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School Business Insider
Making a Difference in Washington: Reflections from ASBO’s Advocacy Leaders
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- [00:02]
A
You're listening to ASBO International's School Business Insider. I'm your host, John Brucato. Each week on School Business Insider, I sit down with school business officials and industry experts from around the world to share their stories and explore the topics that matter most to you. Find out what it means to be a school business official and get your insider pass on all things school business. Hello everyone, and welcome back to School Business Insider. This week, we're bringing you a special episode featuring members of ASBU International's Legislative Advocacy Committee, also known as the lac. Joining me today are Brandy Smith from Montoursville Area School District in Pennsylvania, Eric Rauch from Columbus City Schools in Ohio, Chris Smith from Katy ISD in Texas, and Brian Cheknicki, executive director of Asbo NY. Together, we'll reflect on the 2025 Legislative Advocacy Conference, share takeaways from Hill Day, and discuss why federal advocacy truly matters for school business officials and students we serve. And this year, we saw the impact firsthand. Because of our advocacy fiscal year 25 title funding was released quickly and and harmful proposed cuts to the president's fiscal year 26 budget were rejected in the Senate's proposal. That proposal even included new protections to ensure funds are dispersed on time, avoiding the uncertainty we dealt with earlier this year. In this episode, we'll explore how school business officials can make their voices heard in Washington, what it's like to sit across the table from lawmakers, and why advocacy is essential during this time of uncertainty for education funding. Welcome, everyone. We got a packed house today. I'm so happy to have everyone on the podcast.
- [01:49]
B
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
- [01:52]
C
Welcome, John. Thank you for having us.
- [01:55]
D
Great to be here.
- [01:56]
A
So why don't we kick it off real quick? We'll just do a round of introductions so those listeners can familiarize themselves with everybody on today. I think most of you have been on before, so I'll just kind of go on who I see in my screen. Brian, check. Nicki, maybe we can just start with you. Give us a little bit of your background and what got you involved with the LAC with ASBO International. Yeah.
- [02:17]
D
Thanks, John. So I'm Brian Chagnicki. I'm the Executive Director of ASBO ny. I am currently the Affiliate Executive Director Group AEDG Liaison to the Legislative Advisory Committee. So I work with my fellow affiliate Executive directors from across the country and internationally in relaying the work of the LAC back to our affiliates and vice versa, bringing the voice of our affiliate organizations to the committee. I've been with Asthma New York now for four and a half years. And prior to that I actually worked with in various capacities in the state of New York. And so I've been sort of on the receiving end of advocacy for most of my career. And so this has been a new experience to be more on the on the lobbying side of advocacy.
- [03:04]
A
Great. Well, and I think you hold the title for most repeat interviews and returns to school. Business Insider. Brian, so glad to have you back on. I should have looked ahead of time before we recorded to see which one this is, but you have to be up in like the seven, eight, maybe, maybe even a 10, I don't know, something like that.
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D
A title I hope to never relinquish. So thank you.
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A
And Eric, why don't you give our audience a little bit of your background and what got you involved with lac?
- [03:32]
E
Certainly. Eric Rauch, I'm the executive director for financial affairs for Columbus City Schools. I actually came into the school business profession a little non traditionally. I spent the first part of my career actually on the other side. I was the one people were coming to do advocacy too. I worked in the Ohio General assembly in both the Ohio House and the Senate and spent a stint with the Ohio governor's office as well. By way of background. I also just finished a stint as the chair for Ohio's Legislative committee as well and was the vice chair for a few years before that. So this is something near and dear to my heart. It's part of who I am and part of what I continue to do. Glad I can continue to give back.
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A
Yeah, glad to have you on today. Brandy, how about you? Continue?
- [04:18]
B
All right. Brandy Smith, Montoursville Area School District this is my first year on the committee and I joined the committee kind of in a non traditional way, I'd like to think, because how I got to be part of it was last year coming home from Nashville, the ASBO conference, I found myself running to our next flight with the director of Advocacy and research, Elica. And on that trip from one side of the airport to the other side of the airport, she convinced me that this is where I needed to be and this is what I needed to do. And I am so glad I did. It has been a great experience so far. So that's kind of how I got involved in it. I've always kind of advocated for families and kids in our community and this has helped me really broaden that.
