Robin Hiller started the local non-profit organization Voices for Education inside of her garage. Nearly 10 years later, this grassroots organization is operated out of the renovated apartment complex where she and her family grew up.
The organization, sometimes referred to as Voices, reaches out to teachers and parents to become advocates for better public education. They rally parents and students to get more involved in their schools by providing leadership and skills training so they can advocate for smaller class sizes, better allocate of funds and hire better teachers.
“One person is a nut, and two people are the nut with her friend, but once you get a mass in there like 10 people or 20 people, all the sudden you have some power in the situation and can really make change,” Hiller said.
Arizona is currently 50th in the nation per pupil spending, according to the Voices for Education Web site.
“Money isn’t the answer but its part of the answer,” Hiller said. “And when you look at states that really invest in education, they do look differently than how we look here.”
Pat Conrow of the State Department of Education confirmed that the state still needs to cut $133 million and is proposing a $1 billion cut for next year.
“The $133 million cuts for 2009 is a ball park figure but its pretty close to what will need to happen,” Conrow said. “As far as 2010, its so far up in the air right now there is no way to come up with a definite number-there are so many things that are going to impact that figure.”
Voices for Education also works directly with teachers. It has recently implemented a new program designed to train middle school teachers to better engage their young students to prevent future drop outs.
“Middle school is where we lose students a lot of times,” Hiller said. “We’re doing ok in fourth and fifth grade and then in middle school for a variety of reasons students start falling through the cracks and tanking.”
One way to keep them in school is through the Life Skills program, which offers social skills, drug refusal and self-management training, said Lisa Winton, director of the program.
In 2007, Voices conducted several town meetings and held study groups so community members, school officials, parents and students could voice their opinion on how public education could be improved.
Almost all of the students said they would like to see their courses modified to better fit their needs and the community asked for more funding for education and reduced class sizes, Hiller said.
Based on the outcome of the town hall meetings, Voices has put together a survey to determine exactly what the students want the public education system to look like in the year 2020.
The survey, ‘2020 Vision,’ will assess 22,000 seventh graders and eleventh graders from Pima County. Each school will have access to their results so schools can see specifically what their students want to see improved.
Hiller said the survey should provide answers to a number of questions concerning students such as, “Are we reaching the kids? Are these the programs that will save them? Do they feel that their teachers respect them? Do they feel that they have someone to go to with a problem? Do they feel that their schools are adequately training them for college or to get a job or pursue something in their life?”
Hiller expects the answers to these questions will generate practical education policy that will better meet the needs of Pima County students in the future.
“In my life I have known kids who were really brilliant but they just didn’t make it because no one was paying attention,” Hiller said on developing the survey.
