Ms. Foundation for Women - 2011 Woman of Vision Award – Kathy Miller

http://www.raisethefloor.org/get_involved/the-gloria-awards-a-salute-to-women-of-vision/2011-wov-awardee---kathy-miller


Past Awards \| Photo Album \| Past Awardees

2011 Woman of Vision Award – Kathy Miller

Kathy Miller
President, Texas Freedom Network

Ask Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network (TFN), what drives her passion for social justice and she won’t hesitate: “Having two daughters is the biggest motivator for all of the work that I do,” Kathy says. “I want their world to be one that offers more opportunities to women—and more opportunities to everyone—than the world I grew up in.”

For the children of Texas that’s a good thing indeed. It means that in Kathy they have a fierce advocate in the fight to ensure that all students have access to the kind of education that makes opportunity, and equality, possible.

Based in Austin, Texas, TFN was founded by Cecile Richards in 1995 to monitor far-right policies and advance progressive change in response. Throughout its history, TFN has been instrumental in defeating numerous initiatives backed by the religious right, including private school vouchers and textbook censorship. But from the beginning, it was clear that sex education would play a central role.

“The very first thing Cecile did was go to a state Board of Education meeting where they were discussing the health curriculum—which means sex education,” Kathy recalls. “She wrote on a little 3x5 card, ‘It’s worse than I imagined.’ We have that card framed in our office—it’s still true today.”

At the time, conservative forces were fast turning Texas into the poster-child for abstinence-only education—even though the state’s teen birth rate hovered in the top five nationwide and public opinion dictated an altogether different approach. “Poll after poll showed two things: that parents want their kids to learn about condoms and contraception, and that parents think their kids are learning about condoms and contraception at school,” Kathy points out. Kathy and TFN knew that parents’ assumptions were just that—assumptions—but they needed the data to support their claims.

In 2008, TFN undertook a project to chart the state of sex education in Texas. They sent Freedom of Information requests to all 1,031 school districts, asking everything from what textbooks were used to teachers’ qualifications. The results were shocking. “Ultimately, we found that 96 percent of Texas schools were teaching either nothing at all or abstinence-only,” reports Kathy. “That really flew in the face of what parents wanted, and what they believed was happening.”

With that information in hand, TFN launched a multi-tiered, statewide campaign to advance comprehensive sexual health education. They conducted trainings for elected leaders and candidates; grassroots education within local communities and on college campuses; and advocacy at the State Board of Education. Thanks to their efforts, in 2009—for the first time in 14 years—the Texas House held a public hearing on a bill that would have required districts to teach comprehensive sex ed. The measure didn’t pass, but that doesn’t keep Kathy from counting it as a win: “In Texas we have to measure our policy gains in very small ways if we’re progressive—and even getting that bill heard in the Texas House was a huge victory.”

At once personally humble and proud of her team, Kathy is quick to celebrate her colleagues: “We’re tiny and we’re guerrilla and we think outside the box. We try new things and we’re not afraid to fail—and all of that is something that the Ms. Foundation recognized in us and invested in.”

“Ms. deserves all the credit for this very smart strategy of taking the fight for comprehensive sex ed into unexpected places,” she continues. “Their investment in Texas has had enormous impact. If you just look at the fact that there is even a conversation about comprehensive sex ed at our legislature; that dozens of local school districts have now adopted a comprehensive sex-ed curriculum over the abstinence-only curriculum they were using before; that the State Board of Education is now the most moderate elected body in Texas—all of that can be traced back to Ms.’s investment in our work. They’re helping prove that sex education gains can be made in the Bible belt and in the heartland. That’s a very big deal.”

As she looks to the future, Kathy is hopeful that “promoting religious freedom and civil liberties and quality education will be so embraced by the next generation that this work will no longer be such a struggle.”

With Kathy Miller leading the way, we have no doubt that for the children of Texas—and those of nation as a whole—the brightest days are yet to come.

show/hide

Change List

Remove List

Edit List Properties

show/hide

Change List

Remove List

Edit List Properties

Learn More About the Ms. Foundation's work on Reproductive Justice.

Demetra Tennison is the peer advocacy coordinator for the Women Rising Project -- an organization devoted to addressing the needs of women and children affected by HIV/AIDS. Hear about her rise to advocacy and her continued fight against stigma and fear. Learn more and view the slide show

show/hide

Change List

Remove List

Edit List Properties

show/hide

Change List

Remove List

Edit List Properties

share ms.foundation.org:

Ms. Foundation for Women, 12 MetroTech Center, 26th Fl, Brooklyn, NY 11201 Telephone:(212) 742-2300|Fax: (212) 742-1653|Email: info@ms.foundation.org