Saturday, February 2, 2013

Parent trigger: Can parent takeovers improve schools? | Get Schooled

Parent trigger: Can parent takeovers improve schools? | Get Schooled:


Parent trigger: Can parent takeovers improve schools?

Are parents the solution to failing schools?
That’s the theory behind parent trigger laws, which allow a majority of parents in a failing school to petition and win control of the school and impose their own reform blueprint. Originating in California in 2010, the laws allow parents to take over a systematically failing school if they collect signatures from the majority of families.
But do the trigger laws really fire blanks?
A increasing criticism of parent trigger laws is that, while they involve parents at the start in organizing the petition drives to pull the trigger, the most realistic outcome is the hiring of an outside management firm to run the reconstituted school.
In fact, the possible ascendancy of for-profit education management companies contributed to the defeat of a parent trigger bill in Florida last year because parent groups argued that the law would lead to corporate interests exploiting the schools.
The Georgia General Assembly is now considering the …