EdWeek has a good article about the number of teachers who are running (or ran) for office this year. I guess the slogan is, “If you can’t persuade them, run against them.” According to the article, 158 educators filed for state offices.
In Oklahoma, 64 teachers ran for office. 37 lost their primary; 15 won; and 12 were unopposed. In Kentucky, 20 teachers ran for office, and only five lost their primary.
Teachers have figured out that they have to be “in the room where it happens” (to paraphrase the song from “Hamilton”).
The National Education Association has helped novice candidates. Good for NEA!
Through its See Educators Run program, a series of trainings for NEA members seeking local or state-level office, the nation’s largest teachers’ union is tapping into this political moment.
The organization hopes to create a “candidate pipeline” for members, said Carrie Pugh, NEA’s political director. “[We felt] like our voices weren’t being represented.”
For many of these first-time candidates, the union offers a gateway into the messy world of politics.
NEA launched the program in 2017, but the number of applications nearly doubled after this spring.
See Educators Run has held three trainings since 2017 and graduated about 200 educators. Any NEA member who is running for office, or considering a run, can apply for a space, and the program is free for participants. The two-day program was designed to cover the basics of running a campaign “soup to nuts,” said Pugh.
While See Educators Run is nonpartisan, Pugh says that the program seeks out candidates who are “values-aligned”: supportive of funding for public schools, collective bargaining rights, and accountability measures for charter schools. The NEA also requires that local unions sign off on candidates’ applications, as affiliates share the cost of training with the national organization. Training facilitators have backgrounds in politics: They’ve worked on campaigns or for organizations like Emily’s List and Emerge that train Democratic candidates to run for office.
Topics ran the gamut from high-level strategy (how do you craft a campaign message?) to the granular details of social-media communications (how often should you post to your candidate Facebook page?).
In one session, candidates learned how to devise a field plan for their race, calculating their vote goals and the number of volunteers needed to meet them. Parts of the process read like algebra homework: If one volunteer can knock on 15 to 20 doors an hour, and you need to knock on 1,021 doors, how many volunteers do you need to sign up for two-hour shifts?
“I knew that you had to look at registered voters and things like that,” said Thomas Denton, a retired teacher from Kentucky considering a run for state legislature. “But exactly how to crunch those numbers is what’s being answered here.”
Several candidates said fundraising would be their biggest challenge.’
Know campaign-finance law inside and out, trainers told the candidates: Research the legal limits for how much individuals can contribute and the contribution filing deadlines.
In sessions, participants paired up to practice cold-calling for donations. The big takeaway? Make a clear, specific ask—even if it’s uncomfortable.
Kyla Lawrence, an assistant principal in North Little Rock, Ark., who plans to run for a seat in the state’s house of representatives in 2020, said she would have to mentally prepare to make a lot of those calls, especially to bigger donors. As a teacher, it often feels “like you don’t have the financial status to play in this arena,” she said.
Candidates were also encouraged to reference the #RedforEd movement, which became a clarion call for educators during statewide strikes this spring, while campaigning. Trainers encouraged them to talk about collective action with constituents—especially other educators—and wear the trademark bright red shirt at town halls.
The message that campaigns should champion public education resonated with Carol Fleming, a speech-language pathologist in Little Rock, Ark., who plans to run for a seat in House District 38 in 2020.
But she won’t be mentioning #RedForEd by name in her campaign, she said. In Arkansas, ” ‘strike’ is a word that you do not use.”
For many candidates in attendance, this spring’s statewide strikes were inspiring but not necessarily the catalyst for running.
Lakilia Budeau, the director of a youth-services center for Paducah public schools in Kentucky, said protests across her state reinforced her notion that she could govern better than the legislators currently in office. But she had already thought about a run for state representative before this spring.
“I’m just tired of [legislators] not having their students’ and families’ interests at heart,” she said.
Candidates said the union’s role in their campaigns wouldn’t end after they left the training.
Several plan to count on their local associations as major sources of volunteer and financial support.
Activism at its finest.
Good to see a positive report on the work of unions. The practical mentoring and financial support is exactly what the billionaire-funded belief tanks have been doing for years.
Love the line “belief tanks.”
No thinking happens when you are paid to support the donors’ claims.
Yes, great quip “belief tanks”. Will have to use that one!
PERFECT understanding: Belief Tanks
It is my hope that the NEA will push independence of thought even as it pushes involvement in political activity. Though I am a member, I am not always in agreement with my organization, which is not really a union in our state. I feel we are way too accepting of the latest educational fad here, and that this acceptance led to bowing to the forces that pushed VAMs, high stakes testing, and top down reform in general some twenty years ago. I hope most of these candidates will push for funding of poorer districts, eliminating testing entirely (except to spot check the effect of certain policies), and dramatically curtailing total numbers of students seen by teachers in a year.
I am delighted that more teachers are getting into politics. One of our finest presidents, Woodrow Wilson, was an academician. Good Show!
Woodrow Wilson was an unapologetic racist. As a teacher, I don’t want to be tarred with that same brush. No thank you, Charles.
George Washington owned slaves. No one disputes that WW was a racist. You are using a non sequitir.
“Dogs have four legs. Tables have four legs. Dogs are tables”.
Most historians rank W. Wilson as one of our top ten best presidents, notwithstanding his racism.
FDRoosevelt was an anti-Semite. He is also rated in the top ten best presidents.
None of our presidents were saints. All have their flaws.
True that FDR kept America’s doors closed to European immigrants fleeing Hitler. Most were Jews.
That said, What is your evidence that FDR was anti-Semitic?
Do an internet search see
https://www.thenation.com/article/fdrs-jewish-problem/
https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/FDR-wanted-Jews-spread-thin-and-kept-out-of-US-documents-reveal-553336
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fdr-anti-semite-or-friend-of-the-jews/2013/03/15/7c5b58c6-8bee-11e2-af15-99809eaba6cb_story.html?utm_term=.71df4d255774
The articles you cite repeat what I said. FDR did not open the doors to European immigrants in the 1930s. The State Department was notoriously anti-Semitic.
I have not seen evidence that FDR was personally anti-Semitic, as Wilson was personally racist. Eleanor Roosevelt was a champion of civil rights and decency.
Trump is Racist, hates Mexicans, people of color, and gays. He treats women as sex toys. The judges he is appointing will roll back affirmative action, Gay rights, women’s rights. No equivalency.
There is some dispute about the personal feelings of FDR. The man has been dead and gone for decades. The point I was trying to make, is that none of our presidents are flawless.
Getting back to my original point, I think it is terrific, that people in the teaching profession are getting into politics. When I was in college, the mayor of our town, was an (actIve) school teacher, Patsy Sloan. When my wife obtained citizenship, the mayor wrote a personal letter of congratulations to my wife. I was deeply touched by this kindness.
Lyndon Johnson, was a schoolteacher. He was a pioneer in civil rights.
We all know your feelings about the current president.
Good to hear that the N.E.A. is finally seeing the light & helping its members help others, rather than early endorsing any candidates w/o a vote from the rank-&-file.
Now, candidates ARE the rank-&-file! &, sooner than later, these candidates will be our elected officials as yes, we WILL elect them!
This is outstandingly good stuff! Makes me proud to be a teacher and a union member. Makes me want to donate more.