The people behind Parent Revolution in California long ago dropped even trying to pretend that they’re actually a parent group — the deception was the original intent, but it was so obvious that they just gave that up. Only a moron would still fall for that. I don’t know who David Feith is, but that would be him.
And by the way, Feith also either cluelessly believes that Ben Austin is a genuine leader of a cause or dishonestly tries to portray him that way. Austin is entirely a hired mouthpiece working for a consortium of charter operators (led by Green Dot) with no other prior involvement in education except what he’s paid to do and say.
Another by the way: Gloria Romero, mother of the so-called Parent Trigger, ran for the office of state Superintendent of Public Instruction. Two other candidates who were both positioned as supporters of public education (as opposed to her position as an opponent of public education) split the vote, yet they STILL demolished her in the primary. And in the general election, the one of those two (Tom Torlakson) who is the strongest supporter of public education and teachers and the sharpest critic of “it’s a miracle!” education reform snake oil won handily. Romero, having given up her state senate seat, has accepted — surprise! — a cushy job in the bounteously funded charter school industry.
Yet another by the way on the so-called Parent Trigger: Those supposedly empowered to demand that a school be dismantled are not limited to current parents. In fact, it’s entirely nebulous who exactly is empowered to sign statements making that demand, not to mention details like how many votes per family. The paid operatives targeting schools they want to dismantle can actually get signatures from pretty much any old body they want — or they can fake signatures with no sweat at all. Luckily, the process is so patently bogus that nobody is really trying it except in one case where an obsessed former mom at an LA-area middle school (Mount Gleason in Sunland) has been working for years on it — and all she wants is to replace a principal against whom she nurses a personal vendetta, not otherwise dismantle the school.
Comment by CarolineSF