Maybe it’s as simple as a mother saying, “My kids are going to get an education, start a business, earn a good living, make me proud. Education is my priority. That’s why I’m voting Democratic.”
That was the most effective message among African Americans in Alabama’s recent Senate election pitting Democrat Doug Jones against the racist, child dating Republican Roy Moore. With so many ways to attack Moore, it turned out the positive message about education had the greatest impact on people’s desire to vote.
Would a similar message help Arizona Democrats drive voter turnout, the first necessary step to winning close elections?
A column by the New York Times’ David Leonhardt discusses a company testing ads to increase African American turnout for Doug Jones in Alabama. A number of ads targeted Roy Moore’s negatives, but this is the 15 second ad that tested strongest.
“My kids are going to do more than just survive the bigotry and hatred,” a female narrator says, as the video shows a Klan march and then a student at a desk. “They’re going to get an education, start a business, earn a good living, make me proud. Education is my priority. That’s why I’m voting for Doug Jones.”
The video flashes a shot of white supremacists carrying tiki torches at the Charlottesville march last August and Trump giving a thumbs-up at a campaign rally, but most of the ad shows a boy in school, a mother, and a young African American businessman behind an office desk.
It’s “Make American Great Again” for families: “Make the future bright for our children. Vote Democratic.”
But aren’t voters skeptical about education? Leonhardt asks. He says, correctly, that’s an oversimplification of people’s attitudes. Parents and communities want a strong education for their children because they realize education is the key to a child’s future. The strongest anti-education messages come from Republicans, and they’re not the target audience for Democrats trying to boost turnout.
Public school districts educate 80 percent of Arizona’s children. Improving those schools is the top issue for voters. Charter school families also benefit from the state prioritizing public education. Private schools only educate 4 percent of our children, so vouchers aren’t a consideration for most voters.
Smart Republicans know how strongly Arizonans care about education. Ducey’s whole “I’m the education Governor” ploy isn’t because he supports public schools. It’s because he’s terrified the education issue will knock him out of office. That’s why he’s playing budgetary small ball with education, hoping a few tweaks to education funding will make people ignore the fact that any Democrat governor would be far better for schools than Ducey is on his best day. And if the legislature has more Dems backing a Democratic governor, they could begin to raise Arizona out of the funding cellar, giving teachers and students the financial support they deserve.
Our Democratic candidates for governor understand how important education is this campaign season, as do the Ed Supe candidates and many others. If the Alabama example applies here, they should put a parent’s face on their message.
This article appears in Mar 15-21, 2018.
…And then Doug Jones voted with the Republicans to destroy Dodd-Frank and the consumer-finance rights board won at such great effort by Elizabeth Warren. So what if he’s for bettering Alamaba’s education, if ultimately he’s just another Big Finance hack whose vote will hurt all working and poor Alabamans and a whole lot of other Americans too? Typical win-at-any-cost Democratic values, what the “party of the people” has become.
“Is ‘EDUCATION’ the best message for Democrats to boost voter turnout?”
Depends on what you mean by “EDUCATION,” David.
If “EDUCATION” is what’s happening in the local public school district serving more than 40,000 students (TUSD), an institution the Democratic Party identifies with and supports, perhaps the Democrats should use that word to drive voter turnout. If, on the other hand, you think “EDUCATION” involves the reliable delivery of high quality instruction and, on the student side, actual mastery of academic subjects and growth in skills like writing and critical thinking, then probably not.
If the Party is so keen on “EDUCATION,” let them prove it by beginning, BEFORE pitching “MORE MONEY!!” to the electorate, to pay at least a minimal level of attention to HOW THE MONEY IS APPLIED. A good start in this would be acknowledging and solving the problem that TUSD, which has the highest per-pupil funding rates in the region, has an embarrassingly poor record of translating funds into competitive levels of teacher compensation vis a vis other local districts and a shockingly poor record in achieving the ability to recruit and retain qualified faculty. Sorry to say it — and VERY sorry to see it at the time that it happened — but the Party and its reps and friends in the local media — including you, David — have been among the chief apologists for the district’s recent failures to get 301 and 123 funds properly applied to teacher salaries and bonuses. When it came to the district’s recently revealed blacklisting policies, which could only have exacerbated its recruitment problems — it was (did I miss something?) TOTAL SILENCE from the “support TUSD” and “fund public education!” crowd.
