Update: Local Board Rejects "Parent Trigger" Petition

Community input is always good -- when it supports the same things you support.  Ditto for democracy -- except when you don't agree. The LA Times' Teresa Watanabe has a story out about Compton's just-announced rejection of the parent trigger petition that was supposed to kick off a turnaround effort at McKinley Elementary School (Compton parent trigger: School board rejects parents' petition).  The signatures are wrong, the petition is constructed incorrectly, etc.  Parent Revolution says it's going to challenge the dismissal though it hasn't responded to specific claims.  Here's the actual document in which the local district lays out its thinking (PDF).  Image via LAT.  Thanks to TW.

Comments

[CarolineSF]

Here's my detailed blog post clarifying the story of the so-called parent trigger, though there are plot twists and turns since.

http://perimeterprimate.blogspot.com/2011/02/grannan-powerful-parent-trigger.html

[KSC]

How is that a charter advocacy group pays staffers to get enough signatures on a petition to hand the school over to a charter management organization with zero public input on the options or the charter provider?

[Bruce]

I suppose the crucial question is whether or not the local powera that be (in this case Compton Unified) would have allowed a free and open public discussion of the options available to the parents. Based on my personal experience (Locke High School), I doubt it; but Compton is not Watts, and I can't be sure.

[CarolineSF]

The implication that Compton officials might have discouraged "a free and open public discussion of the options available to parents," and that thus Parent Revolution is justified in simply engineering the takeover of the school by a pre-selected charter operator is -- well, a little unclear on the concept. It's certainly not in the spirit of the way the Parent Empowerment Act was presented -- by Parent Revolution, creator of the Parent Empowerment Act.

This deceit may work for a while, but obviously it can't hold up for long.

[CarolineSF]

The implication that Compton officials might have discouraged "a free and open public discussion of the options available to parents," and that thus Parent Revolution is justified in simply engineering the takeover of the school by a pre-selected charter operator is -- well, a little unclear on the concept. It's certainly not in the spirit of the way the Parent Empowerment Act was presented -- by Parent Revolution, creator of the Parent Empowerment Act.

This deceit may work for a while, but obviously it can't hold up for long.