"Parent Trigger": School Reform or Mob Rule? (VIDEO)
'You can send me to detention, but my mom will close you down!' (Photo: Reuters Pictures).
The Wall Street Journal called it "The Radical School Reform You've Never Heard Of." California's teachers' unioncalled it a "lynch mob provision."
The Journal and the teachers are talking about "parent trigger," the next political hand grenade in the battle to reform our nation's public schools.
In January, California became the first state in the nation with a "parent trigger" law. Under the provision, if 51 percent of parents at any given school sign a petition, they can trigger a transformation of the school: inviting in a charter operator, forcing administrative changes, or shuttering the school altogether.
To qualify for a parent trigger petition, a California school must have failed to make "Adequate Yearly Progress" toward improving test scores for four consecutive years.
The Journal reports that 1,300 schools in California fit that criteria.
Parent trigger is the brainchild of a California group called "Parent Revolution" that "aims to transform public education rooted in what’s good for kids—not grown-ups—by empowering