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Nonpartisan Strategy: COSF Reflection

Background

As misinformation has become an effective political tactic, extremist groups have been able to control the narrative around public schools with pointed attacks on equity policies and practices. In turning schools into political battlegrounds, it has created a binary “us against them” mentality that never existed before. Education policy historically was the common ground issue that did not divide elected officials along party lines. In fact, most school boards are nonpartisan bodies because every voter—regardless of whether they had kids in public schools—agrees that education is above politics.


Because extremist rhetoric tends to push people into one direction or another, many school districts find themselves caught in the middle of a political debate between two opposing viewpoints that don’t reflect the needs or desires of the community. Additionally, these debates fixate on topics that don’t address the most pressing needs in the school community.


Our children will only be able to receive the education that they deserve if we reestablish a shared consensus in support of great schools for every child. We must support and activate the broad and vital center that will help our children and their school communities get back to the business of learning, and support our schools’ efforts to improve, rather than punish them for their current shortcomings.


Challenge

There must be a common ground atmosphere to debate substance. COSF recognized the need to bring together people of goodwill from all points along the ideological spectrum to support high-quality public education that is truly accessible and effective for every child who walks through the schoolhouse doors.


The argument over equity-based policies and practices does not have to be partisan. The recent spate of legislative and political action runs afoul of fundamental American and conservative values such as free speech, local control, government overreach and liberty embedded in family choice.


Approach

The common ground imperative drove a crucial stream of COSF’s work and shaped our strategy from the beginning. Our Advisory Board was ideologically diverse, and we encouraged a healthy dialogue among our internal staff and external consultants. We also operated with the understanding that education is a supremely local issue and that all of our work must be tailored to the states and communities in which we operated.


Conservative Outreach

Our work in this arena was rooted in our partnership with an independent public affairs firm and leading conservative figures in the education world who shared our commitment to childrens’ access to a free, high-quality K-12 education. Our work broke down into two categories:


Stop anti-equity policies:

We identified and lifted up core conservative principles regarding school governance and oversight, such as high-quality educational opportunities and academic freedom, student achievement and life success, and business competitiveness and workforce development. These arguments were especially effective in Arizona and Ohio, with different local conservative groups raising objections to bills in those states. Our tactics included

  • Drafting and placing op-eds by conservative influencers in conservative outlets addressing how anti-equity legislation is out of sync with conservative values.

  • Strategically engaging conservatives as messengers to lobby other conservatives to prevent the passage or implementation of bills in key states and to work to shift the media narrative around those that have passed.

  • Coordinating with organizations to amplify conservative objections to harmful legislation/policy

  • Convening center-left and conservative advocates to articulate common ground in defense of equity in public education


Limit anti-equity policies:

Since our founding in October 2021, COSF engaged in Republican-led outreach grounded in core conservative principles in ten states: Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. Our primary goal for this phase of work was to reduce the harm caused by the current politicized firestorm around our schools, amplifying conservative objections to ill-considered legislative proposals and championing less harmful bills and approaches to implementation. We also worked closely with school leaders to ensure that they fully understood what new laws do and do not say, and how best to connect with their stakeholders to forestall community turmoil. Tactics included

  • Analyzing previous, existing, and proposed legislation, executive action, and attorney general opinions in key states

  • Developing and refining alternatives and key messaging

  • Researching to understand the concerns, interests, and opinions of center-right and conservative parents and other school stakeholders


Progressive Outreach

Our role among progressive organizations was mainly advisory. We counseled politically-focused organizations on the nuance of education policy and polItics. COSF occasionally took a more public stance when other education organizations were not in a position to speak out.


Messaging training

Based on extensive polling, we developed messaging guidelines for broad-based education topics as well as specific culture war issues. These messaging strategies and talking points were common ground and helped progressive organizations explain their points of view in a language that made sense to general audiences. We distributed these knowledge through

  • Regular training sessions and tailored workshops based on the needs of specific partners

  • A shared research archive with peer organizations

  • Rapid response messages to partners

  • Regular consultation and review of partner messaging


Field and organizing

Working on the ground in Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, West Virginia, we developed coalitions of local grassroots organizations and individuals to fight against anti-equity policies. With the help of embedded local organizers, we

  • Convened coalitions across regions within each state to share resources and compare notes

  • Provided trainings on a broad range of topics to equip individuals with the community organizing skills to keep the momentum of the work going

  • Collected stories of the harmful consequences of anti-equity policies and worked with progressive organizations to distribute them within the communities

  • Mobilized a public response hearings by state and district school boards and drafted public testimony


Results

COSF’s efforts within states and nationally have resulted in stronger public will and amplified partner efforts to defeat negative attacks against equity. Indicators of impact include

  • Presented messaging and legislative research and talking points to House Dems and their staff so that they could push back against HR5–the ‘so-called’ Parents Bill of Rights Act,  and HR 734, The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. Both passed but Democrats shifted their language to be more inclusive of the parental rights frame and mounted an aggressive defensive effort.

  • In partnership with the Creative Artists Agency (CAA), COSF launched the #LetAmericaRead campaign, an initiative to spread awareness about book bans across the country. Celebrities are using their platforms to share their favorite banned books and the importance of fighting back against proposed bans. In just seven days, the Let America Read Instagram account accumulated more than 4,000 followers and the social media posts from partners have amassed more than 3.8 million impressions.

  • Drafted and placed op-eds by conservative influencers in conservative outlets addressing how anti-equity legislation is out of sync with conservative values.

  • Provided extensive crisis management & response for The Teaching Lab, a professional learning organization, when they were ambushed by conservative news outlet Project Veritas. COSF team provided coaching, connections to legal and security professionals to support Teaching Lab’s response and intervention to thwart the impact of the expose. We utilized this experience to develop and deliver preventative training for other professional learning organizations who have been targeted.

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