I don’t know why the leaders of the IEA decided not to mobilize teachers for Lobby Day in Springfield this year.
I know that their stated reason, that the Capitol building is under renovation, doesn’t make any sense. We have met with Park Ridge State Senator Dan Kotowski in his Capitol building office, in his office when it was in some other building and on the lawn by the statue of pro-slavery Illinois politician, Stephen Douglas.
Contacting our Springfield representatives is a year-long operation. Members write emails. We make phone calls. We visit them in their home office. And we mobilize for Lobby Day and go down to Springfield each Spring.
Now we find out that it’s not about Capitol renovation, but that Lobby Day doesn’t make any difference.
When it comes to lobbying state legislators, where the contact occurs doesn’t matter as long as the member is well prepared for the meeting and will encourage support from the representative or senator.
It doesn’t matter?
Of course it matters. It all matters.
For Government Relations to tell our PREA local that all these past years of money spent, lesson plans written and 8 hours on buses every Spring didn’t matter – pretty harsh.
Don’t you think?
Fred Klonsky 