The Overton Window podcast looks at issues around the country and talks to the people who change what is politically possible. It’s meant to inform people about how policies shift from being unthinkable to being irresistible. The most frequent, tried and true method to get legislation enacted is by meeting with elected officials and asking them to pass legislation. This fundamental expression of First Amendment rights is otherwise known as lobbying. And I spoke with Beth DeShone, the executive director of the Great Lakes Education Project, about her experience in issue lobbying.

DeShone, who lobbies on education issues in the state of Michigan, has a vision and tries to figure out how to get there by persuading elected officials. “It comes with a recognition on our true north, being that every family — parents specifically — recognize what their children need when it comes to education. That they’re the first teachers for their children. True north needs to be providing options for all children in the state of Michigan for what they need to be successful on their learning journey,” DeShone says.

Then it’s a matter of meeting with legislators and fostering relationships with them. She has no great secret about how to do it. “Quite honestly it’s just time,” DeShone says, “And just being genuine, right? I think it’s important to go to them at the beginning and not ask for anything.”

That means not just asking lawmakers to support or oppose legislation, but also listening to what they have to say. “Seeing if they have any questions. Seeing if they’ve had experience with this in their districts, and hearing what it is that they have to say on the issue, and trying to find a way to resolve any potential differences,” DeShone says.

She’s in a stronger position when she brings along people who are directly affected by the policy in question, especially when those people are constituents of the elected official they are meeting. “The ideal situation on issue-based lobbying is bringing a parent, a family, a teacher, a school leader — someone who’s been impacted positively or negatively — by a certain policy issue that we look to advance or defeat, and let them share the story of why this is needed or not,” DeShone says.

She talks about her work on the state’s third grade reading law, which calls for most third grade students to be retained for another year if they aren’t proficient readers. “In order to be successful, we have to have those fundamental building blocks of literacy in place and to be proficient in those fundamental building blocks.”

“We made sure that, whether it was parents or teachers during the process of passing that law a few years ago, (they) came in to Lansing, testified in the committee process, came to meetings with individual legislators to talk about the importance of literacy.”

A lot of parents saw their children struggle through the COVID-19 pandemic, so there are a lot of people willing to speak out about education choice. “Carrying their voice forward and their story forward is what matters,” DeShone says.

Beyond showing legislators the people affected by their policies, the Great Lakes Education Project also engages with candidates and elections through a political action committee. The PAC endorses candidates as they run for office, sends out advertisements to voters, and provide contributions to support candidates who align with its mission and priorities. To figure out their preferred candidates, PAC leaders send out an educational issue questionnaire, and they bring candidates in to interview. “By establishing those very early relationships while these folks are still candidates, before they even become a legislator, lets them know that the Great Lakes Education Project is a resource on education policy, and hopefully an ally for them once they get to Lansing,” DeShone says.

“But I don’t like to rely just on that. I see that as the starting point. We’d like to strengthen those relationships once they are a sitting member of the Legislature, and meet with them independent of a campaign setting.”

She mentions two accomplishments that bring her the most pride. She helped eliminate the cap on the number of charter schools, which happened in 2011. “The opportunity to grow the school choice sector in the state was something that I’d extremely proud of being a part of.”

She also mentions her work in trying to get students scholarships through education savings accounts, which would help them go wherever they want. It required a lot of negotiation with groups and discussions about the best approach to getting the proposal through the Legislature. “GLEP played a role in both parts of that, in the creation and the idea and working with legislative leadership to move it through to the process to get it to the governor,” DeShone says. The coalition expected a veto but had plans to gather signatures to force a legislative vote that didn’t require gubernatorial approval.

Effective lobbying requires discernment to judge where lawmakers are on an issue and how far they may be willing to go, or how much they will fight against a proposal. “True north for GLEP and for others would have been a universal, every student in the state of Michigan, would have access to an education savings account,” DeShone says, “But we knew that wasn’t a feasible concept in short order to pass through the Legislature.”

“If you are pure, philosophically driven organization or person looking to advance something, my advice would be: Don’t make perfect the enemy of the good. That’s easy to say sometimes and very hard to live that out in reality,” DeShone says.

“If I could wave my wand and find one thing that would make my job easier, it would be having citizens understand that their voice is so imperative to the decisions that are made on their behalf,” DeShone says, “That they need to utilize that voice to advocate for the issues as well.”

Check out the conversation at the Overton Window podcast.

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