{"id":17656,"date":"2013-03-26T14:17:11","date_gmt":"2013-03-26T18:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=17656"},"modified":"2013-03-26T14:17:12","modified_gmt":"2013-03-26T18:17:12","slug":"parent-trigger-supporters-try-to-debunk-misconceptions-about-the-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/03\/26\/parent-trigger-supporters-try-to-debunk-misconceptions-about-the-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Parent Trigger Supporters Try To Debunk ‘Misconceptions’ About The Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Gina Jordan\/StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Patricia Levesque runs former Gov. Jeb Bush's Foundation for Florida's Future. She says the parent trigger bill is about giving parents a legal seat at the table when changes are needed at a failing school.<\/p><\/div>\n

Supporters of the parent trigger bill<\/a> held a briefing with reporters today near the Capitol.<\/p>\n

The briefing was hosted by Patricia Levesque, executive director of the Foundation for Florida\u2019s Future.<\/a> The foundation was created by former Gov. Jeb Bush.<\/p>\n

The group is staunchly behind proposed legislation titled Parent Empowerment in Education (SB862\/HB867)<\/a>. It\u2019s much better known as the parent trigger bill.<\/p>\n

Reps for the teachers union also showed up.<\/p>\n

Levesque set out to debunk myths and misconceptions.<\/p>\n

She said the first really important provision in the bill was inspired by legislation in Indiana, where Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett served as superintendent before losing his reelection bid<\/a> last November.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a provision that says that schools need to make sure students are assigned to effective or highly effective teachers at least every other year,\u201d Levesque said. \u201cSchools that are low-income tend to have an over representation of teachers who\u201d don\u2019t meet that criteria.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The other really important part of the bill, she said, is the parent trigger \u2013 which gives parents the ability to pursue changes to a failing school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe school board has to implement a turnaround plan for those failing schools, and federal law outlines four different options that the school board gets to select from,\u201d Levesque said. \u201cAll that this bill does is say that\u2026parents can if they so choose \u2013 50% plus one of them can indicate to the school board their recommendation for how they would like to see their child\u2019s school turned around.\u201d<\/p>\n

The federal turnaround options are:<\/a><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Replace the principal and add professional training<\/li>\n
  2. Bring in new staff and administration<\/li>\n
  3. Convert to a charter school<\/li>\n
  4. Close the school<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u201cThis formalizes the process so that parents have a legal place at the table when those discussions are occurring,\u201d Levesque said.<\/p>\n

    The parents would be able to appeal if the school board rejects their recommendation.<\/p>\n

    Levesque also tried to take the emphasis off the charter school option.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe most common argument is that there\u2019s greedy for-profits that are out there that want to take over the school and that they\u2019re going to keep the facilities in perpetuity,\u201d Levesque said. \u201cThat just is not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Levesque said 25 failing schools in Florida currently meet the criteria for changes under the proposed law. But parents can seek less drastic alternatives.<\/p>\n

    \u201cOne of the options that doesn\u2019t get talked about a lot is in-district reform \u2013 turnaround that goes on in that school.\u201d She said parents at failing schools in California have taken advantage of the deal.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThey wanted a computer lab, they wanted after-school tutoring, they wanted more assistance and intervention for English language learning students,” Levesque said. “It was the power of the law in California that gave them the ability.”<\/p>\n

    Parents at just three schools in California have chosen federal turnaround options. Pat DeTemple with Parent Revolution<\/a> says most of the thousands of eligible schools were able to get in-district services.<\/p>\n

    Parent Revolution is the group behind the parent trigger law in California and promotes the law in other states.<\/p>\n

    DeTemple flew in from California to join the Tallahassee press conference.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe biggest misconception surrounding the parent empowerment laws \u2013 parent trigger laws – is that it\u2019s all about charters\u2026a vast conspiracy to privatize education in America, serve for-profit entities,\u201d DeTemple said. \u201cThat\u2019s nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n

    He says it\u2019s a fallacy that charter school operators are lined up waiting to take advantage of the law.<\/p>\n

    Levesque says the foundation supports the expansion of high quality charters and the closing of charter schools that receive two Fs.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWe want parents to have options because we believe those options serve as kind of a social justice issue in making sure that parents, particularly those who don\u2019t have other options on their own, have some good high quality options for their children,\u201d Levesque said.<\/p>\n

    Jeff Wright with the Florida Education Association<\/a> was eager to give reporters his own briefing outside. He said Levesque and DeTemple presented half-truths, particularly about charters.<\/p>\n

    \u201cIf this is about social justice, don\u2019t you think the NAACP of Florida and LULAC<\/a>, who represents the Latin community, would be all over this issue? They\u2019re opposed to it,\u201d Wright said. \u201cIf you want them to improve, give them the resources at those schools that they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \u201cWhy are we flying in an executive director of Parent Revolution from California to talk about Florida schools and parents in Florida and what they need?\u201d asked Wright. \u201cHow in the hell does he know what parents in this state need? Let the parents here have that conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Wright said it’s clear that the charter option is the main vehicle of change being pushed by bill supporters.<\/p>\n

    \u201cIf you look at the email traffic that the foundation and Patricia has received from charter companies asking her to loosen the laws across the country to allow them to have more availability,”\u00a0Wright said, \u201cwe have some reasoning to suspect there\u2019s more to the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

    The bill is ready for a hearing before the full House. The Senate hasn\u2019t scheduled any committee hearings for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Supporters of the parent trigger bill held a briefing with reporters today near the Capitol. The briefing was hosted by Patricia Levesque, executive director of the Foundation for Florida\u2019s Future. The foundation was created by former Gov. Jeb Bush. The group is staunchly behind proposed legislation titled Parent Empowerment in Education (SB862\/HB867). It\u2019s much better […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[672,62,1109,809,604],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17665,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17656\/revisions\/17665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}