Share

There are two simultaneous fights happening in California around the state’s parent-trigger law. The state board of education, a typically quiet board, has begun tackling parent-initiated charter school takeovers. On Wednesday the California State Board of Education delayed a ruling on the future of the state’s brand new parent trigger law. The law, which squeaked through the legislature last year, allows parents at failing schools to demand that school’s closure and charter school takeover if they can gather 51 percent of parents’ support for such a move.

On the ground, parents at Compton’s McKinley Elementary School are wrestling with Compton Unified School District to force the failing school to be taken over by an outside charter school company, Celerity Educational Group. Charter schools are independently run but publicly financed.

The state board said it would gather a working group to consider the process of implementing the law, and