Blog

County boards of education school mergers, consolidations, or closings: Should public ‘microschools’ be part of the mix?

In this  December 23, 2024, blog posting, this writer poses the question of whether ‘public microschools,’ based on existing law for private microschools, should enter the mix when county boards of education are confronted by school facilities reorganization as prompted by laws the state legislature adopted some 30-40 years ago, especially if students would benefit by bettered academics offerings reconfigured educational facilities could provide, especially schools lacking curricula diversity.  Here are two sources, not cited in the blog, relating to microschools: https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/video-how-microschools-can-fit-in-the-broader-k-12-system/2024/06 and https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/video-how-microschools-can-fit-in-the-broader-k-12-system/2024/06 This writer notes there are antecedents for microschools and that a few public schools receive funds from the Legislature akin to the writer’s concept of public microschools as well as specialized county board schools such as magnet schools, schools for atypical student learners. This concept, if policymakers deem it worthy of discussion would require considerable legislative and state Board of Education considerations in terms of law and policy – and, certainly, funding implications. The views expressed are those of the writer.

Will the recent spate of school closings result in changes to school funding or other public education laws or rules?

The spate of recent public-school closings advances as legislators determined by statutes adopted in the mid-1980-early 1990s.

During this period, the state’s Public School Support Plan (commonly school aid formula) was revised. School aid funding was more closely aligned to “match” student head counts. Legislators, noting weightings for students who received special needs services, likely “inflated” student enrollments.

As student enrollments decline, school districts, given reductions in PSSP funds, must adjust spending, often resulting in school employee layoffs (reductions in force) as well as other economizing, including school facilities adjustments.

Will 2024 school closings result in substantive changes in laws, policies, rules?

Do 2024 school closings provide sufficient sway to warrant significant changes in settled law, policy, and practice governing school reconfigurations?

If the past becomes our guide, “no.”

Leverages.

As we proceed, let us acknowledge the Legislature, state Board of Education and the Governor’s Office enjoy leverage in terms of county board facilities reconfigurations:

• “Notwithstanding any provision of this Code to the contrary” – arguably the most powerful words in Code – coupled with a statutory decree declaring if one aspect of an article or section of law is invalidated by the courts, the “untainted” aspects of the article or section may survive intact.
• The state Board of Education (hereafter State Board or WVBE). Based on  2017 litigation involving school reconfiguration, the state Supreme Court of Appeals ruled county boards of education, if dotting every “I” and crossing every “ “t”  as required by State Board rule for facilities reconfiguration (rules often prompted by law), does not or will not confine State Board decision-making to rote approval of county board compliance with WVBE rules. The Supreme Court determined the State Board is vested with “implied” or “inherent” discretion to fulfill its constitutional duty to provide general supervision of the state’s public schools in any or all given circumstances, including circumstances that may contradict provisions of its rules – fiat which may have negative connotations, but an integral aspect of administrative/regulatory authority (806 S.E.2d 136 / WEST VIRGINIA BOARD OF EDUCATION and Steven L. Paine, Ed.D., in his capacity as the State Superintendent of Schools, Respondents Below, Petitioners. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE COUNTY OF NICHOLAS, West Virginia. / https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/w-va-bd-of-892019220)
• School Building Authority of West Virginia. Although the Legislature has a significant role with funding, the governor, who appoints SBA members and who chairs the SBA, could ensure school facility doctrine “favors” small or community schools. The SBA, lacking constitutional authority, takes marching orders from the governor as prescribed by law. Moreover, the SBA is subject to Legislative Rule-making review.

Unless or until school funding laws are revised, and/or statutes regarding the SBA, and/or state Board rules changes, county boards may have little choice except to close schools. Period.

This writer could end the blog posting at this juncture.

____________

Should heightened school achievement be a factor in school closings, especially smaller schools?

Here is what state law says:

“The primary purpose of the school system is to provide instruction for students.”  (https://code.wvlegislature.gov/18-5-45/)

The Code is striking in its simplicity.

In isolation, this provision of law does not mention school districts, school district facilities, delivery models for instruction, curricula, or extra-district agencies, all which impact county boards of education and school district schools.

“School system,” rare Code wording, usually denotes the federal local education agency (LEA) or board of education responsible for provision of educational services. Not surprisingly, a succeeding section of federal law addresses LEA “administrative control and direction.”

Moving from the student, the instructor, the classroom, and the LEA, the term “school system,” by implication, has linkage to the state entities cited above and related departments, agencies, or entities of state government. (https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=(title:20%20section:7801%20edition:prelim)#:~:text=Local%20educational%20agency-,(A)%20In%20general,elementary%20schools%20or%20secondary%20schools.)

What about public microschools?

1. State law provides for “micro-schools,” which are non-public schools. The statutory language states,

(B) “Microschool” means a school initiated by one or more teachers or an entity created to operate a school that charges tuition for the students who enroll and is an alternative to enrolling in a public school, private school, homeschool, or learning pod. (https://code.wvlegislature.gov/?q=18&s=micro-pods.)

Could this model, if amended and as adapted to public schools, ensure” students in public elementary schools stay closer to communities, especially more remote, isolated communities? Could public microschools be staffed by public school instructors with a head teacher/site-based administrator who has school administrative responsibilities? What of enriching learning through virtual means? What of the state’s monumental “Third Grade Success Act” goals, given what may be smaller schools comprised, maybe ideally, students in Grades Pre-K -5? Might there be ‘advantages?’ (https://code.wvlegislature.gov/18-2E-10/)  What about tutoring services and wellness and health services? And, while we are at it, what about county boards, in lieu of tuition, receiving money the state sets aside for this purpose, mitigating additional costs to the school district which the closing or merging of the school could at least provide the district initially? What about limiting the number of these public microschools and, to ensure, the county does not lose these students for PSSP purposes, they must remain in the county.

We must also consider special needs students.

There are antecedents: Kanawha County Schools offered education for students who are atypical learners (housed at the University of Charleston). County boards may configure specialized schools such as designated magnet schools.

Thus, the district would see the “regular” PSSP per pupil funding as well as augmented funding, given a diminished number of students.

Again, these are public schools; public students; public school employees and two sources of public funding.

While we are at it, parenting classes, parental introduction to curricula and how to assist with homework could be offered for greater parental support.

Yes. We are talking about public schools. All applicable fire safety rules and health rules apply as well as background checks.

Finally, would public microschools attract retired school instructors within the school community to mentor, assist students and the public microschools? . What about ‘Foster Grandparents’ or related programs or the enrichment Community In Schools provides? What respected community athletic coaches?  Moreover, would public microschools appeal to parents whose students are homeschool?

1. In the 1990s, the concept of “schools-within-schools” featured various schools, by conventional grade levels, housed in the same facility as other public schools. Not only did these schools share facilities but also allowed teachers to teach in the various schools housed in the facility, based on credentials. This concept, if applied to public microschools, would also enhance the ability for schools to remain close to communities.
2. What about school funding and school personnel laws? The Legislature determines any changes in these laws – same with funding.

Parental Involvement as impacted by school consolidations.

If students move a school in their community to another school in or outside the

Anecdotally, we hear parental support wanes if a school is relocated miles away, especially in grades 5 and through secondary grades.

county, is parental involvement impacted?

There must be empirical relating to the question of parental involvement, based on school reconfigurations.

Moreover, if public education policy is enriched by varied input of constituencies, are public officials, public education advocates, schools, classrooms getting such input?

If not, are there consequences?

If families are struggling, a single parent, parents or grandparents are holding two; maybe three jobs, or are underemployed or out-of-work, could the consequence be less focus on educational engagement?

