The NEA's Washington staff identified House members critical to the outcome of the vote, including those playing key roles in the debate and those still undecided. The union then flew in "Congressional contact teams'' from their home districts--at the national union's expense.
No other education group has a lobbying network as extensive and aggressively employed the NEA's-- and other groups do not pay the amateurs' expenses. But they all recognize the value of having constituents contact lawmakers.
"We find that in any Congressional office where we are really successful and they really listen to us, it's because they have ties to administrators back home who come and see them regularly,'' says Bruce Hunter, director of government relations for the American Association of School Administrators.
Much of the lobbying done by association and union members takes place at home, where they keep in frequent contact with their representatives by telephoning them, visiting their district offices, inviting them to school functions, and directing letterwriting campaigns at them. But it is also important "to make that homeWashington connection,'' says the NEA's Edwards.
Some education groups bring members to Washington every year for "legislative conferences,'' at which, in addition to lobbying, they listen to speakers from Congress and the Education Department.
State officials, administrators, and school-board members give similar answers when asked why they come: to learn what is going on in Washington that could affect them back home, and to be heard.
The National School Boards Association and the AASA schedule their major lobbying campaigns for January, when Congress sets its agenda for the coming year, although both groups occasionally bring in some members at times of pressing need.
The AASA assembles its "core group'' of about 90 politically active administrators in January to help chart the organization's course and influence Congress, Hunter says.