Parent Trigger Trouble

Yesterday I saw a couple of tweets for links and comments about the upcoming parent trigger legislation. They were positive of course. I am truly hoping this legislation goes nowhere. In its current form it makes no sense if your basis is school choice. I have more than one problem with this legislation.

My first problem is it is not truly choice that it is about. When you have one option for one group that is not choice. If this legislation to truly be about choice then private and charter school parents should have the option to make their schools public if they have D's or F's. By the way these schools fail as well. We obviously don't get private school info but on SDE website one can go to A-F and type in charter to see the charter districts. Well guess what, 30% of their schools have D's or F's. This is compared to 9% for public schools, would be 5.4% if State Board of Ed had used growth formula the Superintendents asked for. So why legislation to turn schools in a system that fails at a greater percentage? Because perhaps its not about choice but the decay of public schools.

My second issue it is goes around an elected body. That's as undemocratic as it gets. I am all for parents having say, I love teacher organizations and parent involvement. We have a system for parents to get involved. We have a democratic process to follow. We need parents and patrons that care about schools on school boards. But that is where the decisions need to be made. You should not be able to get around an elected body. Just so you can divert more money away from public schools.

Another issue I have is the 50% rule. I brought this up during my meeting with Rep. Nelson. How come everything takes 50% passage but bond passage doesn't. He didn't have an answer for me. How come it takes 50% to radically change a school but 60% to build facilities, infrastructure  and plan for the future. State questions don't take 60% but they can alter education or take away funds. Officials get elected at 50%. It just makes no sense to me.

Lastly my final issue is, what if that doesn't work. What do the parents do then? As I pointed out charters fail at a higher percentage. Is they a way for parents to transform that school? Can it go back to public? Go private? What happens when they  find out its not that it is a public school that's the problem? There has to be measures to address this issue. If not, then it truly is about just chipping away at public schools.

This legislation just doesn't have enough thought. It doesn't because it comes from national "Think Tanks" like ALEC or FEE. Its not about kids, its about corporate reform from big business, financial institutions, and non educators. Please defeat this bill. The kids of Oklahoma need you too!!