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A
Awesome. Well, welcome on again. And yes, Elica is very persuasive. I know that firsthand. And Chris all right.
- [05:17]
C
Well, I'm Christopher Smith, I'm the chief financial officer for Katy Independent School District. We're a district on the west side of the Houston area. About 97,000 students were a fast growth school district. And I've been in this role for 13 years and I've been in the district now for 22 years. So I've seen quite a lot of growth over my time. My introduction to the advocacy committee was Karen Smith, a neighboring district of ours, of my district, was leaving the committee and gave me a call and asked me if I would be interested in if in serving, if she put my name up and it stuck and she did and I was interested. She put it up, it stuck. And I've been very grateful to her that she, she spoke to me about that because it's been a very good experience. I've been through two conferences in Washington, trips to the Hill now, I'm sorry, three. And I've really enjoyed it and I feel like we, we've really made a difference, especially this last, this last conference. So I'm very grateful for, to her for that. I also serve on the Texas association of Business Officials as a board member and I think it works well hand in hand for me to be on serving in both roles.
- [06:34]
A
Absolutely. Well, again, glad to have all of you on. Sure, we'll have a wonderful conversation, but let's talk about the 2025 Legislative Advocacy Conference and reflect on that a little bit. So anyone who'd like to jump in, tell me what were some of the biggest takeaways this year from that conference?
- [06:49]
C
I'll just start and start off and just say, I think the biggest takeaway from the conference was the timing of it. You know, on June 30, we have found out that a lot of our title funds were going to be cut nationwide and we were able to kind of strike while the iron was hot, if you will. And in our visits to the Hill, we were able to give real life, real time reactions to those cuts and they were very open to the real life things of what was going to be happening in our schools beginning June 30, with only five weeks or six weeks left until school started, a lot of changes were going to need to be made across the country and I really felt that we were listened to because of that.
- [07:36]
B
I will also add that I think it really made us feel like we were all coming together because we were all fighting for the same thing and having that strong group of people there really helped.
- [07:50]
E
I'll echo that sentiment oftentimes when you're doing advocacy work, it can be very lonely. And having everybody together in one place, in one location, advocating for the same thing, able to tell their stories. It was amazing because we were also able to build off of each other's stories when we went to the Hill to talk. I also think that there were some really good educational sessions that were there as well. We had some attorneys come in and give us some updates. A few of them I wish we could have even a little bit more time. Some case law updates and things of that nature that I thought were very beneficial. And to me personally, having this is my first year on the Legislative Advocacy Committee, it was nice to meet people in person. We've done some zoom calls, we've done a lot of emails back and forth. But to really be able to start to build a relationship and rapport with our colleagues from around the country who are part of this committee was really, to me, one of the most important pieces of the conference.
- [08:41]
A
So the conference itself is really an opportunity for the LAC to get together in person and do some professional development as well as actually advocate. Is that correct?
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E
Correct.
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D
And zooming out. It's not just the lac. This is a conference that's open to all members. And in fact, this year, AASA and ASBO together sold this conference out. And I think obviously a reflection of lots of interest and focus on what's happening in D.C. and I think for folks like me who have lived in this space for our careers, advocacy is always a big scary thing. And it's confusing and it's intimidating and lots people want to shy away from it. And I think the current moment has generated a lot more interest and willingness in doing that. So even beyond just our group, the fact that more members of both organizations were willing to make that trip, D.C. in July is not a pleasant place weather wise. I say this as an upstate New Yorker who melts when it's 75 out. So 90 with the DC humidity is pretty terrible. But it's important work and people are willing to brave that to have these important conversations.
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A
Absolutely. Well, that's a good segue. I'm really interested in hearing about Hill Day. So, you know, the LAC is on the Hill, you're talking with legislators. Tell me, what is it like to actually meet with these lawmakers? Are there any moments or any stories that really stood out this year to you as committee members?
- [10:12]
B
I can start there because being a first year member, first time doing this, guess who was up first for the first meeting? So I was a little bit intimidated going in, but Working with the group, they made me feel really comfortable. And I will say one thing I realized I went to several meetings, but for Pennsylvania, we had Senator Fetterman, and then we had Senator McCormick. And the difference in how you have to handle each office, like, the stories you have to tell, they have to be different to kind of tailor to each senator to get their attention. So that was one of the things I learned really quick, and my colleagues really helped me understand that going throughout the day. So it was a really good learning experience. And I feel I learned a lot just through all of them. So. And their support.
