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Thursday, September 27, 2012

Daily Kos: on "parent triggers" in public schools

Daily Kos: on "parent triggers" in public schools:


on "parent triggers" in public schools

The heavy promotion of the new film "Won't Back Down" is an attempt to foist so-called "parent triggers" upon public schools - if a majority of parents vote a school can be taken out of the public system and turned into a charter, while continuing to receive the funds from public taxation.
This is one of the key wet-dreams of the American Legislative Exchange Council, aka ALEC.  The film has been funded by Walden Media, also involved in funding "Waiting for Superman," another film intended to bash teachers and teachers unions and to a degree public schools.  The key person behind Walden is billionaire Philip Anschutz, a conservative Christian who pushes a right-wing religious perspective.  Among the people promoting the film, about which I will offer a few comment below, are the likes of Michelle Rhee and the members of the so-called Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), which has a lot of participation from hedge fund managers who have no current personal connection to public schools beyond the opportunity to profit from their proposed