The AFT’s Real Feelings About Parent Power

August 2, 2011 4:20 pm August 2, 2011

When the AFT offers a road map on how to shut down Parent Power efforts, it offers a nice PDF document to do it. Apparently in a fit of celebration during last month’s TEACH 2011 conference, the nation’s second-largest teachers union offered up a presentation on how its Connecticut affiliate managed to make the state’s Parent Trigger law a little less harder for parents to use. (Dropout Nation is doing everyone a courtesy by making it available for public consumption; the orginal is still available at the AFT’s Web site. At least, for now.)

This included arguing that parents groups weren’t at the table for the discussions that led to the passage of the law. (Gwen Samuel and former state representative Jason Barlett, who had led the effort to pass the Parent Trigger law, will find that statement quite amusing.) It also includes declaring that it brought the Nutmeg State’s NEA affiliate “kicking and screaming” to the negotiations because “teachers had to be united.” Again, the NEA will probably find this very amusing.

Whatever one thinks of the document, it clearly offers a lesson for school reformers and Parent Power activists everywhere: The debate over reforming American public education isn’t going to let up anytime soon.

Update: The AFT has taken down the document. Dropout Nation continues to have a copy available.

RiShawn Biddle

Editor of Dropout Nation and Co-Author of "A Byte At the Apple: Rethhinking Education Data in the Post-NCLB Era". Conttributor to The American Spectator and Labor Watch. Author of "Left Behind: A Star Editorial Board series" and longtime editorialist on education and economic affairs.

26 Comments

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George Buzzetti says:

August 4, 2011 at 1:35 am

I was not in favor of the Parent Trigger at first. One of my friends in education is one of the people behind the Parent Trigger. This came out of the frustration of parents and the community being unable to make positive changes at their local schools. This started as a grassroots answer to an intransigent school system and politicians.

They felt that they had a right as the parents to have a say in what happened to their children’s future.

I agree.

I work with a civil right group, Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), California. My specialty is school fraud and financials. I am the only person to ever have the State of California audit LAUSD. This was for teachers being falsly accused of child abuse for whistleblowing and principals stealing student impress funds. California State Auditor, Nov. 1997, 96121, for the unbelievers. Their problems are district wide. Parents have the civil right and responsability to protect the future of their children.

The ‘Parent Trigger” is another tool in the toolkit to fix public education. This is to be done inside of the district. This is not and should not be a charter school. We need to fix public education for all. This is our responsability.

This is why I am now for the concept of a “Parent Trigger.”
business daily says:

August 4, 2011 at 2:34 am

.It began with a grassroots campaign of Los Angeles parents based on the simple premise that education should be about children not adults. After working to pass a school choice law Parent Revolution began pushing for parent trigger legislation which ultimately passed in 2010. A parent trigger law according to Parent Revolution empowers parents at any failing school in California to transform their school simply through community organizing. The legislation allows parents of children at persistently failing schools schools that have failed to meet annual yearly progress for at least four years to change the administration convert the school to a charter or shut it down completely if they gather signatures from at least 51 of parents at the school. It is worth noting that Parent Revolution receives funding from the Gates Walton and Wasserman foundations and until 2010 received funding from Green Dot Public Schools a charter school organization. .Parent trigger laws similar to California s have passed in Mississippi and Connecticut and failed to become law in Arkansas Colorado Maine and Maryland.
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Bruce William Smith says:

August 4, 2011 at 4:08 pm

Insofar as I have had a chance to review what has happened here, these recent events imply that the AFT is moving in the right direction, but hasn’t moved far enough or with any really authentic desire to engage people they should regard as partners rather than rivals: parents. We need to get modern teachers’ unions to help their teachers gain seats on local school administrative boards, which would have real governing (not advisory) power, as part of each school’s charter, like those required in each school in the country in New Zealand, alongside elected representatives of parents.

Please note how this model differs with the embarrassingly nefarious tactics of the American Federation of Teachers. Instead of being excluded from back room dealing, parents should be welcomed, with a legal right and an expectation, to support the authentic governance, including spending decisions, in their children’s schools.
Bill Ring says:

August 4, 2011 at 4:28 pm

At the request of another parent, I went through the AFT document. He pointed out Slide #13 to me. It seems to be what any parent advocate would want to see:

* School Governance Councils – Mandated the establishment of advisory groups comprised of elected stakeholder representatives in consistently low performing schools

* Gave parents majority representation

* Gave Councils authority to recommend reconstitution in third year of poor performance

* Created opportunities for collaboration with teachers, parents and other stakeholders

Aren’t these among the first (and necessary) steps for true parent engagement at any school site (assuming the requisite training and support)? If schools convert to charter under a so-called “parent trigger”, are the parents going to get these elements, particularly with a school run by a charter management organization (CMO)? I would respectfully suggest no, they are not.

My parent colleague pointed this out, as well: “how could trigger proponents completely misunderstand what is in slide 14?” My reading tells me that AFT would have wanted advisory groups to actually HAVE governing authority.

But what continues to strike both of us as really peculiar in any of these efforts is how proponents think that they are empowering parents. They act as if parents have been completely shutout of the process by so many evil teachers. I think it is time to point out that where we come from, administrators are the true gatekeepers at public schools.

Now what. If parents win trigger votes, they will have their hands on the levers of power; from what I have seen, parents are unprepared to ride the tiger and will be taken for a ride by their handlers. I would love to be proven wrong but I cringe at the damage that may be done finding out.

I recognize that California’s experiment with this is limited to 75 schools but given that so many schools here are “failing” (including some charter schools that are solidly on the list of persistently lowest performing) – and yes, those parents already PULLED a trigger by enrolling their children there – this entire experience may have more value in the propaganda it will generate.

For those in California, I close with a public service: August 8 is the last day to submit public comments during the third 15-day public comment period following approval of what will otherwise become permanent parent empowerment regulations… see http://www.cde.ca.gov/re/l?r/rr/parentemp.aspSee More
Parent Empowerment Regulations – Proposed Rulemaking & Regulations (CA Dept of Education)
http://www.cde.ca.gov

Bill Ring
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RiShawn Biddle says:

August 5, 2011 at 7:57 pm

Oh, Bill, all I can say after reading those ridiculous talking points, especially in light of the evidence, is that you need to really try harder. Actually, that’s the nicest thing I can say. Cut the sophistry and actually offer something thoughtful.
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