Advocacy for Improved Education - Fast Food Style

BY BETSY GRANT

ISD PTSA Special Education Network Chairperson

special-education@issaquahptsa.org

As we all go through this busy life of raising families, many of us find ourselves with more than one time commitment and a lack of a plan for dinner. In those circumstances, a quick restaurant meal is a solution some families can use to fill in the gap. While a pre-planned and home-cooked meal would be more ideal, sometimes fast food is the simplest way to get the job done.

If you ask parents if they want to advocate to improve their children’s educational opportunities, the response will likely be yes, but they are too busy. Just like the dinner plan, the two contradicting circumstances are hard to resolve. How do you start? Getting involved with advocacy feels impossible when you already have too many things to accomplish. However, if more voices could be heard by decisionmakers and lawmakers, then the changes could make parents’ lives and the lives of our children easier in the long run.

Your “fast food access” to advocacy and getting your voice heard is through joining a local PTSA unit. The Issaquah School District has a PTSA unit based at each school and a community-wide unit focused on special education (https://www.issaquahptsa.org/issaquah-ptsa-council-member-pta-ptsas). By joining a PTSA, you have the advocacy engine of the Washington State PTA (WSPTA) and the National PTA behind you to help you along. If you join the Washington State PTA Action Network Group (https://actionnetwork. org/forms/subscribe-to-wsptas-action-network-group), they make it easy to use your voice by sending action alerts that are quick, easy ways to communicate with our legislators on topics they are actively working on. The action alerts make sharing your voice only a couple of clicks away.

As the parent of a child with disabilities, I am especially interested in addressing funding, inclusion, and support in special education, which is currently one of the top 5 legislative priorities for the Washington State PTA. In less than 5 minutes, using a link from an action alert via the Washington State PTA Action Network Group, I was able to let my legislators know I want them to support current pending legislation to increase special education funding across the state. You can choose to take action the same way on that priority or any of the current legislative priorities (https://www. wastatepta.org/focus-areas/advocacy).

Your PTSA will present a menu of issues with possible solutions, and you can choose to quickly order action on the ones that appeal to you.