AAUW Ohio Public Policy E-Newsletter

By Jackie Evangelista, AAUW Ohio Public Policy Chair, 1-20-12

Dear AAUW/Ohio Presidents, Public Policy Chairs, their Stand-Ins, and Newsletter Editors: You can make a difference in the 2012 election. Get your branch involved in developing voter guides, turning out the vote or participating in e-mail campaigns. This e-newsletter offers some options that will be expanded on at the upcoming AAUW/Ohio Convention in Findlay. As always, I love hearing about programs you are conducting on public policy issues and efforts you are making to expand awareness about the many issues in the AAUW Public Policy Program being violated in Ohio now. Please help me keep my e-mail lists updated by informing me when you have any changes in the officers who are receiving this e-newsletter. Thanks. Jackie

ACTION ALERTS
1. The current focus in the Ohio legislature is on defunding Planned Parenthood. Please go to this page: http://www.ppao.org/Advocacy/Defunding-Advocacy.html and carry out the four recommended actions. And please read the talking points provided. If women don’t begin standing up for reproductive rights, soon we will have none.2. Anti-abortion activists are circulating petitions to get a personhood amendment on the ballot similar to the one Mississippi voters defeated in November. Go to: http://www.healthyfamiliesohio.org/Pledge.html and pledge that you will decline to sign a petition that gives full personhood rights to fertilized eggs. 
3. Thank President Obama for rejecting calls to restrict access to no co-pay insurance for birth control at: http://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/.  Please ask members to forward these links to all their friends.

THE BIG 3 AND THE AAUW PUBLIC POLICY PROGRAM

As most members are aware, AAUW has a diverse public policy program and an outstanding director in Ohio native Lisa Maatz, who will be keynoting at our upcoming convention as well as offering a breakout on getting out the vote. It falls mainly on the shoulders of the president, public policy chair and newsletter editor—I’ll refer to you henceforward as the Big 3–to inform members about our public policy positions and the issues that need attention at any given time. Staying abreast of the issues may seem daunting, but using the tools provided by AAUW and AAUW Ohio on their excellent websites as well as in this e-newsletter can greatly simplify the task.

As part of the Big 3, you should already have taken the time to read the AAUW Public Policy Program and to have ordered copies of the program at no cost for members. These can also be distributed at public meetings. While you are at it, order 25 free copies of AAUW’s new research report, Crossing the Line: Sexual Harassment at School (2011).

The Shop AAUW website also offers free membership brochures. The Big 3 should also check in with the Action Network before meetings or newsletter publication to see what actions AAUW is currently requesting and use your time with members to ask them to go online and voice their opinions.

At this time in history, much power has devolved to the states, and Ohio legislators have taken many actions in the past few years that are in opposition to the AAUW Public Policy Program. You can track these issues on the AAUW Ohio website at www.aauwoh.org. The site, for example, reports about a program on charter schools by Steve Dyer, the former state rep who spoke at our Leadership Conference last summer, to be presented by the Toledo Branch Jan. 28. It also reports on a film entitled “When Abortion Was Illegal” that will be shown at the 39th anniversary observance of the Roe v. Wade decision in Columbus on Jan. 24 sponsored by Freedom of Choice Ohio, a coalition that AAUW Ohio is a member of.

You can also find the testimony of our advocate, Karen Rainey, on the Heartbeat Bill, H.B. 125, on the site as well as many other items related to Ohio issues of import to AAUW members. Our web manager and Ohio Orbit editor Paula Maggio is always adding items to the website, so check it frequently.

One way to more efficiently track AAUW public policy issues is to create a bookmark file that includes all the links listed in this newsletter as well as any others you think are important. These might cover the topics of education, reproductive choice, voting rights or trafficking, for example. Carrying out the responsibility of informing and involving members in the AAUW Public Policy Program is just a matter of setting the intention and then getting organized. As part of the Big 3, you have the opportunity to make AAUW more meaningful to your members and to show visitors that we stand for something bigger, something important to the advancement of women and our country. That will make your branch more attractive to both prospective and current members.