How do policymakers ensure parents, including people on the margins of society or those with overall lesser civic engagement, become invested in students’ schooling?

What if state-level policymakers were to see public microschools nurture support for learning and, if those schools are successful in terms of growth and maximizing academic achievement, could such schools, admittedly “hybrids,” but nevertheless public schools, have lesser fear of students being shifted to larger schools unless matriculating to middle or higher grade level schools?

State-level officials expressed concern about merging elementary schools

In short, as school consolidations became apace circa 1994, state-level policymakers discussed shielding elementary schools for consolidations or closures.

Although schools were losing student enrollments, loss of students has accelerated considerably during the last decade.

The ‘no school has a guarantee of remaining open.’

The rule: Just because a school is operational does not mean it should expect a lifetime guarantee of existence, again, given school reconfigurations.

Moreover, there are other antecedents, including the federal No Child Left Behind Law which said, subject to authority of state laws, parents whose students were considered as attending substandard schools could send students to another public school.

Food for thought: Public Micro-schools

This writer provides the public microschools concept as food for thought.

Education practitioners

When I was conducting research for my Ed.D., I had several meetings with state-level policymakers.

I had extensive conversations with then State Superintendent Dr. Henry R. Marockie.

As last session concluded, Dr. Marockie said, “O’Cull keep writing. We have people who practice education.”

It is portentous, and a thing of state

That here at midnight, in our little town

A mourning figure walks, and will not rest,

Near the old court-house pacing up and down.

Or by his homestead, or in shadowed yards

He lingers where his children used to play,

Or through the market, on the well-worn stones

He stalks until the dawn-stars burn away.

A bronzed, lank man! His suit of ancient black,

A famous high top-hat and plain worn shawl

Make him the quaint great figure that men love,

The prairie-lawyer, master of us all.

He cannot sleep upon his hillside now.

He is among us:—as in times before!

And we who toss and lie awake for long

Breathe deep, and start, to see him pass the door.

His head is bowed. He thinks on men and kings.

Yea, when the sick world cries, how can he sleep?

Too many peasants fight, they know not why,

Too many homesteads in black terror weep.

The sins of all the war-lords burn his heart.

He sees the dreadnaughts scouring every main.

He carries on his shawl-wrapped shoulders now

The bitterness, the folly and the pain.

He cannot rest until a spirit-dawn

Shall come;—the shining hope of Europe free;

The league of sober folk, the Workers’ Earth,

Bringing long peace to Cornland, Alp and Sea.

It breaks his heart that kings must murder still,

That all his hours of travail here for men

Seem yet in vain.   And who will bring white peace

That he may sleep upon his hill again?

____________________

About Lindsay’s poem / Regarding Abraham Lincoln Walks At Midnight statue at West Virginia State Capitol grounds, Charleston, W. Va.

(Vachel Lindsay [1879-1931], U.S. poet born in Springfield, Ill., was noted for his efforts  “as a traveling

bard whose dramatic delivery in public readings helped keep appreciation for poetry as a spoken art alive in the American Midwest; he called these performances the “Higher Vaudeville.” With their strong strong rhythms rooted in the American vernacular, revival meetings, the soap box, and the works of Edgar Allan Poe and William Blake, poems such as “The Santa Fe Trail” and “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight” became part of an American literary and cultural revival distinct from literary modernism. This poem, written amid the First World War, is telling through these stanzas:  

“. . . He cannot rest until a spirit-dawn

`Shall come;—the shining hope of Europe free. Moreover, Lindsay, considered empathic with African-Americas in the early generations following the Civil War, may have used the term ‘white peace’ for that purpose. Scholars contend Lindsay’s thinking toward equality and justice is strained by some his other poems” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/vachel-lindsay).  / Use this photograph of Lindsay:https://www.sj-r.com/story/entertainment/arts/2023/04/07/a-new-documentary-explores-the-life-and-work-of-vachel-lindsay/70090567007/

Regarding Abraham Lincoln Walks At Midnight. This statue, 8 feet tall on a 5¾ foot granite Base, is located on the North side of the state Capitol Building.  From the Smithsonian Institution Art Inventories Catalog: “Fred M. Torrey created the original20 inch high model in 1935 after a Vachel Lindsay poem entitled ‘Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight.’ Charleston resident Louise Bing contacted Torrey about purchasing a Lincoln sculpture in honor of West Virginia’s centennial celebration. Torrey offered the model of “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight” to West Virginia around 1964-65. Louise Bing raised the $5,000 to purchase the 42 inch bronze model, and then went on to spearhead a drive to raise over $35,000 from the public to have the sculpture enlarged. Contributions from across the state came from school children, private citizens, and the West Virginia Arts and Humanities Council. However, the artist died in 1967, before the sculpture could be enlarged. Bernard Wiepper was commissioned to enlarge the original model to a nine foot plaster model which was then cast in bronze. The sculpture was dedicated on Wes Virginia’s 111th birthday celebration on June 20, 1974.” – https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=23019

‘The most important political office is that of the private citizen.’ – Louis D. Brandeis

‘The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.’ – H. L. Mencken

“A week is a long time in politics.” – Harold Wilson.

‘All people are born alike – except Republicans and Democrats.’ – Groucho Marx

continue reading in our PDF file

The purpose of the last few blog postings is a discussion of how culture  influences the rise of U.S. political leaders.

While this writer, in a previous blog posting stated, “the United States is not Europe,” let’s borrow two concepts or political constructs that, indeed, have European origin, namely,

The Rise of the  “Entrepreneurial Leader”

The term,  “political entrepreneur,” alive and well in Europe, may provide insight, however.

According to  the World Economic Forum,

“Political entrepreneurs are people who create ideas and innovations, and act as new leaders in the field of politics. They are individuals and groups who seek to improve the science and art of politics through disruption. . . (by coming)  up with new ways to solve political problems in terms of political philosophy, political technology, political campaigns, and governance.”

Admittedly, entrepreneurship is associated the Zuckerbergs, Musks, Wangs who develop and provide “products and services that fix other people’s problems”  through disruption.

The WEF states,

“Political entrepreneurs are a combination of the two: people who build something from nothing to address societal problems. . . global society must figure out how it deals with: the automation of jobs; the shifting of power towards global tech companies – the new industrialists of our day; fake news distorting democratic debate; threats to net neutrality and cyber security; the ownership of citizens’ data, and new forms of labor typified by the gig economy.” (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/11/the-rise-of-the-political-entrepreneur-and-why-we-need-more-of-them/)

In simpler terms, a United States  “entrepreneurial leader,” addressing both historical and emergent concerns of a U.S. electorate struggling to make sense of  social and cultural “change-rapidity” deemed as  “up-ending”  cherished norms and conventions – changes emergent after 9/11, the circa 2008 economic downturn, the aftermath of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the latter ending ignobly – all enwrapped  within the milieu of the COVID-19 pandemic, protests regarding the death of George Floyd and the October 2023 Hamas incursion into Israel, respectively.

Ascribed Meaning: is entrepreneurial ‘New’?

Entrepreneurial politics provides the political leader the ability to ascribe meaning and to bring inferred order, in both broad-brush and granular detail, often as personified through accessible and “cut to the chase” messaging to address or even vanquish complex social issues or problems traditional politicians embrace  through use of incremental, traditional, contradictory or nuanced approaches.

Aspects of entrepreneurial politics, especially the ubiquity of social media, permeates U.S. politics.

Yet is entrepreneurial politics new?

