Kyrillos Pushes Bill Empowering Parents to Force Education Reform
Hosts Discussion on ‘Parent Trigger’ Legislation Embraced in Chicago, California
Trenton— Senator Joe Kyrillos (R- Monmouth/Middlesex) today joined with the Heartland Institute to host a discussion with legislators and business, civic, and education leaders regarding proposed legislation that would give parents in failing school districts the authority to affect immediate change. The Parent Empowerment and Choice Act (S-2569), dubbed ‘the parent trigger’, would force certain organizational and administrative reforms in a school through community petition.
“Today in New Jersey, parents and students in failing school districts have two choices: move or to pay for a private education,” said Senator Kyrillos. “That is unacceptable to me, and it should be unacceptable to every taxpayer that foots the bill for a system that is too often unresponsive and slow to change. If enacted into law, my bill would give parents in these districts- some of the poorest and most dangerous in New Jersey- the ability to build a better tomorrow for their children by forcing immediate improvements to a school that is failing to educate its students.”
Kyrillos’s bill allows parents in a failing school, as determined by student test scores, to force the following changes through majority petition:
Reorganization as a charter school
Replacement of administrators and/or staff
Establishment of a tuition voucher system for any public or private school in New Jersey
The requested change would be required to take effect 180 days following certification of the petition.
Kyrillos noted that troubled districts in Illinois and California are embracing similar proposals. “Parents in one of California’s worst school districts, Compton, are already using the parent trigger to affect change, and Mayor-elect Rahm Emmanuel has voiced initial support for this reform in Chicago,” he said. “This is not an ideological issue. This is about rejecting the notion that children in failing schools should be denied a quality education because of administrative hurdles, legal obstacles, and an educational establishment that is resistant to change.”
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Could Kyrillos tell us which schools he considers failing in HIS district? Just curious.
Failed school==one where the NJEA is involved
“Without goals and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.”
plz visit http://www.mycap.in