CONVENTION REGISTRATION FORM AVAILABLE

The last issue of the Orbit gave an overview of the upcoming AAUW Ohio Equity Day and Convention 2012 to be held April 14-15 at the Findlay Inn in Findlay. Now the registration form has just become available. Both were attached to this newsletter and will soon be available online. The next mailed Orbit scheduled to arrive in mid-February will also cover the convention.

The proceedings will actually start Friday evening, April 13, with the All-Convention Book Read focusing on Diane Ravitch’s The Death and Life of the Great American School System. It will start right after the board meeting, which all members are invited to witness. This is a wise book packed with a lifetime of accumulated knowledge that arrives at a pivotal time in history when public education is under unprecedented assault. It is worth your time to read and discuss it. If you don’t have any open programs before the convention, why not suggest that your members read and discuss it via e-mail? Being that the book is pretty hefty, you might ask certain members to read and write a one-page report about certain chapters.

Overall convention programming offers a lot for those who are interested in public policy starting with Lisa Maatz’s keynote and breakout on getting out the vote. Karen Rainey and I will offer a breakout on public education and voting rights while Jaime Miracle of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio will attend to update us on recent developments on the reproductive choice front. Of course, you will also come home with ideas for membership and programming. Members who have taken the time to attend convention always enjoy it, and going with a group from your branch can be a peak experience that can end up guiding your branch in unexpected and productive new directions as those branches who got involved in the trafficking issue have experienced.

STATE LEGISLATIVE ATTACKS ON EDUCATION AND CHOICE

HB 136, which would have provided vouchers of varying amounts to individuals making up to $95,000 in all Ohio school districts regardless of their success, motivated so many complaints from local school superintendents that its lead sponsor has suggested five primary revisions that would reduce its negative impact. These are summarized in a Plain Dealer article. But, if you haven’t already done so, I still encourage you to read the analysis of the original bill to see how radical the current crop of legislators really is and recognize how important it is to turn them out of office. The author uses the Dublin school district as an example showing that if 2,613 of the system’s 13,910 students were to request a voucher, it would bankrupt this “Excellent with Distinction A+” system. Even under the revised plan, additional taxpayer monies would be diverted to unaccountable schools at a time when public schools are struggling to survive. Are we going to accept this without push back?

The policies being promoted by these legislators are equally radical in the area of reproductive freedom from their current attempt to defund Planned Parenthood (see Action Alert above) to their sponsorship of H.B. 125, the Heartbeat Bill. I have attached the argument against this bill that is posted on the NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio website, where you can read the many other bills that pro-choice forces are fighting at present. This attachment also includes the questions that Ohio Right to Life asked those running for the state legislature prior to issuing their recent endorsements. It may be hard to hear, but AAUW branches have mirrored society for decades in that they have been willing to look the other way while anti-abortion advocates have chipped away at reproductive freedom. If the Heartbeat Bill passes the Senate (it has already passed the House), it will ignite an expensive taxpayer funded defense of the bill. If the bill is upheld, it would essentially outlaw abortion in Ohio because most women do not know they are pregnant before a heartbeat can be detected. The consequences of a personhood amendment would be even more dire likely resulting in the outlawing of the most popular methods of birth control in addition to abortion.

I would like to repeat what I said in the last issue of this newsletter: The only way to stop this attack on our public schools and reproductive freedom is to elect legislators who support our positions on the issues. This is why I suggest a three-pronged approach that could be carried out by a sub-committee of committed branch members. First, proactively look for and encourage viable women who support our issues to run for state office from your district. Peruse this website for guidance: http://www.thewhitehouseproject.org/.

Second, develop an e-mail list of friends who would like to support public education and reproductive freedom and get them involved in contacting legislators and spreading information. And third, create and distribute a voter guide before the Fall 2012 election showing which legislators support and which oppose public education as well as other AAUW positions on issues like reproductive choice and voting rights. Consider scheduling a public meeting around this project in coalition with as many like-minded groups as you can get together. Get media involved, and use online resources. We will expand on this concept at the convention. Please attend. 

Read past issues.