Kyrillos to propose “Parent Trigger” education reform measure
Senator Joe Kyrillos told the Wall Street Jounral’s David Feith that he will introduce legislation this month that will legally empower parents to force administrative changes in failing schools.
“Parent Trigger” became law in California in January of this year. Under the California law, if 51% of parents in a failing school sign a petition they can force administrative changes in the school, convert the school to charter status or shut down the school entirely.
The idea was first proposed by the “liberal activists group,” Parent Revolution. Liberal or not, the idea enjoys bi-partisan support in California but is being proposed mostly by Republicans elsewhere in the country, according to the WSJ article.
Kyrillos is confident is bill will become law. He told Feith:
“If it can pass in California, it can pass anywhere,” says New Jersey State Sen. Joe Kyrillos, who plans to introduce his parent-trigger bill as soon as this month. Mr. Kyrillos is confident his bill will pass, especially since Gov. Chris Christie, a fellow Republican, committed in September to supporting the kind of parent-empowering reform that “was recently done in California.”
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This is idiotic. The first parent that doesn’t like a policy gets to pull the trigger on reforms? This bypasses all the schoolboards.
Not the first one Freespeaker…51% of the parents in a failing school need to sign the petition
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I love the concept of this legislation [after giving it just a 10 minute google search and read], seeing it pass seems like it would *probably* be a GoodThingTM, however, it also seems worth nothing that if parents are really so unhappy with their public schools, they should be reminded that there are school board elections every year or so, right? And 51% makes a majority that could elect some new people and in theory the school board can bring about some changes? And you have to send your kids to public school in the district you live in which means you should be eligible to vote there. And then it seems unclear, just who takes over the school? What happens to the public employees and their salaries/benefits when said take over happens? Is there an analysis/estimate of the number of schools that would fall into the “failing” category here in Jersey? Is there a fair way to ensure that signers/parents who seek the change don’t become targets of school employees? (I mean, we are told about the mean and all powerful UnionThugsTM that are school teachers by day) Are the charter schools still subject to the same silly curriculum and schedule mandated by the state/federal gov’t or does this free the school from such mandates and requirements? (I ask because I know of a few Long Branch students who had the choice between sewing class or essentially Home-Economics, what happened to wood-shop and auto-shop?) It also seems worth noting that parents can also CHOOSE to send their kids to private schools, some such private schools still exist, at a cost. Will school vouchers be involved in any parts of this legislation?
Again, at first glance, I really do like the concept/premise of this legislation but I’m curious how it’s different from elections/recalls or just choice in private schools and what pitfalls needs to be worked out? Hopefully if/when Sen. Kyrillos introduces this, there will be some answers to these questions or at least some outline to debate such questions and work out some reasonable solutions, that make sense.
Thanks for the clarification Art. Then, it seems to me that those “51%” need to be showing up at Board Meetings, and at the School Board elections.
But still, it seems a bit like “arnarchy” to me. I guess one of my problem is that “the liberals love it,” so how can it be good for our students?
SCHOOL CHOICE is the answer, with portability of the school funding, both homeowner’s taxes and the state funding. IE, if you want to go to a better school, because your school ain’t doin’ too hot, you shouldn’t have to pay one dime elsewhere. The money that you pay in your home town school taxes, PLUS the money the state pays your hometown school should follow the student. ALL of it, that way the public schools have a REAL incentive to improve.