All The King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren’s novel  largely considered to be based on Depression Era Louisiana Governor Huey Long, depicts Long as “a man of contradictions” rather than demagogue, authoritarian,  populist, socialist, fascist or other label used to describe his political approach. (https://greatbooksguy.com/2021/04/03/the-dangers-of-populism-in-all-the-kings-men/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_views_of_Huey_Long)

Ubiquitous ‘Authoritarianism’

Given ubiquitous usage in U.S. news and social media, we must deal with the term “authoritarianism.”

Of course, definitions vary.

The Oxford  Review Encyclopedia of Terms:

“Authoritarian leadership refers to any situation where a leader keeps hold of as much power and authority as possible. Also known as coercive or dictatorial leadership, authoritarian leaders tend to keep all the decision-making authority to themselves and make the decisions about policies, procedures, tasks, structures, rewards and punishment themselves. The intention behind most authoritarian leaders is to retain control and they usually require unquestioning obedience and compliance. (https://oxford-review.com/oxford-review-encyclopaedia-terms/authoritarian-leadership/)

Indeed, the origins of “authoritarian” developed in 1939 when a group of researchers, led by psychologist Kurt Lewin, identified different styles of leadership, positing leadership fell into three neat categories:

1. 1. Authoritarian Leadership (Autocratic)
   2. Participative Leadership (Democratic)
   3. Delegative Leadership (Laissez-Faire) / https://leadershipandperformance.com.au/leadership-development/lewins-leadership-theory-explained/

Research generations later gave rise to the behavioral leadership theory,’ focusing on Leaders’ actions rather than their inherent traits and newer twists, including situational leadership and coach or “manager-less” leadership.

Back to the Europeans

An additional European study, “The New State That We Are Building”: Authoritarianism and System-Justification in an Illiberal Democracy,” concludes much of what is blamed on social media of which this writer is fond of citing, political base disregard for fact-checking political rhetoric –an oxymoron – and the very fact that politicians need supporters, especially funders, and supporters and funders need politicians who may be as much a product of the culture at the time or as the electorate projects upon the political leader.

The research concludes, as especially apropos for the U.S. non-parliamentarian system of multi-party governance what Americans, especially political leaders, already count on:

• • “. . . (A) large body of research (suggests) that the populace tends to adjust its attitudes to leadership cues.” [i]
  • “Nevertheless, we believe that it is, as in the West the behavior of the political elite that changes people’s attitudes, not media communication per se.” (Author’s emphasis.)
  • “Those who identify with a party tend to modify their issue stances to conform to their party.”

Is the news media or social media in particular  responsible for shaping  public opinion?

The researchers conclude:

• • “(Online) partisan communities of like-minded individuals could be exciting themselves into adopting more and more extreme positions…”
  • “However, recent results challenge this narrative; at least in Western contexts, exposure to political disagreement on social media is high and social media does not polarize people’s views.” (Writer’s comment – this study was conducted about seven years ago.)
  • “(The authors say the effects of online propaganda on attitudes) “are, naturally, difficult to completely disentangle from the effects of political leadership. This is especially true if the political leadership is responsible for much of the propaganda.” (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.703280/full Writer’s note: Quotes are embedded in the study, based on cited works.)

Moreover, politicians often combine rhetoric, speechcraft, social media with the additive of  what poet T.S. Eliot’s  “all truths are private truths,”  to tell it “like it is.,” posturing themselves as the “one individual who can or  will navigate, minimize or displace bureaucratic,  regulatory or process governance – that is, encapsulated as upholding offensive political, social and  cultural norms antithetic to both leader and, increasingly, adherents.

Finally, successful politicians claim they can and will be judged by results, which requires message simplification. (There are exceptions, politicians rarely campaign for the need for additional bureaucracy to reach their goals. Those accusations are left to political opponents.)

Trait theory

What we know is that politicians are, well, politicians, speaking primarily to bases that this reader contends the politician creates hoards to himself or herself – that is, loose shifting coalitions of supporters who come to  believe in the politician’s “read” of things. Variances occur in messaging and communications.

Is there a difference between those politicians who may be  entrepreneurial politicians and those politicians who are labelled autocratic or traditionalist politicians?

What of rhetoric that, in the least, is strident, demeaning, negative, scurrilous or considered ad hominem?

• • Voters decide the short- and long-term calculus and utility of these leaders’ political rhetoric, based on scales and degrees of engagement or non-engagement.
  • Judicial bodies parse how  behaviors relating to elections, including whether campaign rhetoric is a trope or whether campaign rhetoric becomes a prompt for unsettling  – even violent – actions when spewed into a larger frame than political campaigning to political bases.

Self-investment

What about these dimensional considerations:

1. 1. Do entrepreneurial or traditionalist leaders transcend ‘self’ or persona to a greater extent than authoritarian leaders – that is, once elected, the key consideration?
   2. Can it be said the entrepreneurial or traditionalist political leader, admittedly heavy invested in self or persona, may invest equally if not more in problems-solving as a means to transcend self or persona, providing the entrepreneur capacity to use political leverage to facilitate innovation or creativity to solve policy problems?
   3. Can it be said be said the autocratic leader becomes, especially to her or his base, the one or sole individual who embodies the capacity, largely through the politician’s  self, to both identify and readily deal with policy issues more so than the entrepreneurial or traditionalist leader?
   4. In that the entrepreneurial leader, the traditionalist leader  and the authoritarian leader invests themselves or  personas  in the political process, is the prevailing variant one of degrees of commitment regarding the politician’s projection of – rather than policy or governing process to achieve objectives – self as epitome of the process?

That the electorate struggles with these questions, making broad, jagged and delimiting conclusions as voters, may ensure the health of the U.S. Republic in a time of unprecedented change.

Moreover, pollsters conclude undecided voters in toss-up states largely will determine the outcome of federal elections,  given the U.S. Electoral College process.

The voter as a political consumer, however, can invest her or his vote to ensure the entirety of  the elected executive and legislative branches of government at all levels are beholden to voters rather than politicians who invest in voters.

The responses I received to the May 29, 2024, ‘The future belongs to crowds: The rise of American ‘civil religion’ blog encompassed five strands, namely:

