Underdog Victories

Inspired Citizens Challenge Budget Cuts and Other Policies  

By Dave Arnold

You can’t fight city hall, as the adage goes. To that I say “phooey.” There is a way to challenge Big Brother. Most Education Support Professionals (ESP) who I know will stand their ground when big government or big business is unfair or unjust. How? Through solidarity.

As most Association members will tell you, there is strength in numbers. All those workshops on organizing and recruitment offered at Association conferences attest to the effectiveness of teamwork.

When ESPs and teachers are defending public schools, for example, they are not afraid to take on whoever or whatever is in their way. We know that we have each other’s backs covered.

NEA Members Unite

You can read about Association victories for children and schools at the National Education Association's Legislative Action Center. On a page titled, “Success Stories,” it says that “your e-mails to elected officials, added to those from other educators, parents, and community members, create a powerful cumulative effect.”

Last year, after a distressing phone call from my daughter, I learned about the power of a united community.

Citizen Soldiers

My daughter works as a bookkeeper at our local prison in Vandalia, Illinois. When I returned her call she was in tears. She told me that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich had just announced that he planned to close the Vandalia Correctional Center (VCC). The decision was part of a budget-cutting measure. While my daughter is actually employed by Lake Land Community College, the programs she works on are affiliated with the prison. Her job was on the chopping block.

Since VCC is the county’s primary employer, the economic impact of its closure would be devastating. For a moment after the phone call, I was speechless. However, I knew I had to comfort my daughter. I said to her, “It ain’t over till it’s over. We’re going to fight this.

As founder and member of the ESP local Association, and as a longtime member of the National Education Association, I knew immediately that we, citizen soldiers, could get organized and challenge the governor. 

I never guessed the power and magnitude of that sentiment. For nearly six months, the affected area experienced hell on earth. Some VCC employees threw in the towel and transferred to other prisons. Others took jobs out of state. Sadly, three couples divorced over the impending closure, and two people committed suicide. Economically, there was a 25 percent loss of business in our county from the announcement alone. Emotions were running so high that Gov. Blagojevich received death threats in the mail.

Grassroots Know-how

The director of the Illinois Department of Corrections said in a news conference that the closer of VCC would only affect about 250 of the 525 employees who couldn’t be transferred to other job sites. Those 250 workers and their families, according to Big Brother, were plain out of luck.

These numbers didn’t matter to the 6,000 people who gathered in a protest on Main Street in Vandalia. It was clear that the prison closure was divesting an entire community, not just prison employees. The grassroots campaign continued with the following:

• Hundreds of people lobbied each week at our state capitol in Springfield
• More than 100,000 petitions were delivered to the statehouse containing millions of signatures
• 300-plus school children wrote letters telling how their lives would be changed if their parents were forced to relocate
• Over 100 educators lobbied and testified how the closer of VCC would destroy county school systems

All for One

Last July (2004), Gov. Blagojevich announced he and the legislature had reached a budget agreement that included keeping VCC open. Upon hearing the announcement, Vandalia Mayor Rick Gottman and his wife embraced one another on camera and wept. Vandalia hosted a celebration in August that featured free carnival rides and live music. Townspeople sang and danced in the streets in unity.

If the prison employees had been the only ones fighting, they would have likely received little attention from Big Brother. However, the governor underestimated the power of solidarity. He also overlooked the long history of unionism in our community. 

When you are a member of a community or organization, such as NEA and local Associations -- what affects one affects all.

 More Dave's columns.

(Dave Arnold, a member of the Illinois Education Association, is head custodian at Brownstown Elementary School in Southern Illinois. He can be contacted at dparnold@csuol.com.)

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NEA or its affiliates.