By Carol Kocivar, Past President and Current Legislative Team Member, California State PTA
I have a confession to make. When I first joined PTA, I had an advocacy strategy in mind. It stemmed from an elementary school experience.
When my kids were young, our school paid for the music teacher, Mrs. Bank, by reaching deep into parents’ pockets. We were one of the only schools in San Francisco to have a full time music teacher. When I found out that this was how public schools paid for what I thought was essential, I got angry. And I got organized.
I convinced a city supervisor that this was an urgent issue, and she organized town hall meetings across the city to highlight it. She appointed me as chair of a city study group to analyze the shortages in schools and develop a financial plan. That work built enough momentum to put a measure on the city ballot to fund school music and arts with city money. Since our school also lacked funding for a librarian and a sports instructor, we added those too. It passed, and San Francisco’s public schools now have that support.
With this experience in mind, I learned that California State PTA was a strong advocacy organization. I joined, and the first thing I did was to write a resolution supporting guaranteed funding for the arts in all schools. It passed unanimously, and the PTA then sponsored a number of bills to get this going at the state level. Some passed, but none went far enough.
Advocacy lesson learned. If at first you don’t fully succeed, keep going.
Through years of sustained effort to make arts education a priority issue, the state finally passed Proposition 28, which now provides funding for the arts in all schools throughout California.
Along the way, we helped get Governor Schwarzenegger to dedicate $100 million for arts education in one of his budgets. And PTA started School Smarts based on one essential element: every lesson included an art activity to help parents understand the importance of arts education.
Today, California State PTA is a strong partner with Create California, supporting the arts.
So thank you to Mrs. Bank, that first music teacher in my children’s elementary school. The need to fund your position became a great lesson in parent advocacy.
The lesson: if at first you don’t succeed, find allies, persist, and keep advocating together for what’s good for kids and families.