• If the intent were to discuss Christian nationalism [i]the blog doesn’t live up to expectations. The examples proffered were use of U.S. Christian ‘heritage,’ primarily cultural Christianity, to advance a civic Christianity that, melded with politics, satisfies the needs or objectives of certain strains of Christian thought as normative for policymaking at various governance levels. I used the posting of “In God We Trust” or similar mottos in or around public buildings or in public places, including public schools. Louisiana’s recent foray to post the Ten Commandments in classroom belies this sentiment with a ready, ‘bring on the lawsuits,’ which acknowledges the questionable predicament this places on the state.[ii] Supporters see posting of the Commandments within a frame of advancing Christian principles as foundational for law.[iii] Another point: Does this action establish a de facto state church much as the nation displaced in the late 18^th Century or which Europe also abandoned in large part?[iv] After all, we’re told the religious were motivated to come to America because of freedom from state-sponsored religion or, at least, due to persecution for religious beliefs?[v] A final strain is that too much can be read into Christian nationalism – within 30,000 Protestant faith  expressions,[vi] are we heading to internecine religious wrangling (or, maybe more)?[vii]
• While the blog focused the rise of Evangelicalism, the departure from mainline churches also occurred within a political vein – that is mainline church “hierarchical”: support of political causes which, in the 1960s – 1990s became normative despite loss of members in mainline churches. In other words, church engagement is okay as long as the political dynamic is satisfied. For another perspective, refer to Gazette-Mail Op-ed. Here’s the link.[viii]
• In that no World War battles were fought on U.S soi – exemptions provided – what about  “9/11,” which was followed by economic panic circa 2008, and the COVID-19 pandemic? The listing, including 9/11, weren’t  “invasions,’ although these events “invaded’ the American political and cultural psyche, giving rise to Christian nationalism – that is, as a defense mechanism for dealing with an unchartered, scary world.[ix]
• Have American values been trampled by ‘left-thinking’ ideology, institutionalized by bureaucratic and “process” government, undergirded by law, rule or judicial decree, creating imbalance and division, with progressivism falling from favor, although enjoying institutional legal or regulatory protections – protections which demand faith-based responses.[x]
• Where is the nation headed? Is the U.S., experiencing the ideological divide other much-older democratic nations – “Old Europe,’ being the pejorative term – face, resulting in the move to secularized nationalism[xi] with Christianity seen as a problem rather than a solutions.[xii](See Zeitgeist)  Does  nationalism, as a world-wide movement, become a pseudo-religion? [xiii]Will the U.S. embrace nationalism as informed by civil religious tenets?  Have we, as a people, lost faith in our institutions, which are bound by process and bureaucracy, meaning the nation, in a vexed state, wants newer solutions to address weighty ennui? What of the adage, ‘this too shall pass?’ Perhaps, although we’re probably a generation or two away from the death of 1960s political thought context ungirding societal institutions.[xiv] Has social media, in replacing conventional dissemination of information, resulted in truncating difficult, perplexing issues into collapsable “bytes” that make sense? Stated differently, a generation’s accepted truth may be viewed differently by successive generations, meaning context is not universal. Within this milieu, emergent political leaders or functionaries must  parse, displace or disturb  use of conventional or traditional policy approaches, being seen as a political policy entrepreneur bearing problem-solving solutions that are inconsistent, established on norms other than data, facts, figures, statistics or conventional political rationality. Thus, is the emergent political leaders’ role to embrace truths that are more polemical rather than precedent with bureaucratic institutions or customary approaches? Does the approach amount to embracing alternate policy ideals and ideologies to satisfy political base loyalists?  This line of thought sees institutions needing to prove relevance through accelerationism[xv] and, to borrow a phrase from the 1960s, the possible need to ‘burn the village to save the village’[xvi] – hence, the blog headline, ‘the future belongs to crowds.’[xvii]

Finally, what about research that shows the nation’s citizenry may be less divided in terms of core American values?[xviii]

Should this have been my starting point?

Next time: accelerationism within the framework of  ‘pseudo-authoritarianism’ or ‘pseudo-absolutism’ as interpreted by entrepreneurial leaders through personified politics.

[ii] https://thehill.com/homenews/education/4733678-louisiana-law-ten-commandments-fight/

[iii] Refer to above Endnote. Also refer to https://wvmetronews.com/2024/06/24/577300/

[iv] Pew Charitable trusts provides this analysis: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/04/30/in-western-european-countries-with-church-taxes-support-for-the-tradition-remains-strong/

[v] https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel01.html

[vi] Interestingly, AI-generated analysis says the figure is inflated, including a cited higher 47,000 figure. This entry from Wikipedia may be a good place to start: n.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominations_by_number_of_members#:~:text=Broadly%20speaking%20Protestantism%20has%20four,tens%20of%20thousands%20of%20denominations.

[vii] The strife Martin Luther had unwittingly unleashed led to a chaotic series of wars that would last more than a century. Throughout the 1500s, Europe’s princes and kings jockeyed for power, using religion as their excuse. It culminated in a bloody free-for-all called the Thirty Years’ War that raged from 1618 to 1648. While the war involved many countries, it was fought mainly on German soil. Much of the battle gear, ramparts, and folkloric reenactments tourists see today in Germany dates from this war. Casualties were devastating as a third of all Germans were killed. On the Catholic side, the pope was supported by the powerful Holy Roman Emperor. The emperor had Europe’s leading army and was more than willing to march into Germany and put down Protestants. As these wars — with a mix of political and religious agendas — raged across Europe, princes grabbed for power while the people violently sorted out their deep-seated religious frustrations. Polemical; there are other sources / https://classroom.ricksteves.com/videos/the-religious-wars-spawned-by-the-reformation#:~:text=The%20strife%20Martin%20Luther%20had,raged%20from%201618%20to%201648.

[viii] https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_commentaries/alan-rezek-church-membership-declines-because-of-failing-clergy-opinion/article_8adc28dc-de35-593a-a3be-e6d45f6927e5.html

[ix]https://news.gallup.com/poll/354236/say-american-lives-permanently-changed.aspx

[x] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/26/briefing/me-too-black-lives-matter-occupy-wall-street.html Also consider: Opinion | What Have Progressives Done to the West Coast? – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

[xi] https://www.wcsaglobal.org/volume-1-issue-1-2020/the-worldwide-phenomenon-of-nationalism-versus-globalism-a-rhetorical-perspective/

[xii] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09637494.2023.2284690 An admitted long read.

[xiii] Opinion | Is There a Post-Religious Right? – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

[xiv] We Haven’t Hit Peak Populism Yet / https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/23/opinion/populism-trump-elections.html

[xv] By that this writer means ‘political’ accelerationism

[xvi] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-02-09/destroying-a-quote-s-history-in-order-to-save-it?embedded-checkout=true

[xvii] https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-present-belongs-to-crowds#:~:text=The%20novelist%20Don%20DeLillo%2C%20in,and%20animated%20by%20oracular%20commentary (among other sources).

[xviii] Election 2024 Poll: Americans are divided, but agree on most core values | AP News

The 1647 Massachusetts Colony “Old Deluder Satan Act” required communities with more than 100 families or householders to establish grammar schools. Colony leaders saw the grammar schools as a means to ensure children acquired the basic literacy skills that would enable them to gain knowledge of the scriptures and thereby “confound the devil.”[i]

As time progressed, the United States public education system inculcated an historic patriotic-religious admixture reenforced to varying degrees through legal, social and societal structures and norms, including church affiliation and attendance throughout the nation., which remained strong until a few decades ago.[ii]

In terms of a harbinger, however, the U.S. Supreme ruled in 1943 students cannot be forced to salute and pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag. [iii] Some 19 years later, the high  court  rejected school officials’ sanctioned prayer and devotional Bible-readings. [iv]

Rise of the ‘nones’

The contemporary iteration of the Christian Charismatic Movement,  which shares some faith similarities with Pentecostalism, [v] occurred in 1960. [vi] Evangelical Churches had a strong emergence in the 1970s. In fact, the 1976 U.S. presidential election was termed “the year of the Evangelical.”[vii] (“Evangelicalism” is a term encompassing wide swaths of Christian belief and practices. [viii])

Eventually, some conservative Fundamental Christian churches,[ix] along with consenting Evangelical churches and branches or “breakaway” bodies of mainline churches, embraced conservative politics to “right” societal leanings or movements seen as affronts to these churches’ Biblical understandings or of social issues, especially abortion access, which the U.S. Supreme Court “legalized” in 1973, forming an easy alliance with the Roman Catholic Church to promote “pro-life” legislation.

Despite expectations by their leaders, neither movement  nor flourishing mega-churches, largely an outgrowth of Evangelicalism, staunched decline in church attendance.   Moreover, during the past several decades, pollsters document a steady rise in those persons who don’t identify with traditional religious affiliation – so-called “nones” [x] with a concomitant increase in personalized or individualized Christian beliefs, meaning one identifies as Christian without bona fides of organized faith practice or assembly – culturally Christian. [xi]

This development leads some researchers and pundits to conclude new groupings of Evangelicals are emerging, although a New York Times account includes reporters’ interviews of  persons saying they had lapsed in regular church attendance. [xii]

Comparisons with Europe  prove “jagged”

The fancy to compare developments in U.S. Christianity to  European Christianity, especially in terms of  Church attendance, is a jagged proposition primarily  because the U.S. is not Europe.

