Four keys to passing your school budget this year

Last year over 30% of school budgets did not pass. This year we need to organize to support public education. Here is some more info describing what happens when a school budget does not pass. We also recognize there are larger changes needed in our system to ensure school funding does not burden low income homeowners. And we are working to organize for these changes. We hope to see a more income based system in the future.

1. Organize with key groups and community leaders

Who are the organized groups that would be in support of the school budget passing? In order to pass the budget it’s important to connect with and organize with various groups across age, interest, and identity. We recommend reaching out to leaders of these groups and organizing a coalition meeting so everyone is coordinated and in step for a more powerful campaign. Here are some resources on building an organizing committee to help you get started.  

Here are some possible groups to connect with:

• A student social justice club or student council

• The local chapter of the VT-NEA (NEA contact info by region)

• A Parent Teachers Association, parents booster club (school sports are often cut when budgets do not pass), or any pro-public education group of parents

• Members of the school board

• A values aligned church (List of community minded churches)

• A local chapter of the progressive, democratic party, or republican party 

2. Messaging Matters

Being strategic in our messaging matters. Below we’ll share three key learnings on successful school budgeting messaging from a research project. You can learn more about messaging from this report and this webinar (Strategic Messaging to Defend Public Education). Three research-based successful messages to pass school budgets.

Two Messaging Examples

1. Tell a story about a Big Us vs. a Small Them. 

The Big Us, Small Them messaging approach provides a story that helps people make sense of the new authoritarian attacks. The story starts with shared values, points at small but powerful culprits, inoculates against their divide-and-conquer strategy, and invokes a big and inclusive “us.” 

“We all want our children to succeed, no matter what zip code we live in or how much money we make. Public education is all about the future of our children and the future of our country. Yet for decades, a small group powerful and well-funded political activists, politicians, operatives, and lobbyists have sought to defund our public schools. They’ve slashed school budgets, cut teacher pay, attacked the curriculum and our teachers, and stripped away much needed programs and resources for our children like music, physical education, libraries, and the arts.

Their ultimate goal is to tank public education by blaming teachers and excluding kids based on their differences in order to divide people in our community against each other. They know that if we fight each other, We'll be distracted while they continue to use voucher schemes to take money from our public schools while benefiting wealthy private schools. 

We cannot allow this long-con to continue. Supporting our community and all the families who live here means that we have to come together to support and fully fund our public schools. When all of our children have the freedom to succeed, we are all better for it.”

2. Lead with a positive vision for strong public schools.

• Leads by describing a positive future, rooted in an abundance frame. “As the next generation of American leaders, our children deserve a quality education that fully prepares them for a bright future in a changing world. They should have access to all of the best technology, accurate and up-to-date learning materials, and support from our teachers, nurses, and counselors. Right now we have a historic opportunity to provide every child in our community with the support they deserve. There are currently millions of federal dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan Act that have been earmarked for our public schools.”

•  Creates a big “us” in the community, rooted in values and what we all deserve. “Our future depends on every child from every corner of our state receiving a great education where they live and play. We do not need to settle for the scraps that have been offered in the past. If we come together as a community we can fight to make sure that the abundant resources that are available for our schools are used to their fullest so that our children all get everything they need to see themselves in what they learn about, and to learn without limits.”

3. Convince the unconvinced 

Who are the constituencies in your community that may likely not support passing the school budget and how can you target your messaging and actions to shift their perspectives? Oftentimes we are so focused on speaking to folks that already agree that we miss the folks who we need most to connect with (check out this short video on mobilizing vs. organizing or learn more). This work is relational and takes face to face conversations, listening, and community building. Here are some tools to Create Your Campaign Vision and Timeline and to Build Broad Support. Use this power analysis tool to help you understand your landscape. We hope to lead a training on how to use this tool in the future!

Here are some ideas of ways to reach out to folks that may not already agree with you:  

• You may want to host a community conversation that includes free dinner, childcare, and question and answer. And can be great to include small group conversation for relationship building as well as student led facilitation. 

• You might host a school storytelling event at the local senior center where seniors and young people can reflect on highlights of their public schooling and where you can put a plug in for voting for the budget. 

• You may decide to target a neighborhood of homeowners whose fears of higher taxes may be stopping them from voting yet. You can speak to those fears by explaining the income based education tax that the VT-NEA plans to advocate for in the coming years to help lessen the burden. 

4. Voter turnout is crucial

Oftentimes the town has enough support to pass the budget but the right people are not coming out to vote. Folks often jump to doing honk-and-waves or posting on social media because these strategies feel easy and low risk. While those actions can help, it is research proven to be much more effective to have direct conversations through door-to-door canvassing. Nothing beats in person interactions, conversations with our neighbors, and relationship building.  Here is a guide that walks through step by step how to get out the vote and win an election.