{"id":30418,"date":"2018-07-05T16:28:59","date_gmt":"2018-07-05T21:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=30418"},"modified":"2018-07-05T16:28:59","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T21:28:59","slug":"awakened-by-walkout-educators-and-parents-organize-to-elect-politicians-that-support-their-vision-for-public-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2018\/07\/05\/awakened-by-walkout-educators-and-parents-organize-to-elect-politicians-that-support-their-vision-for-public-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Awakened by walkout, educators and parents organize to elect politicians that support their vision for public schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_30430\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 5130px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30430\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/180619_Hoover_WEB-e1530825118831.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5130\" height=\"3630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/180619_Hoover_WEB-e1530825118831.jpg 5130w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/180619_Hoover_WEB-e1530825118831-1920x1359.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/180619_Hoover_WEB-e1530825118831-500x354.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/180619_Hoover_WEB-e1530825118831-768x543.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/180619_Hoover_WEB-e1530825118831-150x106.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/180619_Hoover_WEB-e1530825118831-300x212.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/180619_Hoover_WEB-e1530825118831-620x439.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/180619_Hoover_WEB-e1530825118831-1526x1080.jpg 1526w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 5130px) 100vw, 5130px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Emily Wendler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ainsley Hoover, a teacher in Enid Public Schools, says the nine-day teacher walkout helped her realized that she has to stay politically engaged if she wants change.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>On the night of the primary elections, Ainsley Hoover was at a small watch party at the Chili\u2019s restaurant in Enid. She had helped her friend, a fellow teacher, campaign for House District 41, \u00a0and they were anxiously awaiting the results.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/467800056&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p><p>Hoover, who was also tracking the vote totals for House District 40 with hopes the incumbent in that seat would lose, says she didn\u2019t use to be political. When Hoover did vote, it was usually in the presidential election.<\/p><p>\u201cI was privileged enough to choose to be ignorant about political issues,\u201d she said, \u201cExcept for social issues that I wanted to care about.\u201d<\/p><p>But Hoover said things have changed. The Enid Public Schools teacher says she\u2019s seen other educators lose their jobs due to budget cuts, and her own class sizes grow. Hoover said the nine-day teacher walkout in April was like taking a crash course in politics, and helped her understand that if she wants change, she\u2019s going to have to stay engaged.<\/p><p>She now takes voting very seriously.<\/p><p>Before she voted in the June primary, Hoover says she researched each candidate thoroughly, visited their websites and listened to interviews in which they were featured.<\/p><p>\u201cI wanted to go in and vote for every position and know where they stood,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<h3>\u201cWoke up\u201d<\/h3><p>Hoover isn\u2019t the only teacher going through this transformation.<\/p><p>Janice Hodges, a teacher in Duncan Public Schools, called her walkout \u00a0experience an \u201cawakening,\u201d and said other educators describe it similarly.<\/p><p>\u201cI heard that a lot,\u201d she said, \u201cThat people were \u2018woke up\u2019 and we can\u2019t stop thinking about it now.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_30434\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 6000px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30434\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/180622_Hodges_WEB.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"6000\" height=\"4000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/180622_Hodges_WEB.jpg 6000w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/180622_Hodges_WEB-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/180622_Hodges_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/180622_Hodges_WEB-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/180622_Hodges_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/180622_Hodges_WEB-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/180622_Hodges_WEB-620x413.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/07\/180622_Hodges_WEB-1620x1080.jpg 1620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 6000px) 100vw, 6000px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Emily Wendler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Derrick Miller and Janice Hodges, two teachers in Duncan Public Schools, are working to keep their colleagues politically engaged and informed.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>During the strike, Hodges said she and fellow teacher Derrick Miller spearheaded an effort to keep colleagues in their district informed about what was going on at the capitol. Hodges transcribed lawmakers\u2019 conversations with teachers, and Miller typed up descriptions of all the education-related bills legislators were considering at the time. The two then emailed these documents to about 60 fellow teachers.<\/p><p>\u201cThey loved it,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were so happy that we were doing this.\u201d<\/p><p>Three months later, the two Duncan teachers\u2019 efforts to keep others in the district politically active and informed are still going. Hodges and Miller are now focused on sharing information about various candidates, voter registration and election dates.<\/p><p>The goal, Hodges said, is to support and elect political candidates that will increase funding for Oklahoma schools.<\/p><p>\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s another choice,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have to make this better.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Change coming?<\/h3><p>Hodges predicts considerable political changes in the November election, and data from the primary election suggests she could be right.<\/p><p>Six Republican incumbents l<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ok.gov\/elections\/support\/ok_results_seb.html\">ost their primary<\/a> races. Another 10 of the most conservative legislators were forced into runoff elections on August 28 \u2014 some with teachers or school administrators. And Oklahoma Election Board data show more people voted in the 2018 primaries than in the 2014 general election.<\/p><p>A group of parents and educators from Bixby and Jenks said their grassroots efforts led to a 63 percent increase in voter turnout for House District 69 compared to four years ago \u2014 and the ousting of incumbent Republican Representative Chuck Strohm.<\/p>\n<h3>From public schools to parents<\/h3><p>Lisa Kramer, the co-chair of the Bixby Public Schools Parent Legislative Action Committee, said the group felt their local lawmakers didn\u2019t share the community\u2019s support for public schools, and yet the legislators kept getting re-elected. So, they started a campaign to find new representation.<\/p><p>\u201cIt has been a year-long, concerted effort to get people to register, to get people engaged, then getting people to go vote,\u201d Kramer said.<\/p><p>After looking through local voting data, the group found that most politically active people in the area were older than 50, which meant a big bloc was missing: parents of school children.<\/p><p>That\u2019s when they started targeting moms and dads in various ways.<\/p><p>\u201cWe made some videos featuring influential teachers and parents saying basically, \u2018You do all these things for your kids in life, but the one thing you\u2019re not doing is voting,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p><p>The group also set up voter registration tables for parents and teachers at back-to-school nights, and they asked people to pledge to vote in five straight elections \u2014 the June 26 primary being the first.<\/p><p>Other parents from around the state have reached out to the group seeking advice on how to organize and increase political participation in their community. Kramer plans to give a presentation at an education conference later this year and says one thing she\u2019s learned is that a relatively small number of people can make a big change.<\/p><p>&nbsp;<\/p><p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many educators in Oklahoma say the teacher walkout awakened them to the importance of staying informed, and voting. Now, these teachers, principals and school officials are not only working to educate themselves, but are also organizing into groups with the goal of enacting widespread political change. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":30433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[912,779],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30418"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30418"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30435,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30418\/revisions\/30435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}