government relations Now What?
How to Be Active, Informed and Stay Sane in Today’s Political Climate Julie Brown, WMEA State Chair, Government Relations
Regardless of your political persuasion, you cannot deny that a lot has happened in our dear state of Wisconsin since the beginning of Febru- ary. Many school districts are being forced to make dra-
matic decisions that affect the lives of students and teachers due to a lack of funds and support coming from the state and other areas. Many teachers have been laid off or made to feel like they must retire. Class sizes are going up and it feels like support for our chosen career is fading
fast. What are we as music educators in Wisconsin to do now?
It is important that we find an answer to that question for our own mental and physical well being, though the answer will be different for every individual. The answer will be personal to you, to what candidate or party you chose to support and to your comfort level with activism. Some people are decidedly more inter- ested and boldly involved in politics than others. Regardless of all of these personal variables, if you are upset about what is happening to education in our state, here are a few suggestions of what you can do to help stay connected, get involved, keep
yourself healthy and keep the focus of your chosen career on the students.
Stay informed. You don’t even need to go looking for information to get bombarded with stories about state politics anymore. There will always be some “spin” that the source offers its readers, so if you are looking for the least biased information, stick with Associated Press articles versus blog writings. Another source of informa- tion that I go to daily is Arts Wisconsin (
artswisconsin.org) which is a non-profit organization dedicated to arts advocacy in our state. Wheeler Report (thewheeler-
report.com), which has official memos, reports, etc. is an excellent and very in-depth source for all things Wisconsin politics. Both are full of information that is fact based and not charged with a lot of bias.
Stay connected. All of this uncertainty can make a person feel very alone in the profession if regular contact with col- leagues is not maintained. Social media sites like Facebook are a great way to stay connected with colleagues from across the state. National Association for Music Edu- cation (NAfME) has a great new advocacy center called Groundswell (advocacy.
menc.org) that features news, blogs and forums for interaction. Regular contact with other music educators in Wisconsin and beyond will help you not only have an opportunity to commiserate with others who share disheartening stories, but will also help lift you through success stories in their own districts.
Get involved. Whether you live two blocks or three hundred miles away from the state capitol building, you can get involved. Organizations like Progres- sives United (
progressivesunited.org), for example, can steer you towards volunteer
56 September 2011
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