- [11:15]
D
You know, I'll just share, in addition to. I mean, the meetings themselves are always great. You do have various levels of interest from both staffers and members themselves. And sometimes they're with you 100% on the issues you're talking about, and sometimes they're not. And, you know, we had a meeting with a staffer who I think we went into the meeting expecting them to not be on board with us. And I don't think we convinced them when we walked out. But there were certainly a couple of the issues that the staff was like, oh, I wasn't aware of that. I really want to look. Look into that a little more and understand it better. So those interactions are great. I do have a funny story. I'll give the truncated version. I had joined the New York delegation to meet with Senator Schumer in his office in the Capitol. And so while we were waiting in one of the lobby areas on the main floor of the Capitol, long story short, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, walked about 10ft past me in the middle of a entourage of 50 or so staffers in security. So that was. That was an interesting experience. When you're in D.C. you never know you're going to run into.
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A
Right, right. It's great.
- [12:21]
E
Brian had the best story of the day.
- [12:23]
A
Yeah, I remember, Brian. You showed me the picture. I'm like, is that B.B. no kidding. I guess this question is for the group, but I relate this to my advocacy work in New York, specifically. I've worked with you, Brian, a lot on that. When Brandi said something about learning how to advocate and speak differently to different legislators, depending on, you know, what their priorities are and really how they're reacting to what you're looking to get accomplished. When I think about advocacy on the state level, more oftentimes than not, I think you have a more familiar relationship with your lawmakers because they're so localized to where you are, where. When you. You know, go to federal advocacy. You have maybe two senators representing your state or different congresspeople representing your state that aren't necessarily local to you, but are representing, theoretically, the education in your state. Can you talk to me about how the approach is a little bit different, maybe with a federal advocacy rather than state and local advocacy?
- [13:26]
D
I would say the approaches aren't all that different. Certainly at the local level, yes, there are some actual relationships that you may have with the individual member. You may be more likely to meet with the member themselves instead of just staff, depending on sort of the time of year when you're meeting. But the approach is the same, and it's really taking home to them what the impact of these policies are on the people they represent. And there's an altruistic way to look at this, and there's a sort of a realistic way to. The altruistic way is they are representing their district, their state, and they are there for all the people. And if there's an impact on those people, they have an interest in it. There is a reality to it, which is these are jobs that they hold, that they want to continue to hold. And so in order to do that, they need to make sure they get reelected and within their constituencies that they put together to have a winning coalition. There may be some individuals there that are hurt by certain policies that you want to make that case, and you don't want to veer too much into that realistic political in these conversations, but that reality is there. And so whether it's a local member that you know well or a senator you've never met before, it's the same power dynamics at play that you want to be pushing those buttons, pulling those levers on those issues to get their attention and interest in what you're trying to advocate for.
- [14:57]
E
Yeah. Whether you're advocating at the local, state, or federal level, to me, it's three keys. Relationships, relationships, relationships about building those relationships and maintaining them. That's with staff and with the elected officials. I can't echo what Brian said. It's critical to be able to kind of look at it from both angles, to be able to know how to talk to them. But if you've developed that relationship, it goes a long way as far as being able to tell your story because they're interested. And then if they see you as an expert in the area, if they really come to rely on you, then you'll find sometimes they'll give you a call or they'll send you an email and say, hey, can you tell me what was going on. And if I think that that's one of the most important things you really do is to develop those relationships and then maintain them. And that's not just going to hilde once a year and talking to them, but then when you get home, trying to say, hey, thank you for your time, we'd love to have you into the district at some point. I think trying to continue that relationship, continue that discussion with them even outside of the halls of Washington.
- [15:58]
C
And I wholeheartedly agree with those two relationships is the main thing. It's easy. When you go to Austin, Texas and speak to your local elected officials, you have something in common. You see them a lot down here, et cetera. And. But when you go to Washington, you're going, oh, wow, I'm going all the way to Washington. But you're going to go meet with somebody likely from your state during your trip. And then it's just finding the relationship there, asking questions, looking around at the office at how what. You know, what kind of lapel pin do they have on where they went to school? You can see little things like that and establish relationships. And once you've done that, what your ask is, is. Is kind of. It's important, obviously, but you've broke. You've broken the shield down between you and the person that you're speaking with. And then, you know, you've done a good job when they call you as the expert that you've established yourself to be and say, hey, what are your thoughts on this? And then. And I got several of those on our last trip when I came back and I said, well, we have been effective. Just watch. And I was telling the folks here in my district, hey, it's going to work its way out. We hit while the timing was good. There were a lot of us there, a lot of us saying the same messages. And when I started getting those calls up, my confidence would. Went up with every call because I saw that the relationship part had worked.
