The movie “Won’t Back Down” is being heavily promoted by its backers.
But there is lots of pushback from parents and teachers. And the reviews have been almost uniformly bad, including those from non-educational sources.
This article, by a retired teacher, cites many of those reviews and asks a fundamental question: If taxpayers support the school as a public benefit, why should parents have the power to privatize it?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I have never been able to figure out how such legislation could be passed. It basically implies that the users of any public service should be able to take it over if they can get 51% of the users to sign a piece of paper.
LikeLike
Absurd, for sure. But being touted by the Superintendent of OK Public Schools…read it and weep for the children of OK.
http://content.govdelivery.com/bulletins/gd/OKSDE-555761
LikeLike
A disgrace
If he can’t help schools, he should resign
Diane Ravitch
LikeLike
Also, who does and does not have “trigger rights”? My children went to the public schools but have since graduated. Do I still have trigger rights, or did I lose them when my youngest child graduated? Conversely, if your children are not yet school-age do you get a say because any decision will affect your children when they reach school-age? Do people with more children get more votes? Do parents who do not pay property taxes lose their trigger rights? It seems somewhat unfair to make this decision based on a single year, so maybe there should be a vote before each school year begins. Do teachers get a say? What about nurses, social workers, guidance counselors, custodians, and administrators? Do they only get a say if they live in town?
And, OMG, I almost forgot…we definitely need to enact stringent picture ID requirements before trigger voting. I have a driver’s license, but I know one young teacher who does not (she grew up in a big city). Should she apply for a hunting license? If that trigger is pulled, what does the new charter get to keep from our former public school? There are several murals painted by students in years past (my son helped with one). Do they have the right to paint over the murals? So many questions…
LikeLike
For that matter, should we give trigger rights to all citizens to dismantle and “privatize” other public systems such as the police? Or the military? Are there any other public systems we should “petition out” of existence?
I’ll take your argument one step further. Why not allow those taxpayers without children to take their money completely out of the system and utilize it for smooth and shiny privately managed roads, schools be damned? After all, schools are “only serving” the needs of children, right? Shouldn’t citizens be allowed to appropriate their piece of infrastructure how they wish? Shouldn’t parents receive school funding per their tax contribution despite how many or how few children they have? Certainly it’s “only fair” for those families with more children to distribute their allotted amount between their children. A family of five will have to make due with the same “funding” as a family of three while taxpayers without children should get their school funding back to use as they see fit. I mean, that would only be fair.
It’s amazing that this law has even been proposed let alone passed. This horrific legislation supported by so many among the so-called educated entities shows the need for eduction in the social sciences among the masses.
LikeLike
This is one of the most undemocratic laws out there. I should not be as angry, sad, and disillusioned as I am in this post Citizens United country.
LikeLike