{"id":17816,"date":"2013-04-05T11:14:24","date_gmt":"2013-04-05T15:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=17816"},"modified":"2013-04-05T14:17:33","modified_gmt":"2013-04-05T18:17:33","slug":"parent-trigger-passes-florida-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/04\/05\/parent-trigger-passes-florida-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Parent Trigger Bill Passes Florida House"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

LaCrai Mitchell\/StateImpact Florida<\/p>

The parent trigger survived a House vote, just as it did last year. Now, it's the Senate's turn.<\/p><\/div>\n

Just as it did last year, the Florida House has passed the parent trigger bill following much debate.<\/p>\n

The bill’s official title is Parent Empowerment in Education<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It gives parents a say in what changes should be made to a chronically failing school.<\/p>\n

Turnaround options include<\/a> closing the school, turning the school into a charter, and replacing the principal or the entire staff. The ultimate decision rests with the local school board.<\/p>\n

Rep. Cynthia Stafford, D-Opa-locka, doesn’t see a need for the law. “Not only do parents have a voice, they have a seat at the table\u201d already, she said.<\/p>\n

Democrats have repeatedly argued against the bill, saying it’s designed to privatize education and turn public dollars over to for-profit charter school companies.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, doesn’t think that’s such a bad thing.<\/p>\n

“If private enterprise can bring us a better answer, we need to embrace it and thank them for it,” Baxley said.<\/p>\n

Patricia Levesque, executive director of the Foundation for Florida’s Future<\/a>,\u00a0says every provision in the bill is designed to give parents more say in their child’s education.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes sure that parents have a little greater power in either where their child’s assigned, what teacher their child gets assigned to,\u201d Levesque said, \u201cand a greater say in how to turn around their child’s school when the school board is having to make those decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

(The foundation has been a powerful advocate for the bill. We’ll hear more from Levesque about her mission and what she says to her critics on Monday.)<\/p>\n

The House approved the bill 68 to 51.<\/p>\n

Now it’s up to the Senate. That’s where the bill died last year on the last day of session in a tie vote.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just as it did last year, the Florida House has passed the parent trigger bill following much debate. The bill’s official title is Parent Empowerment in Education. It gives parents a say in what changes should be made to a chronically failing school. Turnaround options include closing the school, turning the school into a charter, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[1009,1028,1109],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17816"}],"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=17816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}