According to the latest news, the parents at Desert Trails Elementary School in Adelanto, California, have chosen a charter operator to take over their low-performing public school.
This is the first instance in the nation where the “parent trigger” has been put into effect.
But it is not a demonstration of parent empowerment or democracy.
There are over 600 children in the school.
286 signed the petition to convert to a charter.
Some parents asked to have their names removed when they realized that the school would be handed over to a charter operator. The judge said no. He said they were not allowed to revoke their signature.
When the vote to choose a charter operator was taken, only parents who signed the petition were allowed to vote.
Parents who did not sign the petition were not allowed to vote.
Only 53 parents voted.
Fifty parents selected the charter operator. Three voted for another operator.
Some parent empowerment.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Wild! Ugh.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
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How much of a difference does it make which charter operator was chosen? Is one significantly better or worse than the others?
The injustice happened when a minority of parents (some apparently unknowingly) “took over” the school and forced it to become a charter in the first place. Which operator got selected is just deck chairs on the Titanic.
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So much for majority rule.
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This is a travesty of justice. It makes me nauseous.
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Many of the parents who signed the petition no longer have kids in the school.
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Sounds like a court case is in order. How does not signing a petition disenfranchise a district member from voting? First it sounds like coercion to sign the petition. “Sign or forfeit your right to vote.” One should not have to sign a petition to retain a “civil right’ such as voting. Not signing the petition should not prevent one from voting. Why has the ACLU not challenged this law on the basis of being unconstitutional?
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How can only those who signed the petition vote? How can you vote if you no longer have a child in the school? Time for the other 543 parents to vote with their feet. Withdraw your children Monday.
I hope this will be the first and last school to suffer this fate.
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Can these parents close the charter down when it begins kicking their students out and when it doesn’t out-perform the school they shut down?
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I find it hard to believe that districts would willingly turn over their students to charter schools. They are buying a pig in a poke. Can control of these schools ever return to the districts or is it gone forever?
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Walmart democracy: ONLY 53 people in a city of 31,765 ( 0.16% of Adelento residents) got to vote on privatizing a public school. That is the so-called Parent Trigger in action. Ben Austin and Gloria Romero have accomplished what the Walton, DeVos, Koch, and Broad families have been dreaming of for decades.
Pariah Doreen Diaz, who Austin and staff handpicked to front their “parent” efforts, will have no children enrolled in the school when the private operator takes over.
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