- [17:28]
A
That's great. So, you know, when we talk about being experts in the field, our field is very niche and specific. So how do you effectively communicate what the role of a school business official is to legislators so they truly understand why you're sitting in front of them advocating for what you're advocating for?
- [17:47]
C
Well, we're the boots on the ground where the. We're the. We're the. The buck stops with us when it comes to spending money in their respective districts throughout the country. And so they do realize that. And I think that's an effective to be standing in front of them as the expert. You're going to know a lot more than they're going to know on that particular subject. And I think that when you can relay that and not just speak acronym and school speak, who can relay how that works in layman's terms to them? I think that's important because they listen better and they under, frankly, they understand better. They're not doing this every day. They touch on it. It's in one, one small percentage of everything that they do. And you got to find a way to try to relate it back. And you don't need to prove that you're the expert. They're going to see the title they're going to have in the introduction, they're going to say this must be the expert. But you don't need to prove it. You need to start working it and speaking their speech.
- [18:53]
B
So one thing I did was I asked if they knew how school budgets worked and I knew the answer was going to be no. So then I took the time to kind of simplify how a school budget works and what happens when funding doesn't come through. And so I kind of took that approach so that they could understand what we were doing and why it was so important for us to receive the funding that we thought we were going to get. So that's one approach I did take.
- [19:34]
A
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- [20:39]
C
I'll just say it's, it's varies from office to office. Some offices you've got 15, 20 minutes and it's a nice leisurely pace. Some office they'll tell you, hey, I've got another meeting in about five minutes, you know, and, and they kind of give you hints and I try to try to catch on those. I had one staffer this last time that when we were done after 10 minutes, knew where I was going and said, hey, let me take you there. So we walked, rode the little train under the Capitol and together and had a 10 minute walk, maybe 15 minute walk there to where I was going and really established a relationship and really got a lot of extra bonus time in, if you will. And I thought that was real from a staffer of a very difficult, if you will, Representative.
- [21:33]
A
I would like to focus on the wins and the policy impacts this year that you've all done some really wonderful impactful work. When I was introducing the episode, there was really some differences made. We talked about title funding in 2526 school year, although initially delayed, was released after Asbo and AASA's Hill Day Senate rejected harmful cuts to education and fiscal year 26 spending. What does AD. So when you, when you think back to everything that was advocated for in the winds, tell me about what that impact is for your districts and really schools across the country.
- [22:10]
E
Well, I think it means that we were able to get the, you know, we wrote, our voices were heard, we needed to get these funds released and that that delaying those was going to have the potential to cause real harm to programs and students across the country. What was nice was that I know when we were talking with one senator's office, we weren't the only group that were coming in and saying that this was going to be an issue. So they had heard this story before and I think that that helped bolster our message. It wasn't just us coming from ASBO or us coming from aasa, but there were other entities out there talking about the needs and how this was going to be detrimental from a programmatic and student outcome standpoint. That really I think started to resonate with the members and their staffs. And I think that really kind of helped get us over the, get us over the hump. And that's, I think an important part about advocacy is oftentimes finding who are your allies and how can you start building those coalitions and getting folks together to kind of broaden that scope and have that consistent message across the board.
- [23:10]
C
And I would say in my opinion, the best that I saw was when I said jobs in my district are going to be lost. We didn't have time to prepare for this. Jobs are going to go away, and here's how many. And the services to some fragile kids are going to be reduced significantly, if not cut. And that piqued their interest significantly because it was real and it was something that they could visually see.
- [23:41]
A
So, Brian, from your perspective, being the executive director of ASBO New York, how do you see state and federal advocacy connecting and really supporting each other?