So it’s somewhat less than inspiring to see your crowd gearing up to pitch the Party’s record as a supporter of EDUCATION to the electorate now. Perhaps at some point Dems should consider shifting their focus from “What type of messages motivate voters?!?!” to “What type of reform measure will actually improve the quality of EDUCATION delivered in schools serving tens of thousands of local students?” It would be nice if the only kind of change needed to improve services was the addition of more funds. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
What’s bigoted is portraying Republicans as Klan members.
And if the kid is going to start a business he or she definitely shouldn’t vote Democratic.
Yep, the Doug Jones story is pretty sad. Yeah, he doesn’t diddle little girls, but he’s completely happy to screw everyone else with his voting record as mentioned by the first commenter. The Corporate Dems, or Heritage Dems, are pathetically out of touch with what it would look like to have an actually good candidate instead of just someone a tad better than the opposition.
But how to get Democrats out to vote. Since the Republicans, who appear to be brilliant at campaigning (see:Cambridge Analytics….a diabolical, but brilliant plot regardless of how idiotic the candidate or dishonest the message), are already using the education slogan, Dems have to offer something more creative and honest than just education-as-slogan. They DO (in this town anyway) have to focus on accountability of achievement AND finances, focus on the importance of preschools and small class sizes and the value of diverse (read: desegregated) public schools. But Dems must offer a progressive vision of education, health care, and other social services to come back strong. The most important point about the ads mentioned here is that they are ASSET based, something sorely lacking in our discussion of either diversity or public education. If Dems want to win, they will have to look to the future with a lot more than their usual pablum.
By the way, since the question was asked, the actual “support TUSD” crowd was NOT silent on the issue of the blacklisting, and in fact was probably responsible for the message getting out to media and the then brand new superintendent. That said, don’t conflate that crowd with some of the people who put in many hours of their time making personal and political fiefdoms from the vantage point of the TUSD Board.
Education is just one of the MANY platforms to ignite Democrats to vote. Republicans have been trying to destroy Social Security, Medicare , and Medicaid since their inceptions. Tell the elderly that their Social Security and Medicare are about to be eliminated and you MIGHT get their attention. As far as education is concerned , FACTUAL STATISTICS, reveal that there are very few Republicans teaching in colleges and universities. They don’t have the brains nor the desire to learn anything else because they think they know it all. Workplace safety and higher minimum wages are not in the Republican vocabulary. Donald Trump is the epitome of a Republican. Doesn’t read anything and thinks his opinion is more valid than scientific fact, Doesn’t care if anybody gets anything as long as he gets his share, has the attention span of a gnat, has the scientific knowledge of an empty bucket, and thinks anything is fair in an election as long as he wins. If Democrats don’t get out and vote our elections are going to become so corrupted by Republicans that we wont have a vote in the future.
Good to know that some Dems were involved in getting info about the blacklist out. But for Dems to present themselves as credible defenders of EDUCATION to the electorate, the advocacy for accountability in TUSD has to be broader and more effective, and it has to translate into improvements realizable within the course of a single academic year. Otherwise, students’ educations are damaged by existing poor conditions, conditions which the Party has been complicit in allowing to develop. With the lay of the land being what it currently is:
A) Acting as though funding improvements alone are all that is needed to “support EDUCATION” in Arizona is dishonest.
B) Opposing ESAs is morally wrong. Some kids do need to get out of their neighborhood public schools, and being able to transfer per-pupil funding in a lump fashion will help some of them who can’t access charters, or higher performing public district schools through open enrollment.
