Advocacy Action at the State Level

Walter McKenzie
2 days ago
6 min read

Educators advocating for legislation and public policy is an important component of good government. Our elected officials want and need to hear from us to help inform them on what’s best for children and for our profession. Especially at the state level, this can look a number of different ways, depending on your location and your priorities. I'm very proud that working with my congressmen and senators, we have passed and continue to sponsor an Illinois house resolution on the Whole Child. Previously, we were addressing No Child Left Behind, but then we got much more involved with the Whole Child tenets: healthy, safe, engaged, supported and challenged. We wrote these into a white paper which then became a House and Senate resolution that first came out in 2019. Here’s a snapshot of the current enacted resolution from 2025. It’s beautiful!

As I write this, we're waiting for our legislators to approve this year’s resolutions so they are each assigned a unique number. Our House and Senate resolutions, even once they’re approved, need to roll over each year and it doesn’t happen automatically. You have to reapply. In Illinois, the time frame is basically the end of January, the first of February because when they meet again in March, they will vote to approve or not approve. House resolutions seem to get approved pretty easily, and nobody argues the value of the Whole Child.

I asked my Senator, "How many resolutions can a group have?" And he said, "You can have as many as you want." So we now have four in the works: two in the Senate and two in the House. I'm pretty excited about that. Once your bill is assigned a number, you know you're on track for a vote and potential approval. In Illinois, House and Senate resolutions are rarely denied. Interestingly, they don't receive a lot of these for consideration in Illinois. When I asked my State Senator, "How many resolutions do you get in a given year?" He responded, "Last year we had five” and he assured me, "We'll renew yours."

Where do we get started with resolutions? I've got a team of people on my board helping to write white papers, and we turn those into resolutions for our State Senator and State Rep to put them on the books. We’ve submitted resolutions on teacher leaders, the teacher pipeline and critical thinking using AI in the classroom, based on our position papers. I met with my State Rep and State Senator to address them and roll our Whole Child resolution forward for the current legislative year.

We’re very lucky to have extremely approachable legislators when it comes to education. In fact, I'm working with another organization who is located in a different legislative district. Unfortunately, her State Senator are not very receptive to her, and so she’s now working with the Senator from my district. When I asked my State Rep about her, I cautioned, "She's not one of your constituents." But he was so receptive he welcomed the chance to work with her. “Oh, come on over. Come on down!” and they put her proposal through the house because they liked it. Of course, you work with the secretary and staff in your legislator’s office on a day-to-day basis. They keep in contact as it moves through committee, when it's in markup, and when action is taken. These relationships with staff are key in successful advocacy work. Be sure to get and keep the contact information on each staff member you connect with so it’s easy to follow up. Never take no for a final answer. In advocacy work, always look for work arounds and alternate ways forward and use your connections with staff to find new paths to success.

Networking with other organizations is also key. We’re taking a look at advocacy at the federal level because we received an alert from The Worthy Educator regarding The Teachers Are Leaders Act (H.R.5056), proposing to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide for teacher leader development. Most resolutions are numbered in the hundreds, but because it's in the 5,000s it’s been in the works for a number of years and they roll that over every year. We had a meeting with our U.S. Congressman Brad Schneider last week.

I was meeting with staff when he walked in and asked, "May I join you?" It was great, because you rarely have the chance to meet with the real McCoy. We were told we would have 15 minutes but he stayed well over half an hour. They asked, “As long as we have you here, can we ask you a question about X, Y, and Z?" The congressman was very, very helpful and very, very nice to talk with. He shared he's working on a universal preschool bill, a program for free community and junior college tuition, an initiative for lowering the cost of child care, more internship and apprenticeship programs in schools, and teacher aids in all K-3 classrooms. So now instead of us going to him with what we want, the script is flipped and he's telling us, “You can help me pass these items on my legislative agenda.”

In fact, the Congressman showcased our visit in his most recent newsletter to constituents:

“Richard Lange stopped by our office and we were joined by his colleagues from across Illinois to discuss my bill, the Teachers Are Leaders Act, a bill I reintroduced in August to expand eligibility under the Teacher Quality Partnership program to include teacher leader programs that support the professional growth of current educators. These programs would strengthen areas such as curriculum development, family and community engagement, and peer coaching.

By creating more leadership pathways for experienced teachers, this bill would strengthen the pipeline of qualified educators and school leaders while improving outcomes for students.

We also discussed proposed changes at the Department of Education and their potential impact on schools, educators, and students across Illinois. Let me be clear: The Administration's efforts to defund core programs or transfer them to other agencies are a thinly veiled attempt to strip the department for parts and eliminate it entirely. I remain committed to ensuring the promise of public education survives this Administration’s relentless attacks.”

Build relationships by walking right up to your reps at public functions and say, “Hi, how are you?” and give them a hug or handshake. When they’re home in your district, they hold town hall meetings, coffees and office hours to meet with constituents. Sign up to attend and be sure to go. The more they get to know you, the more effective you will be in advocating for your priorities. encourage you to find other education colleagues to make connections and keep pushing forward, In the game of government advocacy, always look for new ways to advance your cause. One day things look dim, and then you turn around a day later and everything changes and you're in.

I encourage my board members to make a list of their reps and I challenge them, “Okay, by the time we have our annual board retreat, I want a report from each of you on what you did with your local legislator.” I have them look up their State Senator and Rep and see what they recently acted on, and then call them and congratulate them for their recent legislative success. Instead of approaching them with, “ I want I want I want,” just thank them for signing off on a particular bill and ask if they have time for you to come in and talk about it. As an example, when we ask our legislators to endorse the tenets of the Whole Child, there's no cost to them. We get our foot in the door with a focus that does not require funding.

Our next steps in 2026? Having my board select one priority from the list Congressman Schneider gave us to champion. We’ll develop a white paper on it and then parlay that into a proposal for the next legislative cycle. It’s wise to select those things that we can really champion and gather a lot of momentum around. With many challenges in advancing what’s best for children, there are many opportunities. Advocates find those opportunities and turn them into wins.

Hear more from Richard here!

Richard Lange is an active board member of Illinois ASCD/PD 365 where he co-chairs its Advocacy and Influence Committee. In addition, he is the founder and leader of Mentors.net and an adjunct faculty member for National Louis University, where he supervises student teachers. Richard is a regular presenter on education issues for US and international organizations and a consultant for Baehr Partners, Switzerland. You can connect with Richard via email.