The Power of Advocacy in Public Education 

Raise Your Hand Texas held its second Trustee Advocates Summit at the end of August 2024, welcoming school board trustees, superintendents, and ISD administrators from across the state to participate in the two-part learning event. From the Rio Grande Valley up to the DFW Metroplex, and from the Permian Basin to the Piney Woods of Texas, districts large and small gathered to learn and focus on equipping themselves with the tools and strategies needed to effectively advocate for their school districts during the upcoming 89th legislative session. 

Year-round, all of us play a crucial role in shaping public education policy and ensuring a bright future for Texas students. The three-day learning event focused on how to build a strong advocacy foundation and how to create and move forward with strategic advocacy engagement. All sessions were rooted in creating, building and, using your power and the learning focused on four areas: 

• People Are Your Power; 
• Tools for Building Power; 
• Exercising Power, and 
• Leveraging Your Power. 

Raise Your Hand Texas’ Dr. Libby Cohen, Amy Dodson, Deann Lee, and Matt Hall led the learning sessions. A conversation with Aledo ISD Superintendent Dr. Susan Bohn and Denton ISD Superintendent Emeritus Dr. Jamie Wilson was also moderated by Dr. Libby Cohen. 

Raise Your Hand Texas’ legislative director, Max Rombado, held a special conversation with Representative Stan Lambert. An insightful media panel with Community Impact Content Director Marie Leonard, KUT- FM Education Reporter Becky Fogel, and The Texas Tribune Regions Editor Nic Garcia, was moderated by Anne Lasseigne Tiedt. A special thanks goes out to our presenting sponsor Huckabee, our advocate sponsors VLK Architects and CORE Construction, and our partner sponsor BOK Financial Securities. Without them, this event would not have been possible. 

Your People, Your Power: Essential Tools for Advocacy

Mobilizing groups of people can be challenging, but the more than 7,700 elected school board members across Texas have the power to unite their communities and drive positive change. While limited resources and disconnected communities can pose challenges, attendees expressed a strong belief in the ability of school boards to advocate effectively for their districts.

During the Summit, Dr. Cohen launched Raise Your Hand Texas’ Advocacy Cycle, a guide people can use to generate meaningful year-round advocacy in their community throughout the electoral and legislative process. 

The Advocacy Cycle is a continuous process that requires trust, collaboration, and a shared sense of responsibility. As Dr. Cohen emphasized, “Legislators pass the baton to us.” However, trustees can experience anxiety and trust issues when passing the baton to others; this reflects the challenges of collaboration in a complex system. Dr. Cohen reminded trustees of their potential to not only impact their students and communities but also to contribute to a functioning democracy. 

Attendees learned more about Raise Your Hand’s listening circle techniques and then practiced how to facilitate group discussions in this safe and supportive space. Trustees discussed the challenges facing public education, the need for support and connection, and the importance of fostering trust within their communities. 

Exercising Power

Lessons learned from Aledo ISD Superintendent Dr. Susan Bohn and Denton ISD Superintendent Emeritus Dr. Jamie Wilson and electoral engagement were the focal points of this portion of the conference. At some point, your community is going to face a competitive or especially important election – and you want to be ready for it. Voting matters, and creating a culture of voting is important. It should be a habit and an identity. 

Tips for effectively getting out the vote in your community: 

• Keep the tone positive
• Demystify the process
• Help people understand ‘who does what’ with respect to public education
• Vote plan, vote plan, vote plan

Bruce Smith, school board trustee from Lake Dallas ISD, shared, “You have to be heard. You have to get out there and make sure your voice is heard and not let somebody else speak for you.” 

The largest takeaways from our time with the esteemed Dr. Susan Bohn and Dr. Jamie Wilson included: 

• Advocacy builds trust, and everyone must recognize that advocacy for schools is important.
• When you think you’re communicating enough, you haven’t communicated enough. Continue to share clear, consistent, factual information. 
• Keep building trust in preparation for the Legislative Session. Be intentional about it. 

“Hearing first-hand experiences and insights from Dr. Bohn and Dr. Wilson was invaluable,” said Taylor Williams, superintendent of Slidell ISD. “Their conversation reinforced the importance of listening and understanding diverse perspectives to effectively advocate for the needs of your community.” 

Leveraging Your Power

Powermapping is a strategic method to analyze power and relationships in a community at large about a policy issue, or in relation to a policymaker, in a way that informs advocacy strategy. 

“We all have the power in our regions and communities to do more,” said Amy Dodson. “You know the people you need to have on your side to be able to tell your story.” The powermapping exercises and practice walked attendees through how they can build a powermap and cultivate relationships as board members and superintendents in their communities. 

Rep. Stan Lambert’s astute perspectives on the intersection of advocacy and legislative work helped attendees understand they are their community’s experts and have the opportunity to build a relationship with their legislative office. 

“Now is the time to formulate potential policy ideas, and that means it is a great time to meet with your legislator,” said Rep. Lambert. He noted there will be a lot of new faces at the Capitol during the 89th Legislative Session because there are more than 30 freshmen heading to Austin this year. 

Think about meeting these new legislators and their staff in your hometown in the fall or winter, before they arrive at the Capitol on January 14, 2025, for the first day of session. He advised everyone to first connect with their district director, someone who does a lot of constituent work. Then, when you engage with your lawmaker, be ready to marry data with a personal story you can tell, along with your one-pager that gives an overview of the pros, cons, and your proposed solution for a specific policy issue. 

In meetings, “Listen with purpose and work to build a relationship with everyone in the office,” said Rep. Lambert. Additionally, Rep. Lambert suggested you should always remain calm and reserved, and lead with common sense.

The three-day summit ended with “Grassroots Gauntlet: The Battle for the Bills,” Raise Your Hand Texas’ custom-created, interactive legislative advocacy role-play event. 

Alice Upshaw Hawkins, Corpus Christi ISD Trustee, reflected on the event saying, “The whole conference was impactful. I created a well-developed powermap and was able to bring in people and pull them into my plan. Now I’ll be ready to have them advocate for our district, and that is really powerful for me.” 

Preparing for the 89th Legislative Session in 2025

The nature of this work will look different across the state, but school districts are tired of sitting on the sidelines and are ready to walk in the same direction to achieve legislative success for public education. Trustees and superintendents shared that as they leave this event they will go back to their communities and take action, including: 

• Hosting a school board-led workshop focused on advocacy training 
• Adding legislative advocacy to their board meetings
• Creating a legislative subcommittee for their board of trustees and meeting with those who aren’t already in their corner
• Scheduling a meeting with their Raise Your Hand Texas Regional Advocacy Director (something anyone can do!) 
• Getting their community members and school district staff involved in this purposeful, intentional work year-round, not just during session
• Creating a stronger Get Out The Vote culture 
• Preparing a legislative agenda and integrating listening circles into district culture 
• …and so much more.

Raise Your Hand Texas gives a special thank you to Huckabee, VLK Architects, CORE , and BOK Financial for sponsoring the second meeting of the Trustee Advocates Summit. We appreciate your passion to change lives through your craft and a shared contribution to education.