Stand for Children Written Plan Lindsey Scheltema and Michele C. Hladik 12-11-11
Stand for Children Stand for Children’s mission is to “ensure that all children, regardless of their background, graduate from high school prepared for, and with access to, a college education” (Stand for Children, 2011). Although this non-profit organization is nationally recognized, Stand for Children understands that in order to reach the most children, it is important to work state by state to “build effective local and statewide networks of grassroots advocates” (Stand for Children, 2011). Since 2009, they have more than doubled in size and currently work with nine state affiliates: Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington (Stand for Children, 2011). Each state has a director, communications director, and community organizers. This helps Stand for Children achieve their goal of reaching kids state-by-state, and community by community (Stand for Children, 2011). The Situation at Hand The situation at hand for Stand for Children is the high school dropout rate. The group is working to improve the High School dropout rate; particularly in the inner city schools. According to Stand for Children, nearly a quarter of the kids in America drop out of High School every year (Stand for Children, 2011). Without a high school diploma, it basically guarantees a future with low income, poor health, and an instable home life. According the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, six percent of students who had not graduated from high school or received their GED by the age of 24, also never held a job after leaving high school. The report also states that non Hispanic blacks who did not have a high school diploma spend more than half of their time between the ages of 18-23 unemployed while those with a high school diploma or higher were employed 61 percent of the same time. Hispanic dropouts experienced a similar jobless rate. According to the Stand for Children Leadership Center, children in low-income
grade. This greatly contributes to dropout rates, which in time contribute to high unemployment and higher demand on publicly and privately funded social services. According to Sam Dillion (2009), 1 of every 10 high school male dropouts is in jail on any given day. One in four African American male dropouts is in jail. Dillion references the Center for Labor Market Studies which found it costs American taxpayers $292,000 for each dropout over his lifetime. That includes lost tax revenues and the cost of food stamps and other aid. It also includes the cost of incarcerating those who go afoul of the law. The other situation Stand for Children faces is the priority status of education issues on the public and political level. Especially in this upcoming presidential election, raising awareness about these education issues is going to be a challenge. Education issues will be competing against issues such as our tough economic times, unemployment, and American intervention in the Middle East. If Stand for Children is going to be successful in improving education legislatively, it will need to make sure the situation rises to the top of the political debate cycle. Stand for Children primarily makes its stand through political and public measures. It typically attempts to initiate change through educating the public and through legislative efforts. It believes that it is crucial to have good legislators and school board members who will support the teachers, hire great principals and work toward keeping kids in school. The best public officials to help education are those who see it as a top priority. Currently Stand for Children divides its public relations efforts and each state office handles the issues on their own. Uniting public relations efforts could really help get the message out to a larger audience. It would also apply even more pressure on political candidates to take the issues more seriously. Each office could continue the grassroots efforts that make the group a success and reach those on a local level, but having a measure of uniting efforts in a national
campaign allows for a bigger political impact and shows the issues has national affect. The issues move from only affecting a few communities to affecting the country as a whole. A national public relations campaign will force the political candidates for this country’s highest and most powerful offices, to address the dropout rate issue as well as education issues in general. The Objectives The primary objectives behind this Stand for Children campaign will be to decrease dropout rates for kids so they receive a high school diploma, increase public awareness on the importance of receiving a high school diploma, and increase public awareness on the increasing number of dropouts, particularly in inner cities among kids of African American and Hispanic decent. Also, with the upcoming presidential election, it is Stand for Children’s objective to make education a top priority for politicians and lawmakers. We will be achieving this by starting with the Republican primary election and moving into the general election in November of 2012. Target Audience Our direct, target audience is going to be generally taxpayers and registered voters. More specifically it will be parents between the ages of 30-50, with modest and limited income, and who are from urban areas where taxes, dropout rates, and public assistance are higher. We also plan to directly target politicians on the local, state, and federal level. We will begin with those candidates involved in the primary elections. We will then move onto the general election candidates. Our indirect audience will be found urban areas. We believe they are the non-parent taxpayers between 30-50 and those with a high income. We also are hoping to indirectly target the taxpayers from more rural areas, parents between 30-50 with a modest income. Our
unintended audience is those over 50 years of age, and under 30 years of age, as well as nontaxpayers. Strategies and Tactics for Success Our strategies and the tactics they require will start with the public. First we plan on holding several district wide PTO meetings to share our statistics and current high school dropout issues. We will be passing out flyers and informative materials at these events to continue to raise awareness. Stand for Children also plans to have a presence in community events; such as, local fairs, parades, as well as school sponsored events. By involving ourselves in community-wide events, we will be getting our name out there and be able to talk to interested people about working together to solve our high dropout rates with our children. Next is a plan to sponsor different awareness competitions. This will be done on more of a local and state level. It will involve encouraging schools to spread the word about dropout issues and offering additional and immediate incentives to schools that choose to participate. The competitions are to raise awareness about our drop out levels. Winners of the competitions will be the most creative about how they present this information on the local level. They will be given posters and informative materials to have out at these events, and through this our goal is to create special clubs for those at high risk of dropping out to create a support system. Press releases will initially be used to announce the awareness competition. Staffers in each Stand for Children office will also contact local schools to inform them of the opportunity. Each time the group appears at a community event, the competition and its rewards will also be mentioned. In the third public based strategy, we will be creating a couple of different public service announcements, with a couple of different storylines to raise awareness. The first will feature a young student talking and gradually seeing the student grow into a mature adult the whole time
