Funding Alert

In late June, the NJ Legislature approved $3.9 billion in bonding to continue the school construction and renovation program begun years earlier and stalled when funds were no longer available. (For more information, see NJ Legislature Approves $3.9 Billion for School Construction Projects in the June OC/OS Newsletter.)

Passage of this legislation was a victory for public school advocates given what appeared to be bleak prospects for winning new money at the 11th hour, just prior to the end of the legislative session on June 30. Certainly the outcome of this battle is cause for celebration, and some reflection.

Among those who devoted time and effort to obtain new school construction funding are several dozen e-activists linked by the Paterson Education Fund’s (PEF) Capwiz E-activism Program. Capwiz is a web-based program that allows an organization to manage an e-mail list of users, sending them alerts and providing them with simple tools that make it quick and easy to contact a target. Through Capwiz (see PEF’s "Action Alert Center"), anyone can use the PEF website to track legislation or send a letter to the editor or to elected officials. Website visitors can even register to vote through Capwiz.

Capwiz came in very handy as the school construction funding battle heated up, with "heated" being the operative word! On June 9, a heatwave hit New Jersey. As the temperature climbed to 100 degrees, schools were closed, and Governor Corzine got some media attention as he called for $2.9 billion dollars to restart school construction. Only two freshmen Assembly members signed onto the bill, and there was no Senate version. Pundits like Paul Mulshine lashed out, calling people that complained about heat in the schools whiners.

PEF seized this organizing opportunity and sent an alert to 600 subscribers around the state asking them to take action during the heatwave by urging their legislators to sign on as cosponsors of the school construction bill. Activists responded to the alert with e-mails to their legislators’ offices. Over the next two weeks, PEF worked with allies, including the Our Children/Our Schools campaign, the Education Law Center, the NJ League of Women Voters, the NJ Black Issues Convention and other organizations, to track the progress of the legislation.

PEF sent targeted alerts to subscribers to let them know their representative’s position. When legislators started to sign on as cosponsors, PEF immediately sent e-mails to subscribers in their districts asking activists to reward them with thank-you calls. When PEF learned that a key legislator was sponsoring a bill that would make it more difficult to raise money for school construction, constituents were alerted, and they flooded the legislator’s office with calls. The legislator’s name came off the bill.

PEF checked the legislative website daily and relied on allies for an understanding of some of the inside politics. As bills changed, sponsorships changed, and hearings and votes were scheduled, PEF kept subscribers in the loop and helped them to act at key moments.

Because Capwiz can track who opens e-mail messages, who takes action, and which legislators or media outlets are contacted by members, PEF is able to say definitively that their subscribers made a difference in this legislative battle. Two-thirds of the sponsors of the school construction bill were legislators that PEF activists had reached out to through Capwiz. All of the legislators contacted by activists, except one diehard Republican, voted for school construction funds.

What is perhaps most surprising is that it did not take large numbers of people to make an impact. About 60 people took some kind of action (mostly a call or an e-mail), generating around 150 actions targeting 11 legislative districts, 25 legislators, Governor Corzine and five media outlets.

"Sixty people spent what probably amounted to no more than half an hour each and were able to help win $3.9 billion dollars of school construction money to help build our children's schools," said Irene Sterling, PEF President. "We don't think e-activism alone will win a difficult campaign, but it is a useful and important tool."

Brief Update on School Construction Funding

Over the course of the summer, the Schools Development Authority (SDA) identified the renovation or construction projects in Abbott districts on which $2.9 billion will be spent. Approximately $1 billion dollars has been earmarked for non-Abbotts and $50 million for county vocational schools.

Also this summer, there has been some backlash against the Legislature’s facilities funding decision. Steve Lonegan filed a lawsuit aimed at voiding this round of school construction borrowing. Lonegan is a former mayor of Bogota and the leader of the New Jersey chapter of Americans for Prosperity, which advocates "limited government and free markets," according to the organization’s website. While a similar suit filed by Lonegan several years ago was rejected by the NJ Supreme Court, it is clear that there will continue to be voices speaking against school construction funding.

Education advocates, on the other hand, have begun to talk about the need for a stable, long-term source of funding for school construction to ensure that all of the urgent facilities needs around the state can be met.

Visit the Paterson Education Fund website at www.paterson-education.org for more information about PEF; click on "Act" in the upper righthand corner to be connected to PEF’s Action Alert Center.