The United States’s religious experience includes an often-articulated desire for one to practice his or her religion – or no religious practice – without governmental cooption, although legislative bodies and courts prescribe lawful boundaries that respect largely  judicially-articulated church/state entanglements. [xiii]

Another difference: Wars and struggles between nation/city states, provinces, empires and monarchies emerged in wake of the Protestant Reformation. Historically, European soil is soaked with blood[xiv] from myriad revolutions, wars, including two World Wars, pogroms, genocides, the Nazi Holocaust, state-induced famines, ethnic, religious and cultural strife, leading European intellectuals and not a few political leaders to become fed up with God and Christianity,[xv] although churches remain open and Europeans embrace Christian practices such as baptism often desiring church  weddings and funerals. [xvi]

American religious expression, unfettering itself from state-supported churches in the early days of the nation, prompts religious diversity. Most importantly, however,  American soil, while soaked with the blood of the American Revolution, the War of 1812, Mexican-American War (Battle of San Jacinto near Houston) and the  American Civil War, warded off direct invasion by enemy forces during both World Wars, although Wake Island, Guam and the Aleutian Campaign in WWII  may “qualify,” according to some historians.” [xvii]

Civil religion and cumulative effects

Are we at a place where U.S. Christian “identity” is embraced decidedly  by traditional church affiliation wherein Christians are admonished to “not neglect to meet together” (Hebrews 10:25) as well as civil religion trappings, including:

• Governmental invocations and benedictions, which may include representatives of other faiths;
• Displays of Christian faith adherence by athletes, celebrities and other influencers;
• Legislative enactment of bills requiring display of national religious mottos in public places;
• Continued church affiliation/attendance by Christians whose expressions of faith may include emphasis on ministries to address social issues or to advance societal justice causes, which attract brigades of volunteers?

(More to the point: Has “Christian identity” always been a pliant term open to one’s self-definition or practice or non-practice, including civil religion emphases? To what degree should this be the ‘lead’ question?  Many  persons of other faith  expressions may contend Christian faith fares well, despite internecine conflicts,  in informing governmental policy, mores and customs in West Virginia and the United States.)

Loss of Biblical Literacy

In other words, U.S. Christianity, if ‘admitting’ greater recognition of civil Christian religion and if church attendance continues its precipitous decline which Gallup notes at 30 percent, [xviii] what might be the cumulative generational effect in terms of U.S. society, culture, politics, arts? How does diminished Biblical Literacy[xix] – see term in the Endnote –  bode for the nation in terms of societal response to complex social issues or questions? Will a potential void in Biblical grounding make some Americans susceptible to rhetoric and demagoguery by who bear tidings from a ‘Gospel’ of their making, including social media influencers, technocrats, politicians or political leaders? Or, has this always been the case with, perhaps, social media reliance being the predictive arbiter?[xx]

No matter, today’s Christian expression occurs in a world that may, unfortunately, lack peace or stability because of the rise of competing global powers, nationalism, myriad geopolitical pacts and reliance on war, fear, panic, terrorism, prompting the question whether the Age of Enlightenment is closing.[xxi]  Has the sky fallen for  some peoples?

“Is The truth today the truth tomorrow”

Moreover, voices generationally removed from  20^th Century World Wars, the Nazi Holocaust, state repression throughout the world, nuclear threats and atrocities may decline conventional U.S. interpretations of these events, which begs the question: “Is the truth today the truth tomorrow?” [xxii] We may need to get used to newer historical thought interpretations along with entrepreneurial, “crowd,” spectacle politics, the notion “Summer of Love” politics and bipartisanship may be DOA in halls of government; and the rise of the sentiment only  entrepreneurial political leadership will steer us to calmer seas by displacing traditional or past government stances or alliances?

Bluntly put, these developments may be evolutionary but their import is intensified by the nation’s divided politics.

While historical precedent is no guarantee,  these developments could occur intensify through political  populism – perhaps a “safety valve” [xxiii]until settled times occur, allowing the electorate to determine policy outcomes, based on today’s emergent trajectory – no assurance everyone is pleased.

Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has” [xxiv]– that is by thinking globally, acting locally, let’s ensure a world emerges with largess of personal freedom, liberty and the pursuit of justice.

That world is within reach.

[i]https://web.csulb.edu/colleges/cla/projects/EM/smdeluder.html#:~:text=The%201647%20legislation%20known%20as,children%20to%20read%20and%20write (Contains complete text.)

[ii] https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED592601

[iii] West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) / https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/319/624/#:~:text=Barnette%2C%20319%20U.S.%20624%20(1943)&text=Students%20may%20not%20be%20required,contrary%20to%20their%20religious%20beliefs.

[iv] https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/engel_v._vitale_(1962)#:~:text=Primary%20tabs-,Engel%20v.,was%20increasingly%20pluralistic%20and%20secular / Engel v. Vitale (1962) Also refer to School District of Abington Township, Pennsylvania v. Schempp (1963) / https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/school_district_of_abington_township_pennsylvania_v_schempp_(1963)#:~:text=Primary%20tabs-,School%20District%20of%20Abington%20Township%2C%20Pennsylvania%20v.,Clause%20of%20the%20First%20Amendment.

[v] Difference Between Charismatic and Pentecostal | Christian.net

[vi]1960 Charismatic Movement – BEAUTIFUL FEETBEAUTIFUL FEET (romans1015.com)

[vii] https://www.kubookstore.com/Election-of-the-Evangelical-Carter-Ford-and-the-Presidential-Contest-of-1976?quantity=1

[viii]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelicalism

[ix] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christian-fundamentalism

[x] Religious ‘Nones’ in America: Who They Are and What They Believe | Pew Research Center (Some researcher consider the term pejorative.)

[xi] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Christians#:~:text=Cultural%20Christians%20are%20the%20nonreligious,practicing%20believers%20as%20nominal%20Christians (Most definitions are polemic.)

[xii] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/08/us/politics/donald-trump-evangelicals-iowa.html (May require subscription)

[xiii] https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/486494?journalCode=jr#:~:text=To%20Alexis%20de%20Tocqueville%20religion,French%20official%20was%20everywhere%20apparent.

[xiv] https://www.growlikegrandad.co.uk/allotment/soil-nutrients/bone-meal-gruesome-fairy-tale-fertiliser.html

[xv] God’s Funeral: The Decline of Faith in Western Civilization /  January 1, 1999 by A. N. Wilson (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Funeral-N-Wilson/dp/B0017ZK4NU (Critics contend Wilson’s book focuses on Great Britain.)

[xvi] https://www.salon.com/2016/11/27/europe-is-not-a-secular-paradise-and-americans-should-be-careful-when-embracing-this-myth/

[xvii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_the_United_States#:~:text=The%20Aleutian%20Islands%20campaign%20in,the%20use%20of%20fire%20balloons.

[xviii] https://news.gallup.com/poll/642548/church-attendance-declined-religious-groups.aspx#:~:text=A%20decade%20ago%2C%20the%20figure,do%20not%20attend%20services%20regularly.

[xix] Bible Literacy and Bible Fluency, Explained | The Biblical Mind (hebraicthought.org) (Comprehensive definition) Also refer to What is Biblical Fluency? – Spirit & Truth Publishing (spiritandtruthpublishing.com) Hard to secure a non-polemic definition

[xx] Consider ‘Elmer Gantry?’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_Gantry_(film).

