My experience is that more effective advocacy will be necessary to pass any school funding override in the Town of Ipswich. Past failures show what can happen when advocacy is insufficient. In particular two changes seem necessary.

First, the Parent-Teacher Organizations should provide all-out advocacy.

In the past, the Parent-Teacher Organizations in the Town of Ipswich have been overly reluctant to "get involved in politics". But even though an election is involved, an override campaign is really about parents advocating for their kids not about "politics". Perhaps more importantly, there's insufficient legal basis for the avoidance. The State of Massachusetts does more than just allow Parent-Teacher Organizations to advocate for overrides - it expects and even encourages it. Most likely the past over-squeamishness was based on misunderstanding of some historical events and complexity of the regulations. Parent-Teacher Organization advocacy is too important to completely forego just to stay as far away as possible from any penalty.

The State of Massachusetts fully expects PTOs to be deeply involved in advocating for an override (albeit within fairly detailed restrictions, due mostly to close interpretation of the state's campaign finance law). Sending home a flyer with every student is generally not allowed because it almost inevitably involves using a public resource (in particular teachers' time) to influence an election. (It makes no difference that no mailing list nor postage nor use of a school copying machine is involved). Yet in the past PTOs have even been allowed to state their position (but not to give ballot question committee contact information or anything else that even might be construed as indirectly soliciting funds) on an override in a "newsletter" sent home with every student provided the "newsletter" was already being regularly published before the override campaign began. (This however appears to now be viewed quite dubiously. See for example the second reference below. It may be preferable to steer completely clear of anything that might be interpreted as "use of public resources for political purposes", by instead for example distributing material via mail, email, websites, and other media that don't involve teachers touching the material at all.)

And although a PTO may be deeply involved in override advocacy, to avoid running afoul of campaign finance laws it should not be the coordinating organization. The umbrella organization should always be a "Municipal Ballot Question Committee", properly organized for just this purpose, perhaps with some of its members also being PTO members, with its own Treasurer and completely separate finances, meeting outside any school or other municipal building, and disbanded very shortly after the election.

Particularly intriguing are the recent Advisory Opinion AO-07-03 which is summarized 'School officials may use automated phone system to advise parents of the date of an election and also to encourage them to vote. Extreme care should be taken to avoid any comment regarding the merits of a ballot question or any appearance of advocacy.' and the paragraph in Interpretive Bulletin IB-91-01 that says 'In addition, public resources may be used to distribute information that simply advises voters of an upcoming vote, such as a notice of the time, date and place of a municipal election. In addition, such information may urge people to vote, and provide information about how to register to vote. Also, such information may include a brief neutral title describing the ballot question, and the text of the ballot question. Extreme care should be taken to avoid any appearance of advocacy. For example, the title "school expansion project" would be appropriate. On the other hand, titles which would not be appropriate include "ballot question relating to need for school expansion," or "ballot question addressing school overcrowding problem."'

Rather than attempt to provide legal interpretations and advice on this rather complex subject, here are some original materials so you can pursue it for yourself. Almost all these materials are written for non-professional readers; you don't need a law degree to make use of them.

• http://www.mass.gov/ocpf/ao/AO-03-03.pdf is a letter containing very specific questions and answers about involvement of a Parent-Teacher Organization in an override election. This is a good place to start. (This is one of the materials available through the "Office of Campaign and Political Finance" (http://www.mass.gov/ocpf/homepage_guides.htm), whose portal also contains pointers to many other relevant materials.)


• http://www.mass.gov/ocpf/ao/AO-00-06.pdf is a letter containing very specific questions and answers about use of a Parent-Teacher Newsletter in an override election, a question not specifically dealt with by the previous item.


• http://www.mass.gov/ocpf/ao/AO-05-05.pdf provides a more generic discussion of a Parent-Teacher Organization's relation to an override election.


• http://www.mass.gov/ocpf/ao/IB-91-01.pdf provides another generic discussion on involvement of a Parent-Teacher Organization in an override election. Although its format is a little different, its content is quite similar to the previous item; in fact you might think of it as a "companion". (This is one of several "Interpretive Bulletins" (http://www.mass.gov/ocpf/ao/Web-IBs_1.html) — a kind of opinion issued by one branch of the State's legal apparatus.)


• http://www.mass.gov/ethics/930CMR.html is about the Code of Massachusetts Regulations - State Ethics Commission.


• http://www.mass.gov/ocpf/guides/pubemp103.pdf is a publication about "Public Employees, Public Resources and Political Activity" which covers this one particular aspect of public advocacy.


• http://www.mass.gov/ethics/educational_materials.html is the extensive list of educational materials provided by the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission.

Second, the tension with senior citizens should be reduced.

Advocacy cannot overcome a large number of negative votes from a scared group who votes heavily. Senior citizens' reluctance about an override is quite understandable. Because of the slow but continual compounding of inflation, a tax dollar nowadays is worth less than 1/5 of what it was worth when seniors were in their 20's. Property taxes fall especially hard on seniors who don't buy much and who tend to be be property-rich but cash-poor.

Many parents should help an elderly neighbor get their 41C property tax reduction. The town of Ipswich is part of the 41C program that extends property tax reductions to qualifying seniors. But the program is not automatic; it requires a proactive application by each senior.

It might seem counter-intuitive to increase school funding by reducing the local tax base. How will aiding a senior to get their 41C property tax reduction help the schools? By reducing the tax liability of the senior, their fear of an override is reduced, perhaps even to the point of eliminating one negative vote. And the contact may give parents the opportunity to get their senior to view their kids more like grandkids than pests.

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