From the Tampa Times: Before a meeting with Senate President Don Gaetz on Thursday, former Gov. Jeb Bush said he believed the parent trigger bill introduced this week would pass.
"As I understand what the law is, it’s a pretty simple law,” Bush said. “If you’re in a failing school, parents oughta have the ability, if they want to, to have a say, simply a say, in providing advice on what structure a failing school should take. That doesn’t say they can do like in California where they can convert a charter school or do something else, it simply says parents’ voice matters. If that’s a radical idea in America today, then we’re in a heap of trouble.”
Gosh that all sounds reasonable doesn’t it? The problem is it is not.
Parents already have the ability to get involved in how their children’s schools are run. They can join the PTA or the schools steering committee. They can volunteer and lobby their school board too. Parents have a wealth of options which begs the question why should taking a public school and giving it to a private company be one of them especially since there is no provision in the parent trigger legislation to give the property back to the public.
It is more than that too. Every parent group in Florida and I don’t engage in exaggeration or hyperbole, came out against the parent trigger last year. They made a choice, they said no. This however is not a choice, that Jeb Bush, Kelli Stargell, Will Weatherford and others like so they feel they can ignore it. In short they are all for parents having choices, as long as they make the choices they want them to.
Interestingly enough there is also no provision to turn a failing charter school into a public school and the percentage of failing charter schools is a lot higher than public schools in Florida. But you see the goal here isn’t to give students a high quality education option, instead the goal is to privatize our schools.
The parent trigger is a bad bill. A bill most parents want no part of, not that, that has stopped the Florida Legislature from passing bad bills before.
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/bush-gets-firm-with-gaetz-on-education-reform-but-stays-coy-on/2105919
"As I understand what the law is, it’s a pretty simple law,” Bush said. “If you’re in a failing school, parents oughta have the ability, if they want to, to have a say, simply a say, in providing advice on what structure a failing school should take. That doesn’t say they can do like in California where they can convert a charter school or do something else, it simply says parents’ voice matters. If that’s a radical idea in America today, then we’re in a heap of trouble.”
Gosh that all sounds reasonable doesn’t it? The problem is it is not.
Parents already have the ability to get involved in how their children’s schools are run. They can join the PTA or the schools steering committee. They can volunteer and lobby their school board too. Parents have a wealth of options which begs the question why should taking a public school and giving it to a private company be one of them especially since there is no provision in the parent trigger legislation to give the property back to the public.
It is more than that too. Every parent group in Florida and I don’t engage in exaggeration or hyperbole, came out against the parent trigger last year. They made a choice, they said no. This however is not a choice, that Jeb Bush, Kelli Stargell, Will Weatherford and others like so they feel they can ignore it. In short they are all for parents having choices, as long as they make the choices they want them to.
Interestingly enough there is also no provision to turn a failing charter school into a public school and the percentage of failing charter schools is a lot higher than public schools in Florida. But you see the goal here isn’t to give students a high quality education option, instead the goal is to privatize our schools.
The parent trigger is a bad bill. A bill most parents want no part of, not that, that has stopped the Florida Legislature from passing bad bills before.
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/bush-gets-firm-with-gaetz-on-education-reform-but-stays-coy-on/2105919
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