Parents taking school concerns to Capitol

Concerned parents, gaining experience from levy campaigns, are forming groups that lobby state lawmakers on local school causes.

By Norman Draper, Star Tribune

Last update: December 19, 2007 - 1:41 AM

It wasn’t enough for Beverly Petrie and her fellow school activists to help the Stillwater district reap some funding in the Nov. 6 election. After they fought for the levy, they figured there was more to be done. So, they decided to set their sights on lobbying the Legislature on behalf of the district this winter.

“One of the things we heard a lot during the [levy] campaign is people believe it’s the state’s responsibility to pay for public schools,” Petrie said. “So, hearing that so often during the campaign, it’s hard for us to let it all collapse at this point.”

Thus began Stillwater schools’ legislative action committee, still without an official name or agenda.

Around the Twin Cities, parents are banding together to take the cause of their school districts to the Capitol. Often, they’re trying to help secure more funding. With the beginning of the legislative session about two months away, such groups are now holding their first meetings and formulating legislative platforms.

As the session opens, their job will be to meet with legislators and call them, network with other parents about school issues, and testify at legislative education committee hearings.

Organizers say they are nonpartisan and often like to sprinkle their membership with parents who have opposing views. Many groups are relatively new, though some, such as the one in the Hopkins district, have been around for years.

Often, such volunteer efforts are anchored by a core of fewer than a dozen parents. But they can be linked by e-mail to hundreds of others who want to be kept in the loop and who could be called to action when the situation warrants.

“Hopkins has been at this for a while,” said Mary Cecconi , executive director of the statewide Parents United for Public Schools . “Other districts that have been equally successful are much less organized. They might have four or five people involved, but they might have databases of anywhere from 600 to 6,000 people.”

Such parent activism has been on the rise in most districts over the past several years, Cecconi said.

“It started in a more organized fashion five to seven years ago,” said Cecconi, who cut her teeth running a Stillwater levy campaign in 1994, then ran for school board. “Prior to the mid-’90s you didn’t find many districts with organized lobbying groups.”

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