[xxi] https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2018/07/02/what-happened-to-enlightenment/ Some scholars contend Enlightenment ended with the French Revolution or use other dates. Also refer to The End of History /https://www.jstor.org/stable/24027184

[xxii] Quoted in New York Times (may require) subscription / https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/27/opinion/brat-pack-andrew-mccarthy.html#:~:text=We%20had%20become%20the%20avatars,but%20perhaps%20now%20I%20do.

[xxiii] Safety Valve Theory | The Free Speech Center (mtsu.edu) Also refer to Why Populism in America is a Double-Edged Sword | HISTORY

[xxiv] Considered one of Mead’s best quotations. Mead (1901-1978), U.S. cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Barnard College of Columbia University and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia. Several sources, including https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/search?q=margaret+mead#:~:text=%E2%80%9CNever%20doubt%20that%20a%20small,only%20thing%20that%20ever%20has.%E2%80%9D&text=%E2%80%9CChildren%20must%20be%20taught%20how,%2C%20not%20what%20to%20think.%E2%80%9D&text=%E2%80%9CI%20was%20wise%20enough%20never,people%20into%20believing%20I%20had.%E2%80%9D

The May-October 2024 blog editions feature considerations about the cultural milieu in which this year’s elections occur.

These are possible topics to be explored:

• “Accelerationism,” both in its original context as well as its “appropriation” by various political groups.
• The ubiquity of information, communications, social media and news sources and possible effects on voters’ perceptions of candidates.
• Does the decline of bipartisanship best serve a divided or polarized electorate?
• Is former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse’s analysis of the ‘1960s headache’ and its effects on today’s politics ‘playing out?’
• Sour grapes and sore losers: Is majoritarianism best fitting for the U.S. as a means to diminish “tyranny of the minority?’
• What factors within U.S. Christianity led to the rise of ‘Christian Nationalism?’
  Does today’s populism differ from that of the past?
• Does decline or lack of support in U.S. institutions result in the rise of personalized or entrepreneurial politics?

Frederick Childe Hassam (1859 –1935), U.S. impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressionism to American collectors, dealers, and museums. He produced over 3,000 paintings, oils, watercolors, etchings, and lithographs over the course of his career, and was an influential American artist of the early 20th century. Hassam demonstrated an interest in art early. He had his first lessons in drawing and watercolor while attending The Mather School but his parents took little notice of his nascent talent. He descended from a long line of New Englanders. His mother, a native of Maine, shared an ancestor with American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne. His father claimed descent from a seventeenth-century English immigrant whose name, Horsham, had been corrupted over time to Hassam. Although not of Mideastern ancestry, he often painted an Islami-appearing crescent moon (which eventually degenerated into only a slash) next to his signature, and he adopted the nickname “Muley” (from the Arabic “Mawla”, Lord or Master), invoking Muley Abul Hassan, 5th a fifteenth-century ruler of Granada whose life was fictionalized in Washington Irving’s novel Tales of the Alhambra.

(The Greatest Display of the American Flag Ever Seen in New York, Climax of the Preparedness Parade in May)

March is Women’s History Month with several contributors discussing how women have advanced – and continue – to advance, lead and guide our state and nation in various disciplines and vocations.

The words expressed are from varying perspectives, of course, but provide lens and insight by which to view issues facing our communities, state and nation.
Refer to Opinion

For more information on the origin of Women’s History Month, consult numerous online resources, including: https://www.womenshistory.org/womens-history/womens-history-month#:~:text=Women’s%20History%20Month%20started%20as,History%20Week%E2%80%9D%20celebration%20in%201978

Future Thematic Issues

Future thematic issues will explore:

• The West Virginia Index: Opportunities facing the state (June)
• Employment and labor-related matters, including workforce preparedness (September 2024)
• Public and Higher Education (November)
• 2025 Regular Session Preview (January 2025)

I want to thank those who made this issue possible, including, of course, contributors as well as Senate and House Clerks Office staff.

Even before concerted efforts to stifle education and conversations around slavery and racism, we were often presented with a limited picture of Black history: The long, vast, varied history of people classified as the singular monolith of their skin color — distilled and oversimplified into a handful of names, dates and places to be trotted out every February like clockwork.

There is so much more to Black history than we have been taught. There is so much more to the history that we have been taught.

We learn about Harriet Tubman, Ruby Bridges, Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

We know Tubman for her work with the Underground Railroad, but not that she lived a long, full life after the Civil War, including joining the women’s suffrage movement and founding a nursing home.

We know Bridges for being the first Black child to integrate Louisiana schools; but we forget she is alive and well and still a prolific civil rights activist.

We know Rosa Parks for being the face of the Montgomery bus boycotts.

But long before there was Rosa Parks, there was the Women’s Political Council, which had been fighting to desegregate transportation for years and had organized the first bus boycott. That 15-year-old Claudette Colvin and 18-year-old Mary Louise Smith were each arrested (separately) for challenging segregation on Montgomery’s buses. Or that it was the WPC that called for the boycott after Parks’ arrest and that MLK Jr. joined later. Or that the Montgomery bus boycotts lasted over a year. That it was the hundreds of Black women who organized and walked miles upon miles in lieu of using public transportation that made it a success. Or that it was nearly 10 years between this watershed moment and the 1965 Civil Rights Act.

We know MLK Jr. for being the face of the civil rights movement, and especially for his “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. But we don’t learn about Bayard Rustin: King’s right-hand man who turned King into a pacificist and organized the March on Washington — and who was an openly gay Black man in a time when it was dangerous to be either, let alone both.

We don’t learn about the successful Black Wall Street and its subsequent destruction in the 1921 Tulsa massacre: A thriving, prosperous Black neighborhood called Greenwood that was burnt to the ground overnight, destroying homes, businesses, churches and generations’ worth of wealth.

Our U.S. History classes rarely reach Reconstruction, and if they do, they forget to tell us how Black people (though mostly men) became literate land owners with the power to vote and became politicians who served in state legislatures. Until President Andrew Johnson revoked freed slaves’ land, giving it back to its white owners, and allowed states to enact a litany of suppressive laws.

Black history should not be confined to a few famous faces and relegated to one month a year. It must be interwoven into our history lessons, because it is an intrinsic part of our history. Black history is American history, and we must treat it as such.

February 10, 2024 – Opinion, The Dominion Post

 

Historian Carter G. Woodson

Known today as the “Father of Black History,” Carter G. Woodson (1875–1950) was one of the first Black historians to begin writing about Black culture and experience—and the second to earn a doctorate at Harvard University (W. E. B. Du Bois was the first).

As a young child, Woodson spent much of his time working on his family’s farm in Virginia, and as a teenager, he worked as an agricultural day laborer. But in 1895, he enrolled in Frederick Douglass High School in Huntington, West Virginia, completing four years of coursework in just two years. From there, he continued his education in Kentucky, at Berea College, a school founded by abolitionists, and went on to receive his master’s degree in European history in 1907 from the University of Chicago. Five years later, Woodson would earn his Ph.D. in history at Harvard University, writing his dissertation on the state of West Virginia after the Civil War broke out, titled “The Disruption of Virginia.”

Read more: https://huntington.org/verso/2019/02/historian-carter-g-woodson

This is the fourth blog installment discussing organizations’ advocacy efforts and state-level policymaking.

Here are the takeaways:

• Organizations may find themselves contending with policymaker aims contrary to long-held organizational values, which may be intensified by the rise of “entrepreneurial” politics and politicians, particularly at the national level.

