The #1 or #2 concern listed each year by voters in the state of Utah is Education, but you would never know this by looking at the legislative docket each session. Kory Holdaway, head of Government Relations for the Utah Education Association attributes much of this to the fact that zero of the over 100 state legislaters have a background in education.

This was maybe the topic that mustered the most debate during among teachers during the first day of the annual Huntsman Seminar held in Utah at the Hinckley Institute of Politics. The primary focus of the seminar is to improve the quality of civic education in Utah schools and every year it brings together over 30 high school teachers to listen to political and civic leaders from across the nation and state to discuss current political issues, processes and new developments in civics education.

Going back to teacher representation in the legislature, Holdaway cited a lack of structural lobbying efforts from educators as one of the principal culprits for this deficiency. The real estate industry for example, has 35 state legislatures, and to the surprise of no one, also has a very coordinated and effective lobby.

Don’t be turned off by the term lobby however, the structural lobbying referred to by myself and Holdaway is much different than issue based and corporate lobbying that requires big dollars signs has such a negative stigma attached to it.

Issue based lobbying is when consituencies rally around certain issues, as teachers did very succesfully in 2007 when school vouchers were up for a vote, structural lobbying though is different. It involves creating a grass roots movement to first get delegates in local caucases and conventions that will eventually lead greater representation in local and state politics.

This is what realtors and others in the real estate industry industry did 10-15 years ago and they are seeing their fruits today with their disportiontely high representation in the state’s Legislature.

With so much national attention currently focused on education, it is prime time for those directly inolved with students on an everday basis to band together at a grassroots level in order to ensure the success of any new legislation. As Congressman Bishop and former teacher and school administrator stated at the seminar that teachers have to buy in and believe in the policy for anything to happen on local levels and in the classroom.

Thus, I believe that the success and implementation of any reform or policy is very much a function of the involvement of educators in the process of drafting legislation that will have a meaningful impact on students.

Post written by Danny Johnson. He can be reached on Twitter at @DannymJohnson. 
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