Are Parent Trigger Laws Our New 'Superman' – Or Union Kryptonite?
Here’s a question for you: Which political party, Republicans or Democrats, supports expanding charter schools, test-based teacher evaluation, and most recently, parent trigger laws? (In school, this would be called a trick question.) The answer is: both. The latest piece in the corporate education reform puzzle, parent trigger laws reveal just how desperately Republicans and Democrats are seeking ways to appease corporate America’s hunger for education reform -- without addressing the central issue of poverty that lies at the root of an overburdened U.S. education system. These laws, which allow a majority of parents “to sign a petition to trigger one of a narrow set of options -- firing all or some of the staff, turning the school over to a charter operator, or closing the school,” are packaged as free-market levers to empower parents with children trapped in poorly performing public schools -‑ a similar strategy to that being used to support the expansion of charter schools across the nation. As Stephanie Simon reported for Reuters, politicians are |
