Never trust a bill that gets slammed through the Legislature without proper debate. The "parent-trigger" bill is one.
This proposal would allow 51 percent of parents whose children attend a failing public school to dictate the state-required turnaround plan. Supporters tried to move the bill, which the House has passed, to the Senate floor last week for a vote. They failed, because many Republicans oppose it, even though GOP legislators usually love anything that Jeb Bush calls "education reform."
After failing to bring the bill straight to the floor, supporters scheduled a rare Senate Budget Committee meeting for Saturday morning, then cut off opponents. Chairman J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, got all huffy when Sen. Nan Rich, D-Sunrise, asked a man speaking for the bill where he worked. He had identified himself as a former teacher. His current job: He works as a part-time intern at Jeb Bush's Foundation for Florida's Future, which has been lobbying for the bill. Ironically, one major concern about the legislation is that parents can manipulate the process to "trigger" a takeover.
A for-profit charter school could take over the public school by obtaining the signatures of 51 percent of parents. Parents could replace staff or move students to other schools. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers, claims that if 51 percent of parents sign a petition, that must be a sign of deep parental involvement and support for a turnaround plan. Actual experience with this kind of law refutes that.
In California, which has such a law, parents who signed petitions say they were misled by petition-gatherers and/or harassed into signing. Two school boards have rejected petitions after parents have asked to rescind their signatures. "Parent-trigger" supporters respond that parents who rescinded their signatures were misled and bullied. The whole mess is tied up in court.
If parents are to decide how to fix a school, they would need in-depth information about the plan and an understanding of what works. Does anyone seriously think that 51 percent of parents at any public school would take the time and trouble to develop that level of expertise? Even if a majority well above 51 percent was deeply concerned and signed a petition, there would be no assurance that the group passing around the petition - and perhaps standing to profit from it - had a plan to really improve the school.
Few public schools would be affected by this legislation. Many schools that get an F improve the next year, because the state already intervenes to require changes in such cases. One reason for the timing of this legislation is that Florida might see more F-graded schools soon because the state Board of Education last week adopted a tougher grading formula. That could mean more opportunities for school profiteers. But regardless of how many - or how few - schools actually would be affected, the model proposed by the "parent-trigger" bills is not to be trusted.
- Jac Wilder VerSteeg,
for The Palm Beach Post Editorial Board
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/editorials/sham-reform-sham-politics-2218822.html
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