Advocacy

Advocates are comprised of businesspeople, community leaders, clergy, families and schools (administrators, educators, parents, students and staff) participating in and concerned about Florida's school choice options. They take significant action to defend and advance school choice through research, media/PR, accountability, legislative/political, program implementation and community leader influence.

Please help us grow & support the Step Up For Students (SUFS) Scholarship Program by filling out and returning the Advocacy Survey, Student Spotlight form, and/or the Admin/Staff Spotlight form (these forms may be faxed or emailed). Please include a high-resolution photo of your scholarship student when possible. Thank you for helping us, help you, support your child's scholarship!

POWER IN THE PEOPLE

The most effective resource in the struggle for educational freedom is YOU.

A case in point: At the Step Up for Students Rally, March 9, 2004, the final element of the day's activities was a sit-in at the offices of two Florida legislators: Representative Eleanor Sobel, D-Broward County and Representative Terry Fields, D-Duval County. Both had chosen to limit the opportunities for children from low-income families by opposing this program yet chose to send their own children to private schools.

Dozens of parents and administrators requested meetings with both elected officials to inquire about discrepancies between their public voting record and their own school choice practices. Eventually, Fields said -- three times -- that he would support the corporate tax credit scholarship program.

Vested parties (educators, parents, students and community members) should still be prepared to call, email or write their legislators and candidates in their Tallahassee offices to support equal educational opportunities for low-income families and let them know how you feel about the issues pertaining to the Step Up For Students Scholarship Program.

GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING:

The grassroots team maintains regular contact in some form with hundreds of private schools and parents throughout Florida providing advocates with the knowledge and skills necessary to not only effectively defend educational options for Florida families, but also to educate and mobilize others to join in support of the movement in order to ensure that the benefits and rights of all are protected.

Grassroots Advocacy and Outreach Training

The objective is to develop key parents, school personnel and community leaders to become the voices for parental school choice by promoting and defending educational options in their communities and for families throughout Florida. Workshop trainings will be developed and scheduled according to the defense and expansion needs of the program.

The trainings are designed to help participants:

Gain knowledge of parental school choice issues & their effects

Understand the legislative issues concerning the scholarships

Write effective letters for donors or legislators

Get answers to your questions regarding the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program

Learn constructive responses to negative attacks

Develop your ability to interact your legislator

Explore ways we might work with the public schools

Partnerships

Agaduth Israel - Agudath Israel represents about 100 rabbis and synagogues and works on behalf of the Orthodox Jewish Community. The group has long advocated for parental choices in education and works closely with the more than 16 Jewish schools throughout Florida that enroll nearly 450 students who receive the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship.

BAEO - BAEO represents 4,600 members and 288 black elected officials, and its mission is to increase access to high-quality educational options for black children by actively supporting parental choice policies and programs that empower low-income and working -class black families.

Black Clergy - The group of more than 30 ministers and 50 churches across Florida uses its collective power to advocate for educational options for lower-income families, and specifically support the tax credit scholarship program.

CHISPA - Coalition of Hispanic Instructors in Support of Parental Awareness (CHISPA). The group’s mission is to identify Hispanic students at risk of failing and to help parents understand the educational choices available to them.

HCREO- Hispanic Council for Reform in Educational Options (HCREO). The Chamber represents 37 local chapters and some 80,000-minority owned businesses. HCREO, based in Lake Worth, Fla., was founded in 2001 to empower Latino families to choose the right education for their children.

LULAC - Florida League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). LULAC is dedicated to promoting the educational, economic and civil well being of Hispanics nationwide through community-based programs.

Rev. H.K. Matthews. Matthews is a minister and a revered figure in the civil rights movement. He marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala., sat at segregated lunch counters in Pensacola and was jailed 35 times during the process. His autobiography, Victory After the Fall, was published by NewSouth Books in 2007. He has spent the past several years contributing to campaigns aimed at empowering low-income families with choices in education, which he called “a natural extension of the civil rights movement.” Read about his thoughts here.

Reach - Religious Educators for the Advancement of Hispanic Children (REACH) is a network formed under the leadership of Hispanic CREO to organize, educate and sustain the faith-based community around Hispanic CREO’s mission to improve educational outcomes for Hispanic students and provide information and support on parental choice in education.

SCLC – The organization founded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on February 14, 1957. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is a nonprofit, non-sectarian, inter-faith, advocacy organization that is committed to non-violent action to achieve social, economic, and political justice. Read more here.