Legislative Conference

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Notes from the Backpack Podcast


National PTA Legislative Conference

PTA Takes Action for Kids

Join us March 10-12 for the 2020 National PTA Legislative Conference (LegCon) to network with fellow PTA advocates, meet with policymakers, hear PTA advocacy success stories and learn how to shape public policy on Capitol Hill and at home.

LegCon will be held just steps away from Washington, DC. You’ll be joined by your fellow PTA members and other passionate advocates who will share advanced advocacy skills and tactics to help you meet your policy goals.

Don’t miss the chance to expand your knowledge of the ins and outs of federal law, grow your advocacy skills, explore National PTA’s legislative priorities for the 116th Congress, and meet with your federal representatives on Capitol Hill.


Keynote Speaker: Rodney Robinson
National Teacher of the Year


Rodney Robinson

Rodney Robinson became a teacher 19 years ago to honor his mother, who struggled to receive an education after being denied an education as a child due to segregation and poverty in rural Virginia. In 2015, Robinson started teaching at Virgie Binford Education Center, which is inside the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center. He uses a whole-child, civic-centered educational approach that promotes social-emotional growth to help his students thrive, and works to create alternative programs to divert students from the school-to-prison pipeline.

Robinson has been published three times by Yale University and has received numerous awards for his accomplishments in and out of the classroom, most notably the R.E.B. Award for Teaching Excellence. He works with Richmond city leaders and local colleges to recruit underrepresented male teachers into the field of education.



Thursday Session Speaker: Dr. Jim Johnson
Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill


Jim Johnson

Dr. Jim Johnson is the distinguished professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, and director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He examines the causes and consequences of growing inequality in American society—particularly as it affects socially and economically disadvantaged youth.

Johnson’s extensive research includes finding strategies to combat hyper-segregation, persistent and concentrated poverty, and gentrification-induced residential and economic dislocations in U.S. cities. He uses his findings to work with gentrifying cities to develop roadmaps for inclusive and equitable economic development that creates shared prosperity.

Johnson has published over 100 scholarly research articles and was profiled in Fast Company’s “Hopes and Dreams.” His latest book is “Prismatic Metropolis: Inequality in Los Angles."

Take a look at the following Kenan Institute Report by Dr. Johnson:

America's Shifting Demographic Landscape: Implications for Higher Education

Questions?

Email LegCon@pta.org.

Interested in sponsoring the 2020 Legislative Conference? Please contact Amaia Stecker at astecker@PTA.org.

For registration, travel or hotel accommodations, please email NPTAMeetings@PTA.org.

LegCon Photo Collage