Education Minnesota recently added a Retired position to the ED MN PAC. Kaye Peters is the retired representative to that committee. Here is her first report.
Report on November 23 PAC board meeting by Kaye Peters
The November 23, 2019, meeting of the Education Minnesota Political Action Committee focused on the upcoming elections with full funding of public schools set as the PAC’s priority. In that vein, the PAC will work in 2020 to win a pro-public education majority in the state senate and maintain the current pro-public majority in the House. These priorities were set by the PAC board at its September 21 meeting.
The good news is that we have a healthy fund balance for the campaign, to help candidates who support our priority. Endorsements and contributions will be decided strategically based on issues. Early endorsements will be made only when a candidate has demonstrated support from their district’s educators through submission of a petition signed by 50 constituent educators for house districts and 100 for senate districts.
The strength of a new PAC initiative begun for 2018 was evident in increased turnout among Education Minnesota members, and the board is planning to maintain and build on the site-based initiative for 2020. More than 69 percent of EdMn members voted in 2018, an increase of 23,200 over the 2014 mid-term elections. Union members from every work site/school in the state were trained, as best possible, to have conversations with colleagues in their buildings. These conversations were to engage members in thinking about what matters to them and to get out the vote. There was no persuasion on individual candidates. Feedback from conversations were reported back to the PAC board. Worksite leaders also held election engagement activities and had members sign voter pledge cards to commit to voting. In an effort to build on the 2018 success, the PAC has adopted four core strategies: to build 4,400 worksite unity team leaders by September 21, 2020, who are “organic” leaders in their buildings; build-test-build approach to achieving 100 percent voter turnout among members, especially strategic groups, on Nov. 3; organize parents and community members around a powerful message to unite and persuade support of public schools; an issue-first public legislative endorsement process for full-funding and race-class narrative trainings.
Kaye Peters, Education Minnesota Retired’s member on the PAC board, will reach out to retired members to have these conversations. Since the role for retired members is new this year, the mechanism for growing participation, in lieu of a concrete worksite, is being developed.
The Education Minnesota Unity Summit, which replaces the political conference, will focus on leadership training and worksite action, such as political conversations. It will be held Jan. 31 to Feb. 2 at the Radisson Blu at the Mall of America in Bloomington. Follow this link for more information: https://educationminnesota.org/advocacy/EdMNVotes/Political-conference. Deadine for registration is Jan. 20, and it is open to retirees to attend. We would love to see retirees represented. Additionally, the retired conference will be on Feb. 4, tentatively from 9-2:30 at the TRA offices at 60 Empire Drive in St. Paul.
Key dates in 2020: Precinct caucuses on Feb. 25, presidential primary March 3, Senate district conventions in March, state primary August 11. General election is Nov. 3, with early voting beginning Sept. 18.