Time for parents to have power in the classroom

Time for parents to have power in the classroom:

"California leads the nation in public school dropouts, and everyone pays for the persistent failure of the lowest-performing schools. And it's not just the billions of dollars spent in failed restructuring efforts; it's the cost in welfare payments, jail cells, prison beds and our state's and nation's competitiveness in a global economy."



Finger-pointing abounds, but today's third-graders will be tomorrow's dropouts by the time we ever agree.
Yet there have been signs of recent progress. California's Race to the Top reforms, approved this month and submitted to the Obama administration in time for Tuesday's deadline, make adults accountable, make moms and dads responsible, and offer hope for real change at our public schools by empowering parents.

I was an author of the two bills embodying these education reforms, which give power and responsibility to parents, because I believe that President Obama was right in his call to "take drastic steps when schools are failing." But I don't believe the political will for education reform came from the president. I believe parents' appetite for drastic change helped elect Obama.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/16/INAJ1BH69U.DTL#ixzz0cseBGXJW