When Waiting for Superman came out, it blamed lazy classroom teachers for low performing students. It made charter schools out a as THE solution. Now we know that, although some charters outperform neighborhood schools, 80% do not. In many states, it has become a way to get public money into the pockets of huge private companies and strip union protection from teachers. Now there's a new movie coming out called Won't Back Down that touts the Parent Trigger Law. Guess who the bad guys are? For forum readers who are not familiar with Parent Trigger, it's a law where a vote of 50% of a school's parents can take over a school, force the firing of staff and/or turn the school over to a charter company to manage. The charter company gets all the tax money that would have gone toward the public school, exemption from following union contracts, and the use of the buildings and property for free. You can read about the movie and see a trailer here: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/char..._trigger_goes_hollywood.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2
Having looked at the link and trailer, I'm not sure what to make of it. The movie appears to put some blame on teachers, which is something probably plenty of unsatisfied parents could relate to or agree with. Although it's a fictional account, it says that it was "inspired by true events." Could this make parents think "Hey, they weren't happy with the school and took over. Maybe we could do that too."?? Could we possibly see an increase in the use of Parent Trigger? It'll be interesting to see what the response is when the movie actually comes out.
I just read a post on Facebook complaining that Texas History didn't include George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Sometimes parents shouldn't have a say!
Like Hollywierd would know. Most of them didn't graduate - look it up. No credibility from them at all in my book.
Was there a movie or something like this already made? I feel like I've heard of this before, but I don't live in Cali. I understand how powerless and angry parents must feel when their only options are terrible, failing schools. However, that doesn't mean they have the answer to fixing the problem.
Don't you think that if 50% of parents are actually willing to revolt and try to take over a school, then perhaps the teachers in the school aren't so amazing? I mean, it seems strange that that many parents would rise up for no reason.
Only a few states have it so far-Connecticut, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas have that legislation in effect.
And the textbook companies base their content on Texas? It is scary reading things like that. Those who don't know history are bound to repeat it. If we don't ACCURATELY teach our own country's history, our future generations will fall more and more for whatever twisted propaganda the government/politicians/tv gurus wants to dole out.
No, I do not trust many of them to understand the complexities of education. Heck, I don't understand! I have read enough ignorant garbage on Topix and other sites trashing the district, school, and individual teachers to know parents don't fully understand issues...and too many chime in to show their support who also have no idea what they're supporting. They will "stand together" blindly. In some districts I might better trust their judgment.
My first thought was parents taking over the schools as in: go in and teach. Now that would be seriously fun to observe. I am betting that 99% would come out soon praising the same teachers they were b#tching about.
A parent was complaining about Washington not being included in Texas history. Washington was not in a Texas history textbook. The parent thought he should have been a focus in a Texas history class. That parent needs to read a little more.
Exactly! If the parents want to take over the school then they shouldn't be allowed to hire some charter company they should be forced to run the school themselves. Let's see how long they last...
Granted I'm a teacher and not a parent, but I think it's entirely possible that if one or a few parents feel there's a problem then they could get 50% to follow them in rising up. I live in a small community and I've seen garbage about students being mistreated in school spread by just a few parents who didn't have/didn't want to hear correct information. So I think it's possible that if parents are angry enough (rationally or not), they could rally other parents together whether action needs to be taken or not. Either way, I don't think parents taking over the school is an appropriate solution at all. I think we can only hope Parent Trigger doesn't come into effect in other states.
That's what just happened in the one they passed in California. 100 of the parents who originally signed wanted to rescind their names when they actually found out what they were signing. Many states have already voted not to pass this law. I read that last year in Florida there was a case where another parent group protested the trigger parents and won there. I don't remember if it was this article or the one on the other thread but the parent group who is behind the one in California is funded by the Gates Foundation and other "education philanthropists". I'm not usually a conspiracy theorist, however...
I would love to see a movie where the Parent Trigger is pulled and the school gets much worse until the original parents are made to crawl back to the original staff to fix their screw up. I would invest in that movie.
