Partying Hard for Public Education

NEA Today, Nov 2004 by Kochuk, Nancy

National effort to raise awareness and spur action a 'whopping' success.

A night to remember? You bet. On September 22, tens of thousands of Association members, community activists, and everyday folk made their way to locally organized "house parties" for public education. It was the kickoff for the National Mobilization for Great Public Schools, and supporters around the country pulled out all the stops. They gathered at nearly 3,600 parties held not only in homes, but in public libraries, churches, school buildings, and quite a few unexpected places. One party was hosted in a brewery on Cape Cod, another in a yoga studio, another on a boat. And while some participants may have really partied afterward, they spent much of the evening getting down to the business of planning how to make public schools a priority in their local communities and beyond.

"Tonight is just the beginning," NEA President Reg Weaver said at a Hollywood, California, party co-hosted by Oscar-winning actress Helen Hunt and film producers Julie Bergman Sender and Stuart Sender. Elected officials must be held accountable for providing schools the resources they need, he said, and he encouraged the crowd to join the groundswell of support to "fix and fund" the so-called No Child Left Behind law (NCLB).

Elsewhere, national, state, and local Association leaders rallied around the same message. For NEA Secretary-Treasurer Lily Eskelsen, the locale was Iowa (where she attended two parties). For NEA Vice President Dennis Van Roekel, it was Milwaukee. For high school English teacher Angela Dunmore, new president of the Cape Henlopen Education Association in rural Milton, Delaware, it was the lobby of a television station. And for fourth-grade teacher Carol Bauer, it was an elementary school in Yorktown, Virginia, where everyone wore construction hats as they "hammered" through issues such as overcrowding, testing, NCLB, and professional respect for teachers.

But party-goers did more than just talk. They signed petitions for more funding for public schools, pledged to call their members of Congress on a national phone blitz day on September 29, and committed themselves to voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts. Most important, they expressed a determination to build a movement for great public schools. As Eskelsen noted about the party she attended, hosted by Iowa's first lady: "We were yakking away two-and-a-half hours later. People were so animated."

Van Roekel said the excitement over the parties-which generated media attention across the country-was evident to him before even the first one began. He recounted how he went online the morning of September 22 to see how many house parties were being hosted in his area. "I found a whopping 50 within 25 miles of my house!" he said. "I think that says a lot about the success of the parties and the enthusiasm of our members to get involved."

Now, said Eskelsen, it's just a question of doing the work. "We've articulated our frustrations and our fears, but we can't just wallow in it," she said. "What are we going to do to put these issues out front and put candidates on the spot?" On September 22, she said, "people felt they could do something about it."

And, as Weaver noted to the Hollywood crowd, there's plenty to do. "We all have the responsibility to reach out and connect with the larger community so that people know who we are, what we do, and how committed we are to providing a quality public education for every student," he said. -NANCY KOCHUK

ON THE BUS! At press time, President Weaver and dozens of NEA's national and state leaders had set out on a seven-state bus tour to drum up support for public education and for NEA's recommended presidential candidate, John Kerry. They started out in hurricane-ravaged Florida on October 4 and were planning to move on to Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, all before Election Day.