Mock Press Conferences Roast Proposition 38

In the media relations training session at CTA's Summer Institute, teachers spent time creating a community news event to convey to the media and the public the dangers Prop. 38 poses to local fire and police department budgets, as well as public schools.

They wrote media advisories to get the media there, and then staged the mock news event itself, playing different roles. CTA trainers, backed by reporters from the Summer Institute's newsletter training class, grilled conferees about the voucher initiative.

One group offered a "street theater" event to announce the opening of the first Tim Draper voucher school - at an abandoned gas station. Reflecting the fact that these schools would be unregulated, teacher David O'Neal from UTLA stepped into the role of the voucher huckster - in a suit stuffed with cash and a "100 Grand" candy bar taped to it - and introduced the "sorry staff" of the voucher school.

One teacher planned to use Cosmopolitan magazine for her health and fitness class textbook, while a math class to be taught by a former blackjack dealer would have featured games of chance.

Another group of teachers held a mock funeral for public education to warn of the dangers of Prop. 38. They posed as community leaders who stepped forward to "nail" several pencils into a mock coffin, each reciting how the initiative would hurt schools and the community.

Other scenarios included a mock garage sale where the police and fire chiefs of the town were selling off police cars and fire trucks and a school official was selling books from the school library as a consequence of likely cuts from Prop. 38.

The total immersion approach to media relations training was designed to help teachers convey their positions in an effective way under pressure.

The total immersion approach to media relations training was designed to help teachers convey their positions in an effective way under pressure.