Ariel Sacks, an English teacher in New York City, says that, despite what you might think, the time is ripe for teachers to be heard on education policy issues:
There is now ample research that says that the single most important factor in a child's education is the quality of his or her teachers. This is causing policy makers, media, and the general public to focus a lot of attention on teachers. Some of that attention has been in the form of negative attacks (wholly unproductive), but there are a lot of policy makers and influential organizations that are very interested in what teachers bring to the policy conversation.
It’s a good point.