December 1st task force deadline. He smiled and said with heavy sarcasm, “Why? They have only been studying this issue for 12 years!”
Overall, our day in Olympia was an amazing learning experience and a real eye–opener about the influence of individual citizens on current legislation. So, from now on, if ever asked by parents what they can do to ensure that their children receive a quality education, I will answer emphatically—become informed; attend school board meetings; contact your Legislator via telephone, email, or “working the doors” at the Capitol. And most importantly, be assured that your voice DOES matter!to promote educational excellence for our children.