Inside AASA Sasha Pudelski on Legislative Advocacy

WHEN SUPERINTENDENTS NEED

to have a voice in Washington, D.C., who speaks for them? Sasha Pudelski has been the assistant director of policy and advocacy at AASA for the past seven years, and when she’s not in the office, she can be found prowling the halls on Capitol Hill to advocate for the AASA membership.

From writing reports to discussing Medicaid funding on the PBS “News Hour,” Pudelski represents members in many ways that help to position AASA as an educational leader.

The following interview of Pudelski by AASA senior editorial assistant Juli Doshan has been edited for length and clarity.

What is your primary role at AASA?

I lobby on behalf of school superintendents on Capitol Hill. Day to day, it means doing federal advocacy. This past year, I have done a lot of writing to support our advocacy work. We published three reports — the first on Medicaid, the second on school vouchers and the third on equity in rural schools — and all of that relates to priorities in our legislative agenda that are set by our Executive Committee and Governing Board every year.

How have your experiences here at AASA or beforehand informed this work?

I was really fortunate to have Bruce Hunter as my boss when I started at AASA. He was a wonderful educator and mentor and gave me a lot of great context about the right ways to lobby and the not-right ways to lobby.

What makes AASA’s advocacy different from that of other national organizations?

AASA really does take direction on our policy and legislative agenda from our members and what they think needs to change at the federal level. It’s a top-down approach in the sense that we have our board who votes every year on our agenda, and we carry out their orders. If that means we’re the only group opposing or supporting a bill, that’s what happens. We don’t try to do anything on the Hill except represent what our superintendents tell us they want us to do, and I think that makes us very unique in this political environment.

You co-chair two national coalitions. How do you and AASA lead in this capacity?

How we represent school leaders matters — and it should position us to be leaders on a variety of education and funding issues. We have a knowledge base that tends to be broader than some of the smaller education organizations, and we have an expansive perspective on how federal policy impacts all students. That enables us to take on leadership roles.

Could you provide an example?

Yes. In the Medicaid context, we’re able to get data and anecdotes to highlight how a cut to that program would impact all kids and school professionals. That’s because, as school system leaders, we’re in charge of everything that touches the school community.

Are superintendents more or less engaged under the Trump administration?

I would say they’re more engaged. I think there was noticeable uptick under the Obama administration, too, with the competitive grant proposals that really drew the ire of some of our members. I see the DeVos and Trump administration as also being a lightning rod for some of them who are worried about the future of public education.

AASA’s policy and advocacy team coined 2017 the Year of the Superintendent. What issues have you asked superintendents to take on?

Frankly, last year, we had more than enough opportunities to engage our members on advocacy, whether it was around funding — like Title I and IDEA funding, E-rate funding, Secure Rural Schools funding, Title IV funding, or policy, like Medicaid, school vouchers and tax reform.

What is the most challenging part of your job?

Knowing that we’re not on Capitol Hill to make friends but to represent our members and sometimes that means you have different friends and enemies, depending on the issue and the day.

What’s next for this area of AASA?

We have plans to grow and do even more in terms of our advocacy work — expanding our portfolio to include issues that bookend K-12 education, like early childhood and higher education, since that also affects school leaders and their policy needs.
 

 *Inside AASA is a monthly feature about AASA services and products and the staff members behind them.*