• Use of consortia (or broad-based inter-organizational alliances) may provide organizations the ability to affect policymaking in a broader, collegial sense, involving organizations having similar and dissimilar aims, although turf may prove prohibitive. (Admittedly, some existing alliances seek to achieve mutual inter-organizational aims or goals.)

• Increasingly, ubiquitous social media venues influence organizational advocacy, meaning the need for consistent procedures and practices.

• Organizations, operating through “multidimensional” segments, may be able to best address future advocacy stances, although balanced with organizational aims or goals crafted to meet emerging policy developments.

The baker’s dozen:

1. Organizational advocacy exists as a continuum with eyes, fully open in the present, laid wide on the past while looking to what’s known or predictable about the future – Janus-like approach.[i]
2. Anti-fragile[ii] isn’t the same as organizational persecution complex.[iii] The former may be growth-inducing, prompted when organizational stances, actions or proposals are scrutinized against policymaker aims; the latter, resigned defensiveness, which, at most, may yield  crocodile tears.
3. Catastrophizing[iv] may be a formidable advocacy strategy if infrequently used or used to advantage. The sky is falling[v] approach often proves irritating not only to policymakers but also most everyone else. Catastrophizing may be apt if the organization provides credible evidence its core values would be eroded or destroyed because of policymaker aims if not modified,[vi] which differs from rehashed, historic cant.    Finally, no matter what policymakers do or have done, the sun appears each morning, although little immediate comfort or consolation. Hear Hubert Humphrey out: “Oh, my friend, it’s not what they take away from you that counts – it’s what have left.”[vii] Yes, advocacy groups will need to dust themselves off occasionally, climbing back into the arena. [viii]

4. Canem adprehendit automobile or “the dog catches the automobile.” What’s next? What contingencies?  ‘Catching the car’ is different from keeping the car ‘caught,’ especially as mediated by elections. Policymaker/organizational scrapes gone badly, based on an organization’s defense of values or non-negotiables, happen. [ix] Repurposing an Eastern proverb, “the frog in the well (will know) nothing of the sea”[x] if the organization focuses on limitations, based on scrapes which result in ties or defeat. (Or, for that matter, seeing victory or partial victory as summative, aka resting on laurels.) Accordingly, policymakers may introduce nudges and boosts to widen an organization’s “appreciation” of policymakers goals, especially those perceived as voter mandates. [xi]
5. As poet T.S. Eliot says, “All truths are private truths.”[xii] There is truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, which organizational  advocates swear to affirm when testifying before West Virginia Legislature Committees.  There are facts, data, information, statistics (data). Data, however, is wisely and widely subjected to interpretation by policymakers, various constituencies, based on variables such as timeliness, source(s), format, fact-checking or even anecdotal “data,” which often gains coinage when constituent share their truths with policymakers at public gatherings, in grocery store conversations, church, civic or community events. Hint: The best organizational approach may include combining quantitative and quality data, i.e., empirical research and focus group input.[xiii]
6. Organizations should embrace consortia, which requires long-term, deliberative thought, although not abandoning advantageous coalition involvement. Consortia promote dialogue between and among similar and dissimilar parties, based on breadth and depth of shared, aligned or countervailing policy issues. Coalitions, by design, often end in “the middle,” providing anointed and invigorated energy and even initiative and cover for often larger, more widely known coalition progenitors, having much to lose if taking a unilateral position.[xiv] Consortia, again, comprised of diverse, non-aligned organizations, approach their tasks in “parliament” settings, whereas coalitions are established through invitational appointment of broad constituencies often to achieve singular aims (such as support or opposition to constitutional amendments). Consortia emphasize structured dialogue without an aim for consensus, issues position papers, establishing an array or “well” of data dashboards available to the policyholders and the public, sponsoring educational seminars, etc. Again, coalition membership must not be discounted as a delimited strategy.  (Of course, existing inter-organizational alliances support mutual policy aims, such as business, labor, or health care alliances.)
7. Organizations, including advocacy departments, exist at various levels, with their leadership responsible for scanning the environment, seeking to bolster organizational strengths and to ward threats. Finding balance is key, equipping the organization to meet emergent – or long-term – demands and challenges. Moving those on the ground (rank-and-file), however, becomes critical. While successful organizations are advised to be nimble,[xv] their leaders cannot embrace policy shifts that “cancel” or “sacrifice” organizational values or non-negotiables.[xvi] If not preparing for emergent policy shifts, organizations may doom their rank-and-file – those on the ground[xvii] – due to changing policy menus, resulting from elections or overt acts of policymakers whose statutes, policies, rules and regulation may affect those “on the ground” directly. While wrong menus may  emerge, disturbing customary  orderliness,  the old adage  – “if you’re not at the table, you’re probably on the menu” – may prove telling.[xviii] Moreover, organizations can structure themselves with “forward-looking” sectors  – think consortia membership as cited above –  as long as messaging is clear, meaning the organization enunciates, through proper parties, official pronouncements regarding its policy concerns,  with means to solidify membership support  through “aligned messaging.” [xix]
8. In the case you have not noticed, ‘summer of love politics’ seems on its last legs, although some observers contend 60s political mystique was felled by capitalism in the late 1960s, prefiguring today’s politics through policy actions during the last 40-50 years.[xx] Organizations retain stability in polarized times,  although seeking the baleful middle or rush to bipartisanship appears to be fading as a “go-to” strategy, certainly nationally. [xxi]  Wise leaders equip organizations to maximize potential for change so organizations will be or remain valued by policymakers, especially over the long-haul. The key is organizational  “multidimensionality,” that allows organization shape-shifters to “shift” or pivot, addressing policymakers’ emergent aims while retaining organizational values and non-negotiables to maintain resilience.[xxii]
9. While Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy[xxiii]is a commendable read, is the world comprised of conspiracies, often “typed” as  including cabals of malefactors ready to edge the unalert into numerous abysses? This thinking is mainstream. Accordingly, elected policymakers are seen as most capable of dealing with complexity through removing ambiguities “efficiently,” by eliminating what a  federal health agency defines as “uncertainty intolerance.”[xxiv] Truth in part but liability in a larger sense because, as issues become weighted with greater complexities, policy dilemmas may become intractable, resulting in governance paralysis, i.e. Washington dysfunction, especially if balanced budgets are not mandated, but spending authorized through  “continuing fiscal resolutions.” Moreover, TV, podcasters  and social media types seemingly rush history to achieve their enunciated ends with real time efficiency, guaranteeing amped ratings – even cult status. Yet, does not history unfold generations later?[xxv] Wise organizations welcome open, expansive sweeps of narratives in a time when  generalists,[xxvi] including CEOs as preferred entrepreneurs, are besting siloed organizational staff. [xxvii]  Effective organizations espy opportunities from disorder while political bases may seek absolutism, especially in a time characterized by what Bret Stephens, quoting Tablet’s Alana Newhouse,  terms “brokenness.”[xxviii] Relatedly, entrepreneurs (or, at least, entrepreneurial thinking) is prized today as an economic prompt for economic development much as the efforts of 19^th Century capitalist tycoons were lauded.[xxix] Moreover, politicians whose campaigns are framed around eliminating ambiguities or nuance appear to be on the rise, although policymaking is both process and passion, the latter often besting the former, because the public, willing to accept fundamental certainties, views institutions and process as increasingly suspect – a consideration Stephens also makes.
10. Social Media, including AI, is ubiquitous. As a West Virginia Department of Education official reported to the Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Education, policymakers provide parameters of responsible use for AI – as a matterof policy they must decide. [xxx]. Moreover, “X,” formerly Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, email, podcasts, and various forms of electronic media provide a way to influence policymaking in “real time.” Organizations, however, need policies and procedures for use of social media without sole reliance on this communications medium. Carefully crafted social media use can amplify organizational pronouncements.Think policymaker public hearings.Some advocacy groups, during the allotted time at the hearing, will mention supporting information is available on the organization’s website or will provide that detail at the hearing, including hardcopy.
11. Organizations equip members with sufficient, useful, credible information appropriate to organizational divisions or levels, meaning variances, but, again, “aligned messaging” and the medium or media for such, including one-on-one dialogue with policymakers based on organizational positions held. For instance, school system excess levy proponents include both professional educators and school service personnel as well as school administrators and county board members – as regulated by law. Each grouping bears differing  messaging emphases, based on organizational positioning,  to enhance support for excess levies, e.g., salary and benefits enhancements, facilities enhancements, school safety enhancements.[xxxi]
12. Advocacy is only one facet of an organization’s outputs, but critical in its own right. Effective organizations plan to, restating the above, function in the present, while looking to the past for direction and guidance, to embrace the future fully. Organizations whose leaders pull far ahead of members may place the organization and/or their positions in jeopardy. Moreover, policymakers often want an identified or “go-to” leader (or leaders) to ensure organizational positional solidity is being espoused, based on delegate assemblies, governing boards or other sanctioned or appropriate intra-organizational units having these responsibilities. Diverse consortia also provide organizations the ability to engage in “look-aheads.” Jared Diamond points out many advocacy groups do not have the capacity to fully realize their goals, although organizations – corporations in this case – may conclude goals such as materials recycling, energy conservation or alternative energy sources benefit society at large.[xxxii] Governor Jim Justice echoed a related sentiment when referring to fossil fuels and the state’s emphasis on use of alternate energy sources and enterprises in his January 10 State of the State address.[xxxiii]
13. The West Virginia Constitution states:The powers of government reside in all the citizens of the state, and can be rightfully exercised only in accordance with their will and appointment.[xxxiv]

