Opponents of Parent Trigger Law Push for 'Transparency,' Gloria Romero Says That's Hogwash

By Patrick Range McDonald Thu., Jan. 13 2011 at 12:55 PM

Former state senator Gloria Romero

"Transparency" appears to be the new political controversy over California's Parent Trigger law, which allows parents to make changes at a chronically failing public school if they pull off a successful petition drive.

While former state senator Gloria Romero thinks the transparency issue is over-hyped, according to California Watch, don't be surprised if opponents of the Parent Trigger in Sacramento look to change regulations or the law itself in the coming weeks.

"If transparency means giving time for parents to be intimidated, threatened and deported, that is not transparency to me," Romero, the author of the Parent Trigger, tells California Watch. "I strongly support the parent trigger law as it was introduced (in the legislature), and it is operating in the way it was intended."

Opponents of the Parent Trigger are still smarting over the successful petition drive at Compton Unified School District, which became the first of its kind in the United States.

Parents and paid organizers with the Los Angeles-based education reform group Parent Revolution managed to work mostly under the radar while gathering signatures from some 60 percent of parents whose children attend McKinley Elementary School.

That petition drive seeks to replace the chronically failing elementary school with a charter school run by the Celerity Educational Group.

With a sudden influx of Governor Jerry Brown appointees, the California State Board of Education has now postponed approving regulations for how the Parent Trigger works. The word going around the state capitol is that the board may seek to push for more "transparency" during the signature collecting process.

With unfettered access, L.A. Weekly spent time with Parent Revolution organizers and Compton parents when they were still working on gathering signatures. It was a situation ripe for intimidation tactics by Compton Unified officials, who want to maintain the status quo, and statewide teachers' union, who hate the Parent Trigger law.

Parent Revolution organizers, as a result, took a strategy from the labor movement and organized in a low profile way. It was obviously effective, and allowed parents to take the major step in confronting Compton Unified officials and to demand change on the behalf of their children.

As Romero tells California Watch, ""All this (the parent trigger) does is provide parents the opportunity to petition their government. Why are we afraid of that?"

If the California Board of Education does push for more so-called transparency, it will be interesting to see if the California legislature holds politically-connected labor unions who also organize under the radar to the same standards. If that took place, labor unions would undoubtedly be outraged.

Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.

Tags:

California Watch, Compton Unified School District, Gloria Romero, Parent Trigger, Patrick Range McDonald, transparency

We Recommend

rdsathene

According to Part VII of Celerity Educational Group's 2009 Form 990 Vielka McFarlane pays herself a whopping $193,442.00 a year in salary. Privatization pusher Ben Austin makes well over $15,000 a month for trying to convert public schools into privatized charters. That ladies and gentlemen, is the motivating factor behind dubious trigger laws.

What's more, Celerity Educational Group discriminates against children with special needs. Their special education numbers are abysmal and they outsource special education, separating these children from their siblings and further stigmatizing them. For references and documentation on Celerity's practices see:

http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/...

Further, Celerity is also the school famous for firing teachers for the "crime" of reading a poem about Emmit Till. Their reactionary revisionist administrators had the unmitigated bigotry to suggest Till somehow deserved his fate.

http://firedoglake.com/2007/03...

Parent Revolution is funded by the Gates, Broad, Annenberg, and Walton (Wallmart) foundations. Their sole reason for existence is increasing market share for charter-voucher schools. Social justice activists everywhere should be horrified by this corporate charter takeover in the guise of some disgruntled parents.

KarenSC1966

Guess what: There are plenty of people out here who support the "parent trigger" but oppose the way it was implemented. Demanding transparency in a process that transfers public resources into private hands is nothing to be afraid of, Gloria. It is entirely facetious to liken privatizing a public school to union organizing. The parents of Compton did not initiate this process, which is entirely the legislators' intent (albeit not Gloria Romero's, EdVoice, or Parent Revolution's intent). When Ben Austin uses his position as a member of the State Board of Education to direct his staff at Parent Revolution to choose a public school to test the trigger, choose the method of conversion and choose the charter beneficiary, it is abundant proof that a gross misuse of the public's trust has occurred. The Parent Trigger rules must be clarified and the Compton petition revoked. Had Parent Revolution engaged in a true democratic process, there would be no need for the red herring arguments about harassment and secrecy.

CarolineSF

Well, no, that's not all the so-called Parent Trigger does. It empowers opportunistic and predatory charter operators -- who are in search of ways to get public funds into their own pockets -- to mount a campaign, funded by billionaires and corporate titans, posing as an actual parent crusade. It also gives them a new way to dupe the ever-gullible and unquestioning press (both advocacy press and mainstream press) into breathlessly touting another "miracle" education reofrm.