The Parents Campaign

Programs: In 2017-2018, the parents' campaign (tpc) focused on engaging the public in the legislative process, with the goal of moving forward policies that improve mississippi's public schools. Communication & outreach:to further its goal of improving the state's public education system, tpc worked cooperatively with various parent groups, school districts, education organizations, and business and civic groups statewide. Tpc participated in approximately 141 meetings, which involved more than 2,159 people. Approximately 2,153 people attended 30 speaking engagements in which tpc presented programs. Tpc continued to grow its membership, recruiting 891 new members from july 1, 2017 through june 30, 2018. The nation builder database system was used to manage membership records; tpc also uses nation builder's integrated text messaging and social media tools in member outreach efforts. Tpc has three outreach/membership staff (two full-time and one part-time). Throughout the year, tpc provided regular email updates to inform members of legislation and policy issues affecting public education in mississippi. Social media efforts resulted in 592 new followers on tpc's facebook page, 224 new followers on tpc's twitter account, and 69 followers on tpc's instagram account. Public engagement tools:tpc provided online public engagement tools designed to allow members to identify and contact all of the legislators who represent each school district and to view information specific to the district, such as the level of underfunding for the current year and the school district's accountability ratings. All of the extensive resources and information housed in the tpc website are offered to members and the public at large at no cost. These resources include comprehensive voting records and web pages providing complete contact information for legislators in every school district. There is no cost for membership or for any service provided by tpc. Tpc continued to use the facebook-based vote reporting system that it introduced in the 2016 legislative session. The system allows members to follow custom-built "ed report" pages of legislators whose votes they want to track; those legislators' votes then show up in members' facebook news feeds, providing an instant, easy way to see how legislators vote on important bills. Legislative action:during the 2018 legislative session, tpc tracked policy decisions and lawmakers' actions by attending weekly meetings of legislative committees and monitoring house and senate floor debates and votes. Lawmakers' votes were reported by tpc via the tools described in previous sections of this report. Members of the parents' campaign influenced legislative action by calling, texting, and emailing their representatives and senators, posting on social media, organizing meetings, and recruiting other concerned citizens to join their efforts. Having a three-person team concentrated on generating personal contacts with legislators made a tremendous difference in tpc's ability to garner supportive votes on education legislation. Tpc also met regularly and coordinated legislative efforts with leaders of other education advocacy organizations. Tpc's successes in the 2018 legislative session included:1) an increase in the k-12 appropriation of $12. 8-million over prior-year, including $2. 5-million boost for pre-k2) defeat of all harmful bills opposed by tpc-voucher bill using public funds to pay tuition at private schools-maep rewrite bill that reduced the amount of school funding called for in state law-bill making school boards more susceptible to takeover by privatization forces-bills allowing tax credit scholarships (vouchers)legislators in both parties reported that the defeat of these bills was the result of an overwhelming number of phone calls, emails, contacts through social media, and personal visits that legislators received from constituents.