The Great Schools Statewide Action Plan

The WEAC Representative Assembly adopted the Great Schools Statewide Action Plan April 25, 2004. The plan grew out of a New Business Item passed during the 2003 Representative Assembly and a February 7 meeting of local association presidents from throughout the state.

The goal of the plan is to win support for a revised system of school funding that ensures that every child has access to an adequately funded public education and a fair collective bargaining law for teachers and education support professionals.

Those goals include repeal of school district revenue controls, which have robbed schools of the resources needed to maintain quality education, and repeal of the Qualified Economic Offer (QEO) law, which has stripped teachers of their collective bargaining rights and driven them out of our great schools.

The action plan includes several actions and measures, including I See Red Day on October 15 and a plan for requesting local school boards to pass resolutions to repeal the QEO and revenue controls.

The next issue of SpeakOut will address I See Red Day more specifically.

Included in this issue of SpeakOut is a sample letter to the editor that you can adapt, localize and send to your local newspapers. A sample news release and opinion column are also included. We also have newspaper ads, fliers and door hangers. These samples and others like them can always be found in the Members Only section of OnWEAC.

We also have newspaper ads, fliers and door hangers. These samples and others like them can always be found in the Tools area of the Members Only section of OnWEAC.

If you have a letter to the editor, column or news release published in your local paper, please send a copy to SpeakOut or e-mail us to let us know where we might find it. And please feel free to let us know what you think of this resource or for any other reason at speakout@weac.org or by telephone at 800-362-8034, extension 307.

Sample letter to the editor, column and news release

Click here for a sample Great Schools Statewide Action Plan letter to the editor that you can localize, adapt, and send to your local newspapers.

Click here for a sample Great Schools Statewide Action Plan column.

Click here for a sample Great Schools Statewide Action Plan news release.

PR resources for Great Schools Statewide Action Plan

OnWEAC Members Only has a resource page devoted to the Great Schools Statewide Action Plan that explains the plan and related topics.

For this and other issues, the WEAC Public Relations and Communications campus has many resources available to help you succeed locally and contribute to the statewide effort to brand and promote Wisconsin's great schools and the teachers and staff who work in them. Go to the Great Schools Message Builder section in the Tools area of OnWEAC Members Only for customizable radio ads, newspaper ads, fliers, and door hangers. Members Only has these resources available for various occasions throughout the year, including Read Across America, Teacher Appreciation Week, and national Education Support Professionals Day.

Great Schools Statewide Action Plan message and talking points

Click here for the Great Schools Statewide Action Plan message and talking points

The WEAC Public Relations and Communications has produced the Building Relationships handbook to assist you in local PR. You can view the entire handbook online here and find out more about the WEAC branding message here.