From the Palm Beach Post
By Kathleen Oropeza
Instead of calling it the "parent-trigger" bill, maybe we should call it the "paranoia-trigger" bill. The proponents of the divisive "Parent Empowerment Act" (SB 1718, HB 1191) certainly have thin skin.
More than half a million Florida parents disagreed, and all of a sudden we're "affiliates" of the teachers union. We're talking the Florida PTA, the League of Women Voters, three moms with laptops and seven kids to raise - the regular subversives.
The Foundation for Florida's Future sent out a fundraising letter seeking "pushback," saying: "Despite incredible successes over the past 10 years, those who seek to protect the status quo are as passionate as ever. This includes the League of Women Voters, AFL-CIO, Florida Education Association and local affiliates such as FundEducationNow and Save Our Schools."
If the lobbyists who have been hired to pass this bill are accusing Florida parents of defending our cherished neighborhood public schools, we say, "Guilty as charged." We love our children and the children of this state more than ourselves.
We have a better vision for public education than the expensive, unproven reforms meant to hurt children and privatize our public schools. We believe in a single, well-funded system that offers remarkable choices. We believe in fair assessment and fair accountability. We believe that mutual respect and collaboration between teachers, parents and districts are the key to rescuing our vibrant public schools from being strangled by a punitive, profit-driven "success is never final and reform is never finished" agenda.
We are frustrated that, for the third time in a week, a Florida parent testifying against the "Parent Empowerment Act" was cut off after less than 15 seconds. We travel to Tallahassee on our own dime. We arrange for baby sitters, help with homework over the phone and miss precious hours of our children's lives in order to tell our elected officials what we want. We're tired of being cut off, interrupted or not allowed to speak. We've heard one politician after another say that "parents really need to be empowered." The irony is that we are empowered. We're here. We've been here.
When politicians grant highly paid lobbyists unlimited time to testify and refuse to let us speak, it makes us furious. We are Florida taxpayers, parents and voters. If we don't have a right to speak during "parent empowerment" testimony, who does? We are tired of being told by wide-eyed politicians that they have never heard from us. Our position on the "parent- trigger" bill has been published by every major newspaper.
Not one legitimate parent group has asked for "parent-trigger" legislation. We do not support this corporate empowerment bill that uses parents' love to "pull the trigger" and pass all that they hold dear into the hands of a for-profit corporation eager to peel off a chunk of every child's per-pupil funding money for itself. We will not be silent while legislators use our money to fund three separate, unequal and unfair systems of education. We do not support laws that benefit 10 percent of the schools while the other 90 percent suffer.
This has gone too far. Florida public education is a process, not a product. This asset was created for and financed by the people of this state. It belongs to us. We will not apologize to anybody for defending our schools. We oppose the "Parent Empowerment Act" and its bad-faith intentions to privatize our public schools.
Kathleen Oropeza is co-founder of FundEducationNow.org, one of the plaintiffs that has filed a lawsuit alleging that the Legislature has violated the Florida Constitution by failing to fund public education adequately.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/commentary/commentary-states-legislators-listening-to-lobbyists-not-parents-2223513.html
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