stressing the importance of an education. The second PSA will be testimony from former dropouts who regret the decision of actually dropping out, as well as from students who have come close to dropping out but pushed through with staying and now have proof of their completed education paying off. In all of these strategies we will also encourage community members to contact their candidates and current politicians to emphasize the importance of education. This leads us into the second strategic branch of our plan, the political sector. While applying public pressure on the nation’s political leaders, we will be contacting those leaders to see where education and the dropout issue stands on their political list of priorities and why. This will begin with the leaders in each state that has a Stand for Children office and will expand to other federal political leaders. We will share our information on the issue, explain how it affects many important aspects of the country, and will encourage leaders to make it a top priority by offering support through endorsements to those who make it one of their top three issues. Next on our political agenda is to host a series of political debates. The primary focus will be candidates on the local and state level, but it will also include one debate with presidential primary election candidates and eventually a general election presidential candidate debate. The national debates will also be sponsored by businesses and a national network. The best network sponsors would be ABC, NBC, or CBS because they are more likely to be found in every home since some of those people we are trying to reach cannot afford cable television. Each state and local debate will be sponsored by local businesses and a national network’s local affiliates. The debates will educate the public and show the candidates’ positions on a variety of educational issues including the dropout rates and the side effects from these dropout rates. To promote awareness of the debates we will send out press releases as well as mention the debates
at every event we attend. Candidates will be encouraged to participate through the offer of possible Stand for Children support or endorsements. The final step in our political strategy is to enlist the support of two spokespeople who appeal to a variety of people, and also hold political clout. The spokespeople will be First Lady Michelle Obama and Texas senatorial candidate Ted Cruz. Mrs. Obama was selected because she appeals to African American families and she has the ear of the highest political leader, the President. Mr. Cruz was selected because he is an up and coming conservative politician with strong beliefs in education and strong ties in the Hispanic communities. He is also from Texas which is one of the states with a Stand for Children office. Calendar of Assignments The most immediate assignments to complete will be those that lay the groundwork for the implementation of all the strategies. Within the first two weeks of the campaign staffers at each branch of Stand for Children, under the assistance of our office, will: -
Contact candidates to discuss in person or via teleconference the issue and its priority in each campaign
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Establish media sponsors for the debates and the public service announcements
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Finalize plans with Mrs. Obama and Mr. Cruz to serve as spokespeople for the group
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Contact schools and communities for a list of future events and establish dates for school district wide PTO meetings
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Order printed materials to be distributed at community events
Within the first month of the campaign our office will: -
Begin filming of the PSAs
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Establish a schedule for the community events which will be updated periodically as new events can be added
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Issue a press release announcing the kick off of the public events campaign and announcing the schedule as known
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Begin attending community and PTO events and introduce the local schools awareness competition – a press release will be issued through email one week prior to each event
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Begin evaluating and tracking the campaign’s progress (explained further in the evaluation section of this report)
Three months after the start of the campaign, each state office of Stand for Children will: -
Announce the winner of the awareness contest through a call to the schools who participated and an emailed press release sent to the media outlets closest to the winners’ locations
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Award the prize money and incentives to each winner
One month before each primary our office will: -
Finalize plans for each debate
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Begin promoting each debate through press releases, announcements on community bulletin boards, and announcements on the Stand for Children social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter
November 2012 we will: -
Touch base with campaign winners to remind them of their campaign promises and the importance of our issue
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Review the evaluations to determine areas of greatest success and to determine where the campaign should lead for the coming year.
Campaign Budget Much of this campaign will be funded through sponsorships from national and local businesses and media outlets. However, there will still be a few expenses including $2,000 per state for the printing of handout materials, like flyers and brochures. About $1,000 per state will also be allotted to award the campaign contest winners. Other incentives for the contest will be through contributions from business sponsors. Filming of the PSAs will require about $3,000 for each of the two spots. Air time will be donated by the local broadcast sponsors. Evaluating the Campaign Evaluating the campaigns success or failure will be simple, but informative. Throughout the campaign the number of news articles and news stories will be recorded. At the end of the first month the numbers will be evaluated and then they will be evaluated every two months after. The number of schools participating in the awareness campaign or requesting special PTO meetings will also be recorded and reviewed during the evaluation. Attendance at each event will also be recorded and a special note will be made when people request additional information or request the group attend an event. All of these statistics will be reviewed along with the news coverage reviews. The political success will be evaluated through the number of politicians or candidates who place the dropout issue and education as one of their top three priorities for the immediate future. Conclusion High school dropout rates are a drain on society as a whole and the numbers must be significantly reduced. The best way to reduce these numbers is through public awareness and
political presence. Engaging the public through spreading awareness of the dropout rate and dropout related issues and developing political ties will go a long way to eradicating high school dropout problems and the social issues the higher numbers exacerbate.
References: About Stand for Children. (2011). Stand for Children. Retrieved December 1, 2011, from http://www.stand.org/Page.aspx?pid=1268#vision America’s young adults at 23: School enrollment, training, and employment transitions between ages 22 and 23 summary. (2011) United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved December 1, 2011, from http://www.bls.gov/news.release/nlsyth.nr0.htm Dillion, S. (2009 October 8). Study finds high rate of imprisonment among dropouts. The New York Times. Retrieved December 1, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/education/09dropout.html