Joe - in a perfect world - your legislators are happy to visit your school or attend your events, etc...having been a founder, operator and board member of more than one charter, I have repeatedly invited everyone from the mayor to the governor, state superintendent of schools, legislators, congressmen and senators...ONCE in ten years have I had anyone come - Congressman JD Hayworth actually came and toured the school and gave a civics lesson to my AP government class!!! It doesn't stop us from including them in our invites - we just don't hold our breath for their appearance.
On the other hand - the most effective lobbying we can do for the charter industry in Arizona is to make sure there are charter representatives on all state level boards, commissions, tasks forces, study groups, etc. WE have been able to pass legislation to include a charter operator appointed by the governor to the state Commission on Post Secondary Ed, this year we passed legislation to include a charter operator and a charter school parent to our authorizing State Board of Charter Schools, and most importantly, we got passed a resolution to send to the voters in November, a constitutional amendment to add a charter school operator to the state board of education.
Posted as a reply to:
3 rules for Effective lobbying for charter movement by Joe Nathan
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