A few months ago, the Florida legislature debated a “parent trigger” law.
It would have allowed parents to sign a petition and take control of their public school.
The proposal was strongly supported by Jeb Bush and Michelle Rhee.
Florida parent groups rallied against the law, saying it was a ploy by the for-profit charter companies to trick parents and take over more schools.
In this post, one of Florida’s leading parent groups–Fund Education Now–explains why it opposes the “parent trigger.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I just read ALEC’s model legislation for The Parent Trigger that was approved by ALEC’s board on January 7, 2011: http://www.webcitation.org/5yGOUW6Ll
Section 6 provides for Universal Educational Vouchers.
ALEC has thought of everything, even a solution for the parents who are not happy that their school was “triggered”. Parents will be eligible for vouchers. I don’t know if the voucher part has been approved by all states that have this law, but you know it’s going to be pushed if more and more “triggers” are pulled.
Unhappy parents must be given SOME option other than “another failing neighborhood school”. Right????
LikeLike
This pretty much sums it up:
“The trick is clear. Ironically, the only true act of parent power is pulling the trigger. After the asset transfer, the parents lose all control. Private corporations do not have to disclose profits, methods or budget. Charter chains play by different rules. All fiscal information is considered proprietary and private. The Parent Trigger uses mothers and fathers to vote against their own interests to justify a corporate raid. Charter school developers have zero capital outlay, zero investment and 100% access to carving a profit from taxpayer dollars previously meant to educate each child.”
And in both cases where parent trigger was used in California, the entity creating the petition was from outside the district, with barely any contact with or input from actual parents. In neither case was the school board engaged by either Parent Revolution or the local parents; instead, there was a clear intent to go under the radar and take the school from the district/school board without the board having any opportunity to respond.
Meanwhile, by the time these plans actually might be implemented, the parents who signed the petition may not even still have children in the school.
If this process is to be used, it must be open with public meetings, it must have a local elected board running the new school, and it needs to be done with the approval of all voters in the affected community, not just the temporary denizens of that school.
LikeLike
In Washington State, where we don’t have charters, we are fighting a charter initiative. It includes the MOST aggressive trigger in the U.S.
It would allow an approved charter to circulate a petition to parents OR teachers at a school and, if a majority sign, the charter takes over, building and all. This applies to ANY existing school, failing or NOT.
They could take over ANY school.
Say you have an elementary school with 30 teachers and 16 sign the petition. An ENTIRE school community is flipped because of 16 people.
It is jaw-droppingly crazy and we are not going to stand for it here. The line in the sand against charters and trigger petitions starts here.
LikeLike
Parents across America:
Beyond the parent trigger hype & propaganda: Just the Facts
Click to access Beyond-the-parent-trigger-hype-and-propaganda-final.pdf
LikeLike
How do these people sleep at night?
LikeLike