- [23:51]
D
Well, I think there's all the obvious connections that federal policy often informs state policy. Federal money, at least in education, tends to supplement state money. But I think in 2025, there's an incredibly real connection in that the one big beautiful Bill act that was adopted earlier this summer is going to have a lot of Medicaid impacts on states across the country. And, and for most states, New York included, Medicaid and education are two of the largest expenses on the state side. And so I think a lot of states are going to see reduced funding on the Medicaid side. They're going to have to make some decisions about are they just going to end eligibility for their residents in the state or are they going to try to come up with state funds to fill some of that gap. And in situations where that happens, education money might be on the table. And so I think, you know, I know that's certainly a worry here in New York that, you know, these Medicaid cuts are going to be pretty significant. And so the state's probably going to have to look to ways to save money elsewhere, and school aid is going to be one of them. So, you know, in, you know, the right now, these are incredibly linked because many of the decisions being made in D.C. are going to have a direct impact in your state capital and, and an immediate impact from your state capital to your local school district. And so it's important that we're paying attention to these things. As far off as DC Sometimes feels, and as strange and intimidating as it can be, there are some very real impacts that are happening in ways that they didn't used to. And so you really need to have a state and local strategy combined together when we're thinking about advocacy. Right.
- [25:44]
A
You make such a great point because just like school districts, we have one big budget and there's a lot of individual components to that. But to your example, if Medicaid is cut in New York, it's not like that's just happening in a silo. The state is likely going to look for other sources to reduce expenditures or maybe try to pull in revenues. But to your point, in New York at least education is huge. So that would be kind of the first go to that. We need to pare that down to save our Medicare program. So that's a great point. We can't look at this in such a siloed approach.
- [26:15]
E
And then there's the law of unintended consequences. For instance, in Ohio, we just made a shift within our school funding formula this past year for our economically disadvantaged aid. It's based on direct cert and Medicaid. Well, if people start moving off of the Medicaid case roll caseloads and we start seeing more people not eligible for SNAP and other food assistance because of work requirements or the other, that's going to then start to skew what some of those economically disadvantaged numbers look like from a school funding formul. So something that happened all the way over here and yes, is also going to have an impact, as Brian said, could actually trickle in based upon how your state's funding formulas all may be structured as well in Ohio. That's a very real, it's a very real possibility for us. It is going to have a detrimental impact.
- [27:03]
C
Same in Texas.
- [27:04]
A
Well, Chris, I want to jump to you. I mean, in such a large district in Texas, how do these federal decisions impact your students and your operations? You had mentioned part of your advocacy was using real data to say that if these title funds are jeopardized or held up, we're going to have to lay staff off. And that's real numbers. But tell me a little bit more about what these federal decisions do to you in Texas.
- [27:29]
C
Well, John, I do think it's all relative. You know, I was able to say 30 people are going to lose their job. That may be three in some area. And I've just coming up with a number there. But it's all relative on the size of community or the size of the district.
- [27:46]
A
Right.
- [27:46]
C
The 30s is big. Wow number. But. But outside of that, you know, these decisions impact my district as much as they do a very small district in Arizona. We're just a larger district. You know, communicating the effects of that may be a larger, a bigger challenge for me in a larger district. But they're all, it's all relative. You know, simple fact is the decisions they make in Washington affect all of our children and we're doing our best. I know we all are across the country. But they're equally as impactful. Just maybe some on as large of a grandiose scale and some are more smaller. But it's from a relative standpoint, it's, it's all the same.
- [28:36]
A
Yeah, it's all proportional. You know, we can feel the impacts equally. So to Eric and Brandy, what, what were some of the federal programs or policies you were most passionate about advocating for this summer?
- [28:47]
B
And so besides the title funds, the things that I was advocating most for were IDA funding because that has not been fully funded and special needs costs continue to increase. So I talked about that a little bit and also my big focus was the need for consistent funding. The ups and downs don't work because we need stability in our districts. So I really focused on that message of we need something more consistent. Assistant to provide services for the kids.
- [29:32]
C
Great.
- [29:33]
A
And Eric, how about you? What, what was really hit you with being most passionate about this summer?
