Parental involvement: An education 'trigger' for change
Legislators in seven states -- Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, North Dakota and Utah -- are drafting legislation based on a school reform proposed by the Chicago-based Heartland Institute.
The "Parent Trigger" aims to improve education for K-12 students by giving parents the power to "petition to have their public school shut down or converted to a charter school, or give parents vouchers to pay for tuition at a non-public school," explains Bruno Behrend, director of the Center for School Reform at the Chicago-based free-market think tank.
Ben Boychuck, managing editor of School Reform News, has proposed that such a "Parent Trigger" be used to rescue the voucher program in Washington, D.C., which Heartland describes as "slated for extinction by President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress" despite its