A Political Lesson About Issue Advocacy
Photo credit: Molly Theobald (CC by 2.0)
I wanted to highlight an article in Breitbartby Mike Flynn the other day that I intentionally didn’t share over on Truth in American Education’s social media. It doesn’t mention Common Core, it’s not even about education, but it contains some insights that I think will help the cause of fighting Common Core in the future. So I didn’t want to throw it up there without providing some context regarding how I see this as relevant.
He points out how conservatives are losing ground to liberals because they are being out-organized.
I don’t want to make this article about left vs. right, but rather about a political strategy towards building a movement. The left have been masterful at accomplishing this. The right not so much.
Lessons to learn for us:
1. Go local. I think there are far too many of us who are focused nationally. Certainly this website is a national resource, but we focus on state-by-state activism, and my personal activism has been at the local and state level. I have to roll my eyes at new national groups formed to fight this battle, not because I see them as competition because I don’t – we’re allies in this fight, but because that is not where the battle is at. I may not be able to organize a nation, or a state, but I can organize in my school district or my voting precinct. I do want to point out that there are a good number of grassroots groups doing this. Thank you!
2. Up our game with organizing and canvassing. So many of us have participated in grassroots lobbying, but have we considered how our results could have different if we spent as much time canvassing and educating people? We can’t match the resources that pro-Common Core A Political Lesson About Issue Advocacy | Truth in American Education:
No More Common Core Symposium in New Jersey
New Jersey readers mark your calendars for this symposium that will be offered in September. Concerned Citizens of Southern New Jersey will host a “No More Common Core” Symposium on Saturday, September 27, 2014 at 10:00am at the Ramada Inn in Vineland, NJ. Guest speakers will be: Sandra Stotsky, Duke Pesta, Chris Tienken, Deneen Borelli, and Tom Borelli.You can download the pdf version of the fl