- [29:37]
E
Well, we, we, you know, in our school district we were, we're already facing a $50 million shortfall going forward. And so we were short about 27 million in the, in, in, in terms of federal funds that weren't going to come in. And that really, it was either those programs went, the people that were with those programs went, which were about 75 people all, all together, or we had to, we had to take make further cuts in order to sustain those particular programs, which was really challenging. I really kind of honed in on adult education. We're kind of unique in that we offer an adult education program. I know that's really important to a number of folks in Ohio and then some of the career tech that we're running out of our Title 4 program. So I know those were issues that were really important to them. But I also wanted to make sure that we brought up some of our Title 2 programs because we had Tina with us, a member of our committee and she represents in Ohio. They're called educational service centers. They're kind of these multi county consortium. But it was a one, two punch because they do a lot of professional development for us at a Title two. So if we don't do, if we don't have Title two, we're losing those staff and that's the contracted services. Then they go away, but then that impacts other jobs. So there's that again, that trickle down effect. And she was able to tell that story. But I think that's the important thing is being able to tell those stories as far as what those impacts were.
- [30:57]
A
So with the four of you coming off the heels of the advocacy conference, some school business officials may feel that their voices don't matter in D.C. maybe they have more experience locally or Maybe they've advocated in the past and nothing has really materialized. What would you say to someone like that who just feels like their voice isn't being heard?
- [31:18]
E
It takes all of us. You may feel like you're just one voice and it's sometimes it can be discouraging. I'm just one person, but when I speak and when Chris speaks and Brandy and Brian and we all start to come together, it really builds up. And first of all you don't feel like you're alone. But second, you feel that kind of it's empowering to have everybody with you kind of saying the same thing and it gets people's attention a lot more. When I went to some House office as well as Senate and, and they said we've heard from folks and it's nice to know you're not alone. But I think that when they hear the sheer volume sometimes helps grab their attention. If you're one, it can feel that way. But I think again that relationship building and doing it in conjunction with others really helps do that. So to me, I'd say in short, if you feel like your voice doesn't matter, that's not true because we're all there with you and we're going to continue to lend, lend our voices to your voice.
- [32:16]
C
And I would say when you're advocating, you're, we're all advocating for children and children regard regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or children. And I think it makes it easy to go and advocate because everybody was a child, it has children, has grandchildren, etc, and we're all fighting for them. And to me that means it's a, it's a good easy cause and something I'm proud to go advocate for.
- [32:45]
A
And, and so what about those who may be listening and, and are feeling activated and want to get involved? What advice do you have for school business officials that want to get involved for advocacy but really aren't sure where to start in this whole process?
- [32:58]
C
I, I would say that, you know, ASBO has a advocacy page. Go look at that page on there. There's resources to go and get a start. They can call anybody on this on the committee that committee is on there by name, I believe it's got our emails and then obviously Elica Yost or anybody on staff at ASBO could be a great starting point and when the five minute call they may have the energy or fuel note needed to get started.
- [33:29]
D
And I would piggyback on top of that that in addition to the resources on the advocacy page, there is the Legislative affairs community in the Global School Business Network. And so all ASBO international members are eligible to join that community and take part in those conversations. ELICA does some great updates there, but it's also an opportunity to hear from other people who are posting on there some of the issues that they're facing, both just at the state level, but then also in their state as a result of federal policy. And I think the more, the more you can just become familiar with what's happening, the more you're going to be comfortable in doing those things.
- [34:13]
B
I would say create your elevator speech and then go out and use it. You can have a similar but different elevator speech at the local, state, federal level, but be confident in it. And if you're unsure, practice your elevator speech with a colleague. Get together, go do your advocating together. Don't go alone, go in groups. It's important that we continue to advocate because we need to change the perspective of public education and we need funding to help make sure kids are successful in the next generation, is able to receive a great education.
- [35:02]
A
So in today's climate, there's a lot of concerns that public education is under attack from multiple different directions. Is this committee. Why do you feel now is such a critical time to get involved to advocate and to make sure lawmakers are aware of the challenges that education faces on a daily basis?
- [35:23]
C
I think it's the most important time in my career that I can remember anyway to advocate for children. And I'm not sure why it's happening, but the advocacy efforts need to happen. It doesn't seem like children are our priority nationwide, statewide. And it's time to. We need to all join forces. And I know that we've got a conference that comes up in July of next year. It can start tomorrow. But we need to have people you don't have to be on the committee to come and advocate for, for the children of not just your state, not just your region, but the entire country need it now more than ever.
