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My Story Is This: Utah Students Deserve More

By going public, Utah NEA members win one of the largest school funding increases in a decade.

At first glance, professional life couldn't be better for Utah first grade teacher Tom Little and his teaching team colleagues Linda Page, Joani Richard-son, Sandra Siiten, and Jodi White.

Once a week, the five plan together. They talk every day, sharing great ideas for reaching students--and they enjoy the support of a principal who keeps up school morale and hunts for grants.

But take a harder look at Altara Elementary, in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy, and you'll find each of these five teachers struggling to provide students with books, pencils, ditto paper, and glue on a supply allowance of approximately $225 a year.

To fill the gap, Altara teachers each spend $500 to $1,000 out of pocket a year for basic supplies and special project needs.

Yet, for all their sacrifice, the school still doesn't have a decent library. Or textbooks each student can take home. Or sufficient books for Tom Little's guided reading exercises.

You'll find similar money problems in schools across Utah. Kids face everything from tattered textbooks held together with tape to the nation's highest class sizes--in spite of a booming state economy.

Fed up with per-pupil spending that has slid to 61 percent of the national average, Beehive State NEA members swarmed into their communities and legislature during the last school year to push for more classroom dollars.

Their hard-hitting communications and lobbying campaign yielded Utah's biggest annual school funding boost in almost 10 years, 7.2 percent or $113.4 million. The increase kicked in July 1.

Even now, as the new money starts to filter through school districts, the Utah Education Association is setting its sights on a bigger target: Reach the national per-pupil average in 10 years.

If any organization can reach this goal, it's the UEA. With precision and discipline, this 18,000-member NEA affiliate has focused an entire state's attention on pressing school needs and turned hundreds of NEA members in Utah into "citizen lobbyists."

In the last legislative session, UEA worked with NEA staff to boil down public polling data into a crisp lobbying message that dramatized Utah's needs for individualized instruction and up-to date textbooks for every student, safe learning environments, and a quality teacher in every classroom.

NEA technicians then produced six unscripted TV spots featuring panels of Utah teachers, students, and citizens talking about school and teacher needs.

UEA Communications Director Mark Mickelsen credits this NEA field assistance for "keeping UEA 'on message,' from our president down to the classroom teacher, and helping us save money for other needs."

Some of that freed-up money went for radio spots, billboards in the Salt Lake Valley, T-shirts, car window stickers, lapel pins, and 15,000 yard signs--all with the winning message, "Utah Students Deserve More."

But no amount of NEA expertise could substitute for the involvement and energy of Utah teachers, who suppressed a very real urge to strike in favor of simply telling their story.

Among the venues where UEA members spoke about the needs of schools:

• In the streets of Salt Lake City. UEA members rallied twice in front of the state Capitol with their distinctive red-and-black "Utah Students Deserve More" signs. Last October, some 2,500 of them captured the whole state's attention by marching--arms linked with parents, students, and other representatives of the education community--from Capitol Hill through downtown streets to the site of the UEA annual convention.

• In the community. Backed by data from UEA headquarters--and supported by school principals and district superintendents--teachers engaged both parents and leaders of community groups in dialogues on school and professional needs. "If I saw parents in the hallway of my building, I talked to them using information from UEA," says Sandy teacher Tom Little. "I never feared not knowing what I was talking about."

• In the state legislature. Little, an area rep for the Jordan Education Association, used "off-track" days from his year-round school to monitor legislative committee meetings and call in grassroots UEA lobbyists as needed.

  "Teachers are very knowledgeable about the issues, so I reminded them that legislators are no different than us and need to know the facts," Little recalls. "So high school teachers, for instance, would talk to lawmakers about class sizes of 30 to 40 and ask, 'How do you give individual attention to these students?'"

• In both political parties. "Hundreds of our members took personal days to lobby, and many of them came back to UEA saying things like, 'You wouldn't believe what this guy said to me,'" reports UEA President Phyllis Sorensen.

  "Members found that some of the people that they had voted for didn't stand up for children," adds Sorensen. "As a result, hundreds of UEA members later got themselves elected as precinct chairs, vice chairs, and convention delegates in both the Republican and Democratic parties. Their goal: get more teacher-friendly candidates elected."

  The lesson from the Utah lobbying victory?

  "Teachers have to be politically involved and let people know what's going on," says Tom Little. "Each teacher has to get out and say, 'I am a professional and we deserve the best for our kids.' People respect what teachers think and say!"

  For more info, check the Utah Education Association at www.utea.org.

Basics for Beginners
Four Steps for Fuller Funding

How can NEA activists win needed resources for public schools? Some free advice from the Utah Education Association:

1. Don't "plan from your guts."
   "Use public polling and constant data gathering to shape an effective message," advises UEA President Phyllis Sorensen. "You need to know if you're on the right track or if you need to tweak your message."

2. Make your message personal.
   "Teachers are too used to picking up the burden for supply shortages and other needs," adds Sorensen. "They need to start telling their own stories to parents, policymakers, and the public. They're really very good at it!"

3. Keep the information flowing.
   Throughout its successful campaign to boost state education funding, UEA kept local leaders and members up to speed--and "on message"--through constant communications to building representatives and a 23,000-member school employee listserv.

4. Show your best side.
   UEA sent a cadre of 10 former Teachers of the Year across Utah to talk about the needs of schools.

"These high-profile, credible people were specially taught about our message," reports Sorensen. "They were recognized by policymakers and the public as teachers from their area, perhaps someone who had influenced or coached their kids."

Ninety-Five Percent of Utahans Can't Be Wrong

Some 95 percent of Utah citizens say it's "important" that their state representative support funding for public schools. And 83 percent say they would be less likely to support a candidate for state representative if he or she did not support public education.

(Source: 1999 poll commissioned by the Utah Education Association)