On The Origins Of The Parent Trigger

July 2, 2012 | 3:40 PM

By John O'Connor

PeaceOverViolence.org

Former California State Sen. Gloria Romero help write the nation's first parent trigger law.

Former California State Sen. Gloria Romero writing at redefinED takes education historian Diane Ravitch and others to task over the inspiration for the parent trigger.

Why does it matter to Florida?

Because the parent trigger was the most contentious education bill during the last legislative session and it’s coming back when lawmakers return in 2013. The bill allows parents at failing schools to choose how to restructure the school, including replacing faculty or principals, closing the school or converting to a charter school.

Ravitch has argued the bill is the brainchild of the conservative-leaning American Legislative Exchange Council. But Romero said the bill was born in California, among Democrats:

Please, stop saying that some organization I had never met until just this year gave me the idea and somehow, miraculously, turned it into law without me not knowing about it. ALEC happens to like the law and encourages other states to write similar laws. That is true. But that does not mean it developed either the idea or the law. That’s preposterous! Quite frankly, it’s also a bit sexist and ethnocentric to assert my work actually came from someone else – that somehow the Latina senator from East Los Angeles couldn’t think on my own, or figure out how to write a bill and turn it into law.

We spoke with Romero about the law back in February. The bill eventually failed by one vote on the final day of the Florida legislative session.

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Everything You Need To Know About The “Parent Trigger”

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Susan Smith

Parent Trigger is the Parent Tricker. Florida parents do not want it. Ms. Romero can take her corporate dollars and stay in California. Anybody who thinks that Jeb Bush, Michelle Rhee, the Walton and Broad Foundations, and Rupert Murdoch are pushing parent trigger because they care about public school children hasn’t been paying attention.
http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/ rdsathene

Ms. Romero couldn’t be more mendacious, and she is a pariah among here own party because of her deep ties to right-wing extremists. For a brief introduction to the real Romero and her associations with arch-reactionaries see:

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2012/07/democrats-for-neoliberal-education.html
CarolineSF

I’m posting from California, where I’ve been following the Parent Trigger since it was first proposed. As Romero acknowledges, the Parent Trigger was conceived by Parent Revolution, a billionaire-funded AstroTurf (fake grassroots) organization that promotes far-right ideas and was founded by charter school operator Steve Barr. I don’t know why Romero takes offense at someone’s claiming it wasn’t her idea while simultaneously acknowledging that it wasn’t her idea, but that’s beside the point.

It’s misleading to connect this far-right idea with Democrats. Romero is, admittedly, a Democrat, but she follows the money. Parent Revolution was carefully set up with hired staff who had previously been Democratic Party operatives — also folks who go where the money is — to obscure the organization’s far-right goals and connections. Romero now heads the California operation of Democrats for Education Reform — whose founder, hedge funder Whitney Tilson, acknowledges that he put “Democrats” in the name for the same reason, to obscure the far-right principles the organization promotes.

However if the Parent Trigger were a successful means of improving schools, none of that would matter. But the Parent Trigger is not a success. There have been a total of two Parent Triggers, both here in California. One has entirely failed and the second is locked in controversy and is doomed to fail as well. The “reform” story is that this is all due to teachers’ union opposition, but that’s a lie. It’s because parents at both schools were deeply divided about the Parent Trigger and battling each other.

The Parent Trigger is doomed to fizzle out in any case. Its original intent was to turn schools over to charter operators. It turns out that charter operators don’t want to take over struggling existing schools — they want to start their own schools, where they can choose their own students. With the charter operators saying thanks but no thanks, the Parent Trigger isn’t long for this world.
myhernandez

Glad we know who to blame.
Linda174

Another shill for the faux reform movement led by non educators or TFA dropouts such as Rhee.

Romero you are being used…another grassroots supporter? The joke is on you.
Linda174

No one, especially educators, are anti-women or anti-Latina. Collectively we are against uneducated, unproven, unintelligent reform ideas that are meant to line the pockets of carpet bagging, profiteering, lying, sleezy, money-grubbing vultures who suddenly care about and are willing to experiment on OPC (other people’s children). Throw the children of politicians and hedge fund managers into the fray and let’s see what happens.
contestjoiner

Ms. Romero, along with carrying the water for DFER and “Parent Revolution,” also proposed legislation to decertify the state rock of California, serpentine. The purpose of that piece of legislation was to create a litigious opportunity for personal injury lawyers, as serpentine sometimes contains asbestos. The woman is an opportunist and a mercenary, not interested in what’s good for the people of California, just herself.

The Democratic Party of Los Angeles County has also served notice to DFER in California that the use of the word Democrats as part of the organization’s title is illegal, as the group is not sanctioned by the Democratic Party.

Lastly, Ms. Romero was a candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction during the 2010 election cycle. Although she was the candidate with the largest base, as a state senator, she came in third behind a lesser known member of the state assembly (and eventual winner) and a largely unknown retired school district superintendent. Ms. Romero has no following, other than her clique of like minded profiteers and pretenders.

To throw out a baseless accusation, sexist and racist, shows how low Ms. Romero will go in her quest for legitimacy. Ignorant and narcissistic.
CarolineSF

Mr. O’Connor, you and your NPR news colleagues need to be made aware that when Parent Revolution spokespeople testified before Florida legislators about the Parent Trigger, they made false statements. One Parent Revolution staffer said there had been more than one successful Parent Trigger (it appears that he implied there had been many). I learned this from a report in the Bradenton Herald — the reporter did not know that this man was lying and reported that as factual testimony. As noted, there have been two consummated Parent Trigger petitions; one has failed and the other is in turmoil (and is clearly destined to fail).

Also, another staffer from Parent Revolution claimed that she and other mothers had founded Parent Revolution. Actually she is a hired staffer. Parent Revolution was founded, then named the Los Angeles Parents Union, by Steve Barr, founder and then-CEO of the Green Dot charter school chain. That has been widely reported by the mainstream media, including a feature in the Los Angeles Times.

Pleas be aware of these falsehoods and also of the fact that this organization deliberately made the false statements in testimony to the Florida Legislature.

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