What are you all talking about? How is this an attack on teachers? It can be viewed as an attack on incompetant teachers (in which case, who cares). But it's not an attack on the profession. It's not as if communities are going to start taking over schools left and right. If this Trigger law does trigger parents to act, it'll probably be in areas where change is needed. The little trailer there didn't show a good teacher being victimized... (in the little it showed), they seem to portray a stereotypical "bad" teacher. When Training Day (Denzel Washington) came out, was that an attack on cops?
John, your lack of a union groupthink mentality is shocking. And to Tyler and his continuing rant against charters - I don't suppose you read the article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal did you? I'll summarize: New York charter schools that select students via lottery outperformed even "schools for the gifted" that hand select their students. I suppose it goes without saying that they way outperformed regular public schools.
I agree with MsB2012. If 50% of the parents are fighting the school, I'm assuming that the school is pretty bad. These are obviously parents who are involved because parents who AREN'T involved wouldn't waste their time. So 50% of the involved parents think that the school isn't effective? That is pretty significant. And anyone who is a teacher SHOULD know that Rediculous isn't a word.
I agree wholeheartedly with that! :thumb: The one that just happened-a parent group called Parent Revolution went door to door to collect signatures. It wasn't something even started up by the parents at that one school.
Hmmm, I didn't post the Parent Revolution comment, but I'll say that I thought it was pretty common knowledge with anyone who had been following the story. I think it was mentioned in each article I read. I'll see if I can find something on it to give you a bit more information if you're doubting the claim. Although it would be just as easy for you to do so, lol.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/04/adelanto-parent-trigger-lawsuit.html http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/07/23/victory-in-adelanto-for-parent-trigger-law/ there are more of course, but I'm off to make dinner
But...but....that would just be propoganda. Oh...wait a minute...hmmmm I live in a rural community and could easily see a handful of parents rousing up enough blind support to get the signatures needed if they really put some effort into it.
You didn't post the comment about Parent Revolution??? Really??? Maybe that is why I quoted Kinder and not you.
Kinder alleged that the parents didn't even start the campaign. I did not read one article stating that. Yes, the parents used the organization to help them, but nowhere does it say that the organization recruited the parents. The school, of course, alleges all kinds of things against the group, but that is to be expected when they are on the losing side.
Jeeze, the period you used where she used a comma clearly indicated that although she didn't post the comment, she had an opinion about it and would look for sources for you. Things are getting too snarky around here...
sigh.... yes, I know you quoted Kinder and not me. I prefaced my comment so you wouldn't jump on me for giving info when I wasn't directly addressed.
Yep, snark met snark. Hmmmm and lol don't bode well for non snarky comments. A pretty simple, these are articles I saw that mentioned the Parent Revolution would have been non snarky. What would have been better was if they actually said what Kinder implied. But they gave no indication that the parent revolution approached the parents and nor did is say it was the other way around.
I think the fact that they show mostly white kids who are just being victimized by the evil teacher in the trailer is a very obvious tactic. I won't comment too much on that, but I don't think that mirrors the low-performing Compton schools as much as they want you to believe. I wish these types of movies gave a more complete picture of the situation. Watching the trailer all I could compare it to really is Matilda.
http://www.golocalprov.com/news/aaron-regunberg-parent-trigger-laws-are-not-the-answer/ http://news.terra.com/california-parents-set-to-take-over-failing-school,2a1de79c315b8310VgnVCM20000099cceb0aRCRD.html -head of Parent Revolution "who helped organize the campaign", "also sponsored another trigger drive in Compton" http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/08/opinion/la-ed-trigger-parent-20120408 - Parent revolution started by "by charter operators and funded by their supporters" -part of the controversy is that many parents claimed they signed a petition for changes to admin but the petition that was submitted called for a charter school to take over.
Thank you, Kinder. I see that the parents worked with Parent Revolution, but no where did any of the articles say that Parent Revolution sought the parents out to enact the trigger law, only that they helped them organize and canvas. I didn't see anywhere that says they try to drum up business. They may, but unti I see it somewhere, I will side on them being an advocate that a parent must initiate contact.
http://parentrevolution.org/content/basic-overview-it actually really offends me that they say parents are the only ones who really care about students. I also love that bargaining power of teachers is considered evil but parent bargaining power is ok.
