Public Education
This issue working group addresses how to improve public understanding of the value of public education in a democracy, the realities of its present condition, and how to strengthen public education rather than dismantling it.
Members of the Public Education working group exchange ideas and information about:
- How public opinion regarding this issue is formed and how you think it should be influenced in order to advance progressive views on the issue,
- Marketing and communications strategy related to this issue,
- Barriers to communicating about this issue,
- Coordination needs,
- Resources of which you are aware, etc.
If Public Education is your primary issue area, you will have the opportunity
to work with other members of your group on specific plans for promoting public
education during the March 2006 Progressive Roundtable convening.
To get started, please contribute to the active forum topics for the Public Education working group, and visit the Public Education section of our Resource Library.
Recent events make it clear that the energy exists within the Hispanic community to enable Hispanics to reach their full political potential, which, if managed correctly, can sustain the progressive movement and help it grow. However, in order to be successful, progressives must communicate effectively with the Hispanic population through an approach that can deliver messages utilizing new technologies at the neighborhood level. Iowa, a bell weather of politics and demographics, can serve as a testing ground for on-going engagement with the growing Hispanic population. Housed within the Center for Civic Participation, which operates nationwide in a number of states from its Minneapolis office, the Iowa Project is an expansion of the strong and targeted community-specific work that has been done in Iowa's Hispanic community. Hispanic civic participation is critical to the lasting implementation of progressive agendas; The Iowa Project is a long-term strategy that can achieve rapid intermediate results, with the possibility of subsequent expansion into other Midwestern states, as well as those states with large Hispanic populations.
By focusing on skill-building for key progressive leaders, the Rockwood Leadership Program proposes to organize national and regional think tank leaders and facilitate collaboration in visioning, messaging and program across the boundaries of organization, issue focus, and geography. Drawing on training methodologies from community organizing, private sector leadership development programs, and its deep experience facilitating progressive social change, Rockwood delivers intensive workshops that help key leaders create the visioning, partnership and implementation skills associated with highly successful public policy campaigns. The stages in infrastructure-building, in the Rockwood model, begin with:
