From a practical standpoint, there are two things charter schools can do to positively influence legislators.
The first is to involve them in school activities. Invite elected officials to be speakers in classrooms, panelist in programs, judges in contests, anything to get them into the school. Try to develop a partnership between charter schools and elected officials. Let them experience for themselves the positives of charter schools.
The second thing is to show elected officials the growing political clout that charter school families have. Through your enrollment and staff, determine the number of voters that you can send to the polls. Be sure to include parents, gradparents, aunts, uncles and other extended family members when calculating your individual voter base. In my cynical world I like to say that politicians are motivayed by three things: money, food and votes. Legally we can't directly give them money. We can feed them when they visit our schools. AND, we can make sure that we represent a substanially part of their voting constituency.
Hope you feel better Lisa.
Posted as a reply to:
Our focus: Quality education for all children by Lisa O'Brien 
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