The school board of the Los Angeles Unified School District voted 5-2 last week to approve guidelines that will help it deal with potential petitions from parents at “failing” schools under the state’s “parent trigger” law, which was adopted in 2010, the Los Angeles Times reports.
In California, parents of students at a low-performing school can sign a legally binding petition. If a majority of them sign it, the district must take the action specified in the petition, which could be to fire the staff, close the school, or reopen it as an independent, publicly financed charter.
Some groups that want public schools to be privatized for profit have seized on the parent trigger law to advance their own mission. If these groups, often backed by billionaires, can convince enough parents that the district can’t run the school properly and provide an adequate education for their children, they can write into the petition that the school has to be converted to a charter school, privately run but receiving public funds.
It has been found that big money groups, such as Parent Revolution, don’t always get an accurate message to parents about the educational situation at the school. Parents sign the petitions, that is, without knowing the complete story about the school. The new guidelines approved by the LAUSD represent the first attempt by the district to help parents navigate the difficult process of dictating the course for and running a school.
Under the guidelines, LAUSD is required to hold public meetings to provide information about the targeted school, but the district can’t advocate for either side. The district will also have to provide training for staff members at the school on how to build trust with parents and identify any needs at the school to boost performance. They just aren’t allowed to specifically support or impede the petition or use any school resources for these purposes, but they can use resources to correct false or misleading information being spread about the school by the petition campaigns.
On the other side, people or organizations circulating the petitions can’t offer parents incentives, like gifts or promises of benefits, in exchange for their signatures. And the guidelines bar harassment and intimidation of parents, students, or staff, another type of activity about which many groups have complained.
“I believe in parent empowerment,” the paper quoted school board member Steve Zimmer as saying. “What we are trying to do is make sure parents are getting access to extensive, accurate and objective information.”