Labor West unions, school employee organizations, business groups, health groups, and other associations and organizations provide West Virginia citizens amplified voices to inform and influence policymaking.

As citizens we must not only hold ourselves accountable but also our elected officials entrusted to represent us.[xxxv]

 

Sources:

[i] https://www.andersonlock.com/blog/god-doors/#:~:text=As%20the%20god%20of%20transitions,or%20openings%20between%20spatial%20boundaries.

[ii] https://fs.blog/antifragile-a-definition/

[iii] https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/01/11/how-to-manage-the-arrogant-victim-mindset/?sh=1c5237e038d8 Admittedly, inexact application, although there are similar elements at play between policymakers and organizational advocates.

[iv] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/catastrophizing

[v] Henny Penny,” more commonly known in the United States as “Chicken Little” and sometimes as “Chicken Licken,” is a European folk tale a moral in the form of a cumulative tale about a chicken who believes that the world is coming to an end. The phrase “The sky is falling!” features prominently in the story and has passed into the English language as a common idiom indicating a hysterical mistaken belief that disaster is imminent. Similar stories go back more than 25 centuries^[1] and “Henny Penny” continues to be referred to in a variety of media. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henny_Penny#:~:text=%22Henny%20Penny%22%2C%20more%20commonly,is%20coming%20to%20an%20end.

[vi]https://annecorder.co.uk/employers-blog/understanding-your-workplace-non-negotiables/#:~:text=Your%20workplace%20non%2Dnegotiables%20outline,your%20workplace%2C%20colleagues%20and%20customers  is a representative read. %20end.

[vii]  https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/hubert-h-humphrey-quotes

[viii] https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/44567.Theodore_Roosevelt

[ix] https://www.mr-sustainability.com/why-how-what-who/clear-non-negotiables

[x]  https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chinese_Stories/The_frog_of_the_well#:~:text=The%20Chinese%20text%20is%20a,in%20a%20well%2C%20has%20a

[xi] https://pure.mpg.de/rest/items/item_2513866_5/component/file_2514744/content

https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/breakingviews/gkplgbgoavb/FINAL2022%20-%20Reuters_Breakingviews_Predictions_2022_v5.pdf

[xii] https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/t_s_eliot_

[xiii] https://betterthesis.dk/research-methods/lesson-1different-approaches-to-research/combining-qualitative-and-quantitative-methods#:~:text=In%20practice%2C%20most%20researchers%20agree,understanding%20of%20a%20research%20area. Or, 402054      https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/quantitative-vs-qualitative-research/#:~:text=Simply%20put%2C%20quantitative%20data%20gets,understand%20the%20differences%20between%20them.

[xiv] https://justassociates.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/new_weave_en_ch17.pdf

[xv] https://fundingforgood.org/build-a-nimble-organization/#:~:text=Nimble%20organizations%20are%20purpose%2Ddriven,organization%20also%20requires%20nimble%20leadership. Excellent read.

[xvi] See Endnote 6.

[xvii] https://chopwoodcarrywaterllc.com/index.php/2023/11/27/state-level-policymaking-bodies-and-organizations-weather-climate-analogies-relating-to-policy-determination/

[xviii]  https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/11/15/table-menu/   https://www.haystackteam.com/blog/three-key-elements-of-messaging-alignment#:~:text=Aligned%20messaging%20unites%20senior%20leadership,effective%20marketing%20and%20communication%20campaigns.

[xix] https://www.haystackteam.com/blog/three-key-elements-of-messaging-alignment#:~:text=Aligned%20messaging%20unites%20senior%20leadership,effective%20marketing%20and%20communication%20campaigns

[xx] https://daily.jstor.org/the-summer-of-love-wasnt-all-peace-and-hippies/

[xxi] https://corg.iu.edu/programs/hamilton-views/comments-on-congress/Bipartisanship%20Isnt%20Dead,%20But%20Its%20Not%20In%20Good%20Health,%20Either%20.html

[xxii] https://dainamiddleton.com/shape-shifter-importance-building-organizational-resilience/ organizational shape-shifter

[xxiii] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/books/review/under-the-eye-of-power-colin-dickey.html

[xxiv] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9747232/

[xxv] Interesting read: https://maineinitiatives.org/news/history-is-written-by-the-victors

[xxvi] https://davidepstein.com/the-range/

[xxvii] https://www.shopify.com/blog/entrepreneur-examples

[xxviii] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/11/opinion/columnists/donald-trump-election.html

[xxix] https://online.maryville.edu/business-degrees/americas-gilded-age/ “…With technology booming and immigrants flocking to the United States seeking better opportunities for themselves and their families, they left their mark on the United States — and on history.”

[xxx] Joint Standing Committee on Education

[xxxi] https://joinit.com/membership-organizations-guide (Refer to” non-profits and advocacy groups.”)

[xxxii] https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/opinion/06diamond.html

[xxxiii] “…We need to diversify our economies. We need to never, never, never forget our coal miners, our gas workers and our fossil fuels…I said diversify the economy. We could not just depend on one industry all the time…But we couldn’t depend on the one industry all the time. But we don’t forget, do we? And you know what happened? Because us putting another stake in the sand and saying we’re not going to forget our fossil fuels…” – https://governor.wv.gov/News/press-releases/2024/Pages/Gov.-Justice-to-deliver-final-State-of-the-State-Address-Wednesday-night.aspx

[xxxiv] https://www.wvlegislature.gov/WVCODE/WV_CON.cfm#articleII

[xxxv] https://wvmetronews.com/2024/01/10/heres-whats-good-about-the-west-virginia-legislature/