The Tampa Bay Times reports that California-based Parent Revolution produced the slick video endorsing the parent trigger bill. The bill will be voted on Monday by the Florida Senate.
This is a sleazy trick. Typical deceptive tactic by a group that fronts for the most reactionary elements in our society.
Parent Revolution is funded primarily by the far-right Walton Foundation, which invests heavily in privatization. It also receives millions from the Gates Foundation and Broad Foundation.
Will the Florida Senate sell out public education or listen to Florida parents?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The only way it makes any sense is if the parents can also change their local building from a private operator to a public operator. Then again, why do the parents make the choice? Should only parents be allowed to vote for a school board? why aren’t all the voters and the tax payers given an equal say as to who runs the local school that was built with their tax dollars.
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I had a discussion on this just the other day, why is it only the parents? Many of my single friends wonder why they have to pay taxes for schools, I remind them again and again that someone paid for their education now they are paying for someone else’s and it’s a civic duty. But is it a civic duty to support a corporate entity? If the parents with children in school decide to make it a charter, am I as a tax payer with no children still obliged to pay taxes that go towards that charter? It wasn’t my choice, I don’t have kids there. Where is the person with no childrens choice?
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Exactly. The schools belong to ALL taxpayers and not just the parents of currently enrolled students.
People who play the “I don’t have kids so why do I pay” card should go talk to a real estate agent.
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here in PA some are trying to get rid of the school tax to eliminate that burden. there have been meetings this week and the charter idea was suggested, people freaked. it is absurd. The school was in perfect condition and financially solvent with willing taxpayer participation yet the last 10 years everything is suddenly not good enough. the playground and blacktop are not good enough so “someone” suggests and helps get a grant for a big shiney new fancy playground ” , little does anyone know it is with Tax Increment Finacing ( TIF) and a partnership with an outside entity. the restructuring of the town government by way of clandestine forces using fake consensus meetings and disingenuous techniques to misinform, ill inform and mislead residents, voila we are now some sort of regional type government, with several partnerships and floating board members with tentacles in the school. tax payers into a new system of partnerships no one knows too much about unaccountable outside entities. taxes up 15 percent a year. this same council wants to LEASE THE SCHOOL. imagine the borough is a corporation partnered with outside unaccountable fishy nonprofits/ngo’s the public is out of the loop.
they have taken several buildings by eminent domain, now this single party group are after the school. it is not really the parents who have any say, it is all directed by people who are covertly directing action in this direction. The charter idea being brought up by them Select parents are invited and fascilitated. the superintendant has been on the board of the community alliance partner for years, the one that claims to be ” revitalizing ” the town, but has really just been a PPP able to suck $$$ grants from state, fed, county for supposed improvements but where is the money as compared to the miniscule improvements and lowered services? and how bout the tax increment financing coming due to be paid. taxes up. no wonder people with no kids do not want to pay.
the superintendant is a ” stakeholder” on that community alliance board, run by a borough council member who worked for our local congressperson as treasurer, hmmmm, who has his/her own ties to education deform. at the meeting this week the superintendant was telling those in attendance that if they do not complete the mission, vision, beleif and goal statements required that the state will come in and do it for them. what does this imply? tyrrany? since common core dictates this then it is the federal government requiring by way of the RTTT state committments that they do it. Government sponsored federal
Tyrrany.
Arne Duncan wants schools to be 24/7 open community centers, this is the beginning.
watch the video in his own words.
http://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/tag/arne-duncan/
these herding meetings are a joke, parents have no say. parents generally have no say in anything. we pay huge taxes for this public school that our children do not attend. I think it is my civic duty to do so however certainly not happy with being
bamboozled into a
partnership that is pillaging our town. the general public has no idea what is going on at all. but the propaganda that it is
“unfair to pay for schools that you do not use” seems to help the charter meme.
the ‘schools are broken” propaganda has worked well.
Our beautiful tiny 150 year old public school always excellant somehow got railroaded to this point that making it a charter is suggested. it is pathetic bandwagoning propaganda and coercion by people infiltrated to push this agenda. we know exactly who they are.
common core changes the goal posts by way of federal dictates of testing which teachers and parents have no control over, let alone parents are forbidden to even see them THEY CAN MAKE THE DATA SAY ANYTHING THEY WANT. and if they are running things by data measures, which they want to, then teachers and parents are totally screwed.
everybody is in an uproar ” OH we need a SOLUTION” generally they look to government. classic Hegelian Dialect.
1. Create the problem: THESIS, “schools are broken”.
2. Create solution : ANTITHESIS, federal takeover common core, charter schools, teacher assessments tied to pay…
3. End result : SYNTHESIS State controlled centrally planned education a la Finland. wonder who’s behind it? UN/UNESCO
same technique used for the town council to garner power and connect into the regionalist takeover movement which ties into the school.
hegelian dialectic works like a charm.
RIGHT WINGERS CLOSING IN ON ONE SIDE, AND LEFTWINGERS CLOSING IN ON THE OTHER. seemingly opposed but both with the same goal.
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TC:: I agree with you.
But is more egregious is that this bill is wholly unnecessary.
First, FL already has a conversion to charter school clause. It’s been exercised twice that I’m aware of. One unsuccessfully by a school in Key Biscayne and the other time successfully a public school converted to McKeel Charter in Lakeland, FL. (Seth McKeel, btw, is a FL legislator!)
Next, this is being sold under the banner of “Choice.”
FL has more choice than any other state in the nation:
McKay Scholarships; Vouchers; Home Schooling; 600+ charters, FL Virtual Schools; 100% Cyber Charters; Magnet Schools.
The choice for parents is there. This is strictly to line the pockets of greedy (and impatient) profiteers.
Read the other troubling clauses in the bill. That concerns me more right now.
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This is typical of the “Parent Revolution.” I have the inside story on 24th Street in LAUSD you have been hearing about. The charter school which took over more of this school started there with an MOU in 2011. That MOU is still in place and operational the the new agreement is only an addendum to the original. In the original it states that they love the parents and in the very next sentence it say the parents will have no place on the board of directors. Is this their version of parent empowerment? I do not think so. The version of the “Parent Trigger” here in California I am talking about is one in which the parents, students, teachers and community take over and run the school themselves. In this scenario they all have a say so and not one corporation or any other profit or non profit entity will take money away. The Urban League is in cahoots with you know who. What else would you expect. This is why I keep saying take over their plan for you own good purposes.
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The tactics being used to push this dishonest bill through are just plain evil and disgusting. Thank you Dr. Ravitch for your tireless efforts to expose this type of fake concern for students as a ploy to hide profit motive. Shining a light on them will at least keep them at bay. The names behind this effort are so telling. Same people … new tricks. They should be charged with fraud and attempting to steal public funds.
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