Parents For Quality Education President Mark Powell recently spoke at a news conference held at the San Diego Unified School District supporting Rev. Shane Harris’s “Boost Democracy” text message notification initiative. Harris with the People’s Association of Justice Advocates launched the new policy initiative to help improve public government meetings and make the process more user-friendly.
The proposed initiative would allow those calling into board meetings to be notified about the item they wish to speak on without having to sometimes waiting for hours on the phone before getting a chance to speak. The idea has been proposed to four San Diego agencies: San Diego Unified School District, San Diego County Board of Supervisors, San Diego County Office of Education, and San Diego City Council. The San Diego Unified School District quickly adopted the initiative and will be incorporating a text message system into their board meetings.
The cost and delivery system is being studied by the other government agencies and PQE is encouraging all of them to adopt some form of a text messaging system for their board meetings. Several other counties and states are also looking into implementing the Boost Democracy text messaging initiative into their meetings. Simply put, the system would minimize waiting times and maximize public participation.