Tell Your Story Every Day
Course
Make It Real for Legislators & Policymakers [6:21]
The idea of dealing with policymakers and legislators can be scary but you can't let them intimidate you. Remember, these people are also parents. Communicate with your school board and your legislators randomly but persistently.
Communicate with your school board and your legislators randomly but persistently. By randomly, I mean not every week or every month but every so and again when you have something that you need to say or you want them to see. Offer them positive strokes for their hard work. Thanks are something that they don't get enough of. Also offer them anecdotes or data to illustrate how your library matters to your students. The data is important but most useful when it comes in support of a story that explains its import. When you just give people a bunch of numbers, just like you, they can't really absorb them. Make sure they have a story that helps them understand.
Use your professional associations. They are so important. Participate in the strategic planning process of ASL and your state associations because they are working for you and will be stronger for your participation in their work. And they accumulate your voice with all the other members' voices and even non-member voices to make sure that the legislature, whether state or federal, knows what it needs to do to put money in the right places for student achievement and that policy think tanks hear from the ground, the classroom level, what is happening with their policies and when they're not working. They don't know if we don't tell them and sometimes their surveys don't ask the right questions.
The National Education Association has a dashboard that was working to change and get ESEA refunded, and librarians noticed that they were not included, so librarians who are members of NEA and its various affiliates and librarians who weren't, spoke up and by golly, in June of 2015, they got the dashboard changed and within a week, the Federal congress voted funds to ESEA and specifically mentioned librarians. That would likely not have happened if two things had not also happened. One of them was the NEA dashboard change which resulted from voicing concerns from librarians. And the second important piece is the librarians who wrote their federal legislators a lot of times in spring and early summer of 2015 to get that voted. Is that the last thing we'll have to do? No. This is an ongoing effort we have always got to talk to our legislators and make sure they also understand all the things that we've been building up until now.
Those people are also parents. They have been school board members or local legislators. Some of them were educators. They need to hear the local stuff in order to do the right things for us.
Many legislators are under the impression that educators don't vote. We have to prove to them otherwise. The Census Bureau -- I have a little bit of data to support this statement. The Census Bureau reports that only 56% of government workers vote. Teachers are often considered like government workers, especially public school teachers. Why we don't all vote, I'll never understand. But if you don't vote, you need to change that because that's how you have power to push your legislators in the direction you would like them to go.
Representative Alma Allen of Houston, a retired principal who also served on the Texas State Board of Education and in the Texas State House, spoke at a district meeting in the last year or so where she lambasted, kindly, teachers for not voting. She didn't offer any statistics but she was very strident that Texas legislators are aware that while teachers often voice complaints, many do not vote or actively participate in the election process. That little bit comes from Gloria Meraz who works with TLA Texas Librarians in their communications to the legislature, so she had it on good authority.
All of those legislators and policy makers appreciate stories and data from the trenches, the schools. Send them photos, send them quotes from students, send them student work, sample bibliographic citations from state-funded resources, video clips of teachers working in the library with library materials. You can even invite them to your campus though you do have to make sure you have all the permissions in place from campus leadership and even district leadership. But this is a chance to make legislators look good for being on the ground and public with their constituents, and it can make your library look great as they get to read the story to your students or see a presentation by students. It's a great opportunity all the way around and there's some details in an article by Deb Cackle.
You also want to make sure to thank all the legislators for their work for students in schools. They don't get thanked nearly often enough and just like us, they feel perhaps overworked and mistreated. If we thank them and recognize them for all that they do, then we can ask them to notice what we do and to notice the things that we offer them, the pictures that show how the funding they provide is strengthening the schools. It's so important that we vote, that we let our legislators and policy makers know what we need on the ground, in the schools, and that we accumulate our voices in many ways including through our associations to really get the best for our students. That's what we're in the job for and that's our passion.
Hand emphasizes that in spite of fears or hesitations in communicating with legislators and policymakers (including school boards), librarians must forge onward with these groups or risk being overlooked or forgotten by those who craft policy and make budget decisions. Share not only data but stories, and utilize the resources of local and national professional organizations to help you. On a somewhat more personal level, vote in elections to exercise your voice and express thanks to legislators when appropriate.
Conduct research with colleagues, community members, and via websites of government and professional organizations to learn about recent policy votes and decisions made by your legislators at any level of government. Write a note, email, or tweet to express your appreciation for a favorable action by a legislator or committee.
MLA Citation
Morris, Rebecca J. "Tell Your Story Every Day: Give Thanks." School Library Connection, September 2017, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1987179?learningModuleId=1987183&topicCenterId=2247903.
Entry ID: 2128162
Additional Resources
About the Author
Dorcas Hand, MLS, is Director of Libraries at the Annunciation Orthodox School in Houston, TX. She earned her master's in library science from SUNY Albany. She is editor and co-conspirator of the www.studentsneedlibrariesinHISD.org website, an advocacy site in support of Houston ISD librarians. Hand is also editor of Independent School Libraries: Perspectives in Excellence. Her work is available on www.strongschoollibraries.com.
MLA Citation
Hand, Dorcas. "Tell Your Story Every Day. Make It Real for Legislators & Policymakers [6:21]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, November 2015, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1987179?learningModuleId=1987183&topicCenterId=2247903.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1987179?learningModuleId=1987183&topicCenterId=2247903
Entry ID: 1987179