Round-up of leading thinkers on parent-trigger laws
Parents in Adelanto, Calif., scored a victory for advocates of the “parent-trigger” law last week. The law allows public-school parents who gather signatures from a majority of their peers to transform a school into a charter. They can also opt to remove a consistently failing school’s staff or close the school entirely.
(To read more about the development, see these stories from the Los Angeles Times and Colorlines.)
A judge deemed that organizers in Adelanto had gathered valid signatures from more than 50 percent of parents. The decision marks the most successful execution of the law to date, although the school district can still appeal.
First introduced in California two years ago, so-called “parent-trigger” laws have since spread to other states. There are now variations on the law in Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas.
The Adelanto school in question, Desert Trails Elementary, had been classified as low-performing for years. Compared to schools with similar demographics, Desert Trails falls in the bottom 30 percent