(Wish the Dems could explain why, if private schools account for only 4% of currently enrolled students in Arizona, the Party sees ESAs as a such a threat and risks alienating some of its supporters by trying to demolish them through forcing Prop 305 onto the ballot. Might it have something to do with the Party’s desire to minimize the influence of certain institutions on the Hispanic population, a population which Dems are counting on as the future of the party’s influence in the state? If we take a look at David’s informative pieces from July 29 and July 30, 2015, it’s easy to see where the greater part of any expansion brought about by ESAs is likely to occur. If it follows the pattern of tax credit distribution, it would be primarily in the Catholic school system:
https://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2015/07/29/az-republic-targets-tuition-tax-credits
https://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2015/07/30/where-the-tuition-tax-credit-scholarship-money-goes
Returning to the topic of messaging that would mobilize the electorate, perhaps “Democrats say they support education, but they only support SOME kinds of education,” with an image of a roadblock in front of a Catholic school barring entry for some sad looking students would be effective with some cohorts. Perhaps we should test it on some focus groups and see what the response is…)
Yup, bullying and intimidation doesn’t work on everyone, A.B.T.A. / A.L.T.A.:
https://tucson-progressive.com/2012/05/30/keep-the-press-free-we-cant-let-democrats-become-republicans-video/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t9M9Kc5u_g
Many thanks again to Pamela Powers Hannley for being one Democrat who has, in the above linked instances, stood up for the right things.
Do they? Perhaps they think they know, but don’t. The name that came up in a previous comment stream belongs to someone who raised a lot of money for TUSD. But there are many in that circle, at that school, who contributed to that effort. Look up the donor list. Any of a number of those folks enrolled younger siblings of those TUSD kids in charters or in privates, are still in communication with one another, and would have been in a position to make the same kind of commentary. One of the donors to that effort was one of the two principals behind “TUSD Kids First” in the last Board election cycle.
Who I actually am would work in my favor, rather than the reverse, but in this venue I’ll contribute points of view without attaching a name to them because I choose to do so.
I believe this is David Safier’s blog, and he has said he stands behind the right of commenters to comment anonymously here. We’ll see whether he (and Tucson Weekly with their ineffectual “Comments Policy”) will stand behind that.
I don’t think that education is the motivator it once was. I think they would be better off to promote the dire situations we face based on global warming and the increase in temps since 1930. This would surely bring out more closet/pseudo environmentalists that would not only vote but would let go of some of their long held and ill gotten gains from the free enterprise economy.
Maybe this would help:
https://realclimatescience.com/2018/03/noaa-data-tampering-approaching-2-5-degrees/
Note: I had the Weekly take down a number of comments targeting another commenter. Please stick to ideas. Discuss issues on the merits, not with ad hominem attacks.
Thank you David. That move has been long overdue. I am not sure why people can’t make a reasonable debate out of it, rather that insulting and threatening somebody they disagree with. Actually it would be even better if they just ignore it and move on.
Certainly, it is much better to “ignore” people you disagree with and “move on.” That’s the constructive thing to do with policy disagreements in a “democratic” society, right? Because entering into dialogue with different points of view is just a waste of your time. Better to stay inside your echo chamber where everyone reinforces your biases and no one brings information available only from different social / economic locations.
(This attitude is a LARGE part of what has gotten the Democratic Party into the trouble it is in now.)
Complicated it’s not, at least for me. I just vote “D” and I’m going to be right over 95% if time.
Depends if you want schools to cost you more money or if you want schools to be more effective.
If Connecticut is your goal, with a cost of $22,000 per student per year- yes, vote Democrat.
Spending more is not without its tax consequences. Connecticut has lost 14,000 jobs since 2000 while Arizona has added 462,000 jobs. Our pro big government research community would have you believe that taxing economic growth has no consequences. The data suggests otherwise.
If having the best schools in the nation, i.e. the highest academic gains, the highest test scores for each demographic group: Blacks, Hispanics and White students, and more civilized students and fewer violent crimes by juveniles, party choice might be a different answer. You might consider voting Republican.
Since 2000, the percentage of parents rating their child’s school excellent at our competitive large school districts i.e. Vail, Catalina, Sahuarita, Deer Valley, Mesa, Chandler Unified has trended upwards into the 60s. By comparison, all the other states in the nation have trended downward into the mid 20s.
Matthew Hingus of the Urban Institute has done perhaps the most rigorous comparison of apples to apples test scores, ranking Massachusetts first and Arizona 13th. Sean Reardon of Stanford has done a spectacular ranking of every school district in the nation. Arizona had 30% of the successful large school districts and zero percent of the failures. Arizona’s typical district was ranked at the 74th percentile of academic gains while Massachusett’s typical district was ranked at the 54th percentile.
Now, perhaps you don’t trust the judgment of parents about schools but you do when it comes to politicians.