Student IEA Political Action
Meeting Ideas for your Local
Coming up with Meeting Ideas for Political Action can be difficult. Often, college students are not interested in educational politics since they feel so disconnected from it all. Student IEA Meetings highlighting politics and PA events should show future teachers the importance of political decisions in their career as educators. We recommend that local chapters focus on educating members on various issues so that they may become politically informed. As this knowledge is established throughout the year, work to take ACTION as a community of future educators.
Political Awareness
Political Action
One way to get Political Action into meetings is a strategy called the "Fraction of Political Action." The "Fraction of Political Action" is simply taking 5 minutes at the beginning of each chapter meeting to discuss an important issue in educational politics. The UIUC chapter introcued the "Fraction of Political Action" at their meetings (twice a month) and it was met with good reviews from members. Some examples of topics are the basics of Common Core, the EdTPA, Co-teaching, local issues in your own college town, etc. You can even use the posts on this website to give you ideas!
Fraction of Political Action
A great way to connect chapters with the IEA and political action is by having a meeting held by a current member of the IEA. Contact your regional IEA office or reach out to a state board member to ask if anyone would be willing to lead a meeting about political action.
IEA Representative
Educate members and the community about any current issues affecting the quality of teaching and learning in public schools. Some ideas include: initiate letter-writing campaigns to state representatives, editorials to the media. Some topics include: unfair school funding, high-stakes student testing, teacher testing, class size reduction, teacher shortage, college affordability, school choice, pension protection etc.
Engage the Community
Political Panel
Host a panel with with speakers about political action/ issue advocacy/ social justice.
Voter Registration Campaign
Many issues affecting public education are political in nature, so encourage students to participate in the democratic process by registering students to vote. Set-up voter registration tables on campus.
Collaboration Nation!
Partner with the student government, young Democrats, and/or young Republicans on your campus to host an event together (speaker, movie night, debate watching party, etc.)
Invite Local Politicians
Local politicians make important decisions that directly affect our schools and communities. Ask local politicians to speak at your chapter meeting and discuss current educational issues. You can prepare your members by providing information about this politician prior to the meeting/event and have members brainstorm questions specifically about education issues to engage in discussion with this politician during the meeting/event.
School Board Elections
Because school boards make decisions that not only affect schools and education, but also the community, it is essential to research candidates, participate in school board elections, and remain engaged once members are elected.Contact a local IEA chapter in your area and provide assistance in school board and other local elections by phone banking, precinct walking, etc. Members will see first hand how powerful their voice can be!
Support Pro-Education Candidates
Contact your local IEA office for information about candidates in your area. Volunteering to work on a campaign is a perfect way to take your political awareness and turn it into action!
​
Pro-education candidates understand the value of bringing educators to the table when examining and writing policy. By respecting our voice, they help us to support our profession and our students. Without pro-education candidates in office, our job is more challenging.
Look to our PA posts during election years to learn more about candidate's stances on educational issues.
