COVER STORY
What Is UnifiEd and How Can It Change Our Schools? Fledgling organization targets grassroots change—starting with elections By Jennifer Crutchfield
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Their coordinators will create a wave of people who direct the change that they seek and who are motivated to see every student in Hamilton County has the opportunity to succeed.”
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veryone has a personal story about education, because it affects each and every one of us. Whether it is a heartwrenching story of lost opportunities or a tear-inspiring tale about magnificent personal success, education can make or break a person. It’s often the critical piece to determining success or failure in the life of a child. Prisons calculate anticipated inmate numbers based on literacy rates in third-grade children. When students fall behind, so does a community’s ability to be economically competitive. Linda Mosely, a UnifiEd board member and former school board member says, “We’re just maintaining status quo, and that’s not good enough. We need to be moving up, up, up.” UnifiEd, a new nonprofit organization, is working to bridge the gap in public education by bringing people—the community—into the process. Edna Varner, a retired educator and another UnifiEd board member, says that people care about schools but often just don’t know how to get involved. “The public needs to know what it can do,” she says, and that is the challenge that UnifiEd has accepted. During this year’s school board race, districts 3, 5, 6, 8 and 9 had elections. And out of the 231,070 registered voters in Hamilton County only 25,694 votes were cast from all five of these districts.
6 • The Pulse • August 28-september 3, 2014 • chattanoogapulse.com
That may seem to you like a dismal percentage of our fellow citizens who participated in the process and voted and you’re right: it is. On the other hand, there are some fascinating successes to point to as well during this school board election. In the District 5 election four years ago only 2,800 votes were cast. This year there were 4,800 votes cast in that same district. That is big. What does it mean? What was different? Well, District 5 is home to some of the lowest-performing schools in the county. District 5 also had seven very passionate candidates who wanted to make a change in that district and to support the education and future’s of the children in their community. And—UnifiEd happened. District 5 was identified by UnifiEd as one of the critical races and their machine went to work. Combining the passion and dedication of people who truly care about public education with the logistics, tools and talents of community organizing in action, the UnifiEd team hit the streets. The debate hosted in District 5 was to a packed house. More
than 200 people attended and, more importantly, participated. They came with questions, signs, concerns, Tweets, social media posts and children. Parents came, business leaders came and grandparents came. City council members came, the media came and the mood was vibrant. You could almost feel the hope in the air. As microphones crackled, the audience was rapt. Another audience was following the action via live Tweeting and the frustration and hope present were both electric. Education is powerful and people are powerful, even though they don’t always realize it. When a situation gives people who care the worst they have an opportunity to show their best. That happened in District 5. People got out, they volunteered and they encouraged their friends, neighbors and community members to vote. People joined UnifiEd and, during the course of the summer, there were several thousand calls placed to potential voters and several thousand doors knocked on, largely in District 5. The result was that 2,000 more