MDPTA Legislative Report: How Does MDPTA Decide Which Bills to Support?

Karen Smith – Legislative Committee Chair

This is a report on how MDPTA decides which bills to support during Maryland's abbreviated (but fun-filled) legislative session (January through May). More than one person has inquired as to how this process works, so here it is, as I understand it.

MDPTA consists of the combined county councils of PTAs of the state of Maryland, including MCCPTA. Every few weeks during Maryland's legislative session (January through May), the Legislative Chairs from each county council of PTAs get together to review the education and child-related bills pending in the House and Senate in Annapolis. These are culled from the mass of bills pending by MDPTA's Legislative Chair, Peg Waters (AACCPTA).

Each bill is then vetted by the legislative chairs (collectively known as the MDPTA Legislative Committee), and a decision is made to support, oppose, monitor, or to take no position on the bill. These decisions are guided by positions already taken by the National PTA, as MDPTA is not permitted to take any positions in opposition to positions already taken by the PTA at the national level. Decisions are also guided by positions previously taken by the MDPTA. Beyond that, decisions are guided by the advocacy priorities of a particular legislative session, by the sensibilities, knowledge and understanding of the people who make up the committee. Positions taken by individual councils are also given considerable weight, though they are not, in and of themselves, dispositive.

This method of providing input to State PTA advocacy positions may strike you, as it did me, as inadequate or too informal. The problem is one of logistics, timing, and organizational structure. It is not possible for the entire council, or even the council's executive board, to review all of the pertinent legislation which comes up in a session -- we're too busy as it is. This is why is has been done the way that it has. However, there are a number of things we can do to improve the situation. We could (and should) proactively focus on the upcoming legislative session from the beginning of the school year (not a new idea, but a good one), using actual legislative committee members (mea culpa -- if allowed to serve, I'll do this better next year). We could also improve regular communications between MCCPTA and MDPTA, which the state legislative committee is attempting to do. We could also become more involved at the state level by making the time to attend state-wide conferences.

Next fall, for the first time, MDPTA is planning to hold a one-day mini-legislative conference on October 2, 2004, somewhere in Anne Arundel County. This conference will present workshops on the legislative process and how to make a difference within that process. This is in addition to the MDPTA conference to be held in Ocean City, MD on November 12^th and 13^th. A strong showing from Montgomery

County at these conferences could make a big difference in our ability to be heard on the state-wide issues that matter most to us.

A report on the bills that MDPTA has decided to support or oppose, and the reasons for those decisions, will be posted online on the delegates' listserv (MCCPTA_Delegates@yahoogroups.com), and next month's President's Letter will contain a summary update.