- [36:06]
A
So as we wind down here, I'm interested to hear from each of you. You've had a lot of success this year, specifically in this session. But in broad strokes, you having experience with advocacy and you reflecting on what you've been able to do, what does successful advocacy look like to you? Brian, maybe we can kick it off with you. Yeah.
- [36:31]
D
So I have two thoughts on success and the first is take the small wins. Advocacy is really difficult and the big important things like fully funding idea very difficult to get across the finish line. It's been 50 years. It hasn't happened, Right. So you can go into this and be discouraged that you didn't walk away with that, or you can look at the one small thing that actually came. Maybe you had a list of 20 things and only one of them actually happened. Take that win, because that is still success. There's something that happened or didn't happen because of you. I think the second piece to that, regardless of what wins you can take home, the biggest win, is making sure that you have positioned yourself to be an expert. So you've built the relationships you've come in in a professional, respectful way. We all have our own individual political biases, and it's easy in this space for us to be united towards the same cause. But when we meet with individual staffers and members, especially when they disagree, you want to walk away from those meetings with them thinking, well, I don't like their specific idea, but I understand where they're coming from. I can tell that they know what they're talking about. And if I have an issue come up that maybe I will be in alignment with them, I definitely want to reach out to that person. I think a lot of the hyperbolic behavior we've seen in our politics in the last couple of years, it's really, you know, it's been glorified, and I think we see more and more of it happen. But when you are an individual school business official who's meeting with an individual lobbyist, that behavior does not go over well. And so making sure that, you know, we're treating this as a profession, just like the work that school business officials do is treated as a profession, goes a long way to building that ongoing success beyond the meeting that you're just in.
- [38:43]
A
Brandy, what does successful advocacy look from your perspective?
- [38:47]
B
Kind of echoing what Brian just said, I will say the biggest thing is opening those lines of communication and developing the relationship where you can talk to one one another and look at each other's perspectives and maybe not always agree, but know that you're listening and that communication is there, and hopefully, you know, you'll get to a point where you can persuade them. But I think just the communication and just the relationship is the biggest thing that comes out of advocacy.
- [39:23]
C
Well, I, you know, I echo relationships, and I would just say patience. You know, I remember Karen Smith telling me how long that this committee goes back to advocating for. For, what is it? The windfall provision and Social Security for folks in state pensions. That goes back a long way. And it just happened in December and January. And so there was a lot of work that went on to that. And you don't always get immediate results. And rarely, especially in Washington, you're going to get immediate results. And so just to be patient and understand that every little ball or base hit that you can get may not be big home run, but you're getting making progress and eventually things that you're advocating for will happen.
- [40:20]
E
This is a tough spot to be and everybody's already given all the good answers. I feel like I'm at the end of Family Feud where you've got to try to give that last response. I'll echo everything everybody said, but to me, what hasn't been said is really the ability to build what I'll call that network or that teamwork that we've got, both with lac, but we have with our other colleagues across the country, other school business officials. I think we've done a really good job of doing that in Ohio. I really hope we can do more of that even at the national level. I think we've got the right folks. The folks on this call and the folks I met certainly all have have the right heart and minds to get that and make that happen. I think it's really building that team and that network to go out and fan out and do what we need to do next.
- [41:05]
C
That's great.
- [41:06]
A
Well, I want to thank all of you for joining me today and congratulations and thank you for all of your work with the lac. Those of you listening, there are plenty of resources if what you heard today inspires you to get involved. You could check out the ASMO International's advocacy center at asbointl.org advocacy where there's plenty of information resources about advocacy priorities to help SBOs advocate on federal issues. You could also join the Legislative Affairs Community and ASBOS Network to access policy alerts, blogs and advocacy opportunities. You can also listen to Asbo International's On Demand webinar summer funding forecast for SBOs for an August federal update for Asbo's director of advocacy. And don't forget, save the date for the 2026 AASA ASBO Legislative Advocacy Conference July 7 to 9 in Washington, D.C. and with that, thank you again everybody for joining me on School Business Insider. And again, thank you for all of your work with the Legislative Advocacy Committee.
- [42:07]
E
Thanks, John.
- [42:08]
C
Thank you, John, for hosting this.
- [42:09]
D
Yes, thank you.
- [42:10]
B
Yes, thank you for having us.
- [42:13]
A
Thank you for tuning in to School Business Insider. Make sure to check back each week for your favorite topics on school business.