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Mayors back parents seizing control of schools
(Reuters) - Hundreds of mayors from across the United States this weekend called for new laws letting parents seize control of low-performing public schools and fire the teachers, oust the administrators or turn the schools over to private management.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors, meeting in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday unanimously endorsed "parent trigger" laws aimed at bypassing elected school boards and giving parents at the worst public schools the opportunity to band together and force immediate change.
Such laws are fiercely opposed by teachers' unions, which stand to lose members in school takeovers. Union leaders say there is no proof such upheaval will improve learning. And they argue that public investment in struggling communities, rather than private management of struggling schools, is the key to boosting student achievement.
But in a sign of the unions' diminishing clout, their traditional political allies, the Democrats, abandoned them in droves during the Orlando vote.
Democratic Mayors Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles and Kevin Johnson of Sacramento led the charge for parent trigger - and were backed by scores of other Democrats as well as Republicans from coast to coast.
"Mayors understand at a local level that most parents lack the tools they need to turn their schools around," Villaraigosa said. Parent trigger laws, he added, can empower parents to do just that.
Representatives from the two largest teachers' unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, were not available for comment Sunday.
Parent trigger laws are in place in several states including California, Texas and Louisiana and are under consideration in states including Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York. So far, though, the concept has never successfully been used to turn around a school.
Parents in two impoverished, heavily minority California cities, Compton and Adelanto, gathered enough signatures to seize control of their neighborhood schools but the process stalled in the face of ferocious opposition from teachers' unions. Both cases are now tied up in court.
Though it has not yet been shown to work, parent trigger has support from many of the big players seeking to inject more free-market competition into public education, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.
Major philanthropies and wealthy financiers have poured money into backing political candidates and advocacy groups, including one called Parent Revolution, that promote parent trigger, according to campaign finance records in several states.
The concept has even inspired an upcoming Hollywood film, "Won't Back Down," in which Maggie Gyllenhaal portrays a single mother who organizes parents to take control of their failing school over union opposition. The movie was financed by Walden Media, which also backed the 2010 documentary "Waiting for 'Superman,'" which advocated for another central goal of education reformers - expanding charter schools.
For their part, mayors may have jumped on the bandwagon because parent trigger fits neatly with two of their key goals, said Kenneth Wong, a political scientist focused on education policy at Brown University.
'CONSUMER ORIENTED'
"Mayors are moving in a new direction on education, one that's more consumer oriented... and focused on serving parents and giving them choices," Wong said. Facing tight budgets and huge pension liabilities, many mayors are also looking to rein in the power of teachers unions and force them to accept more austere contracts, Wong said.
Teachers unions have long been among the biggest donors to Democratic politicians, but that alliance has frayed in many cities in the past 18 months.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Villaraigosa blasted union leaders as an "unwavering roadblock to reform." In Philadelphia, Mayor Nutter has backed a plan to close dozens of neighborhood schools and convert many others to charters, which are publicly funded but privately run - and typically non-union.
And in Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel successfully pushed to cancel a scheduled 4 percent raise for teachers and extend the school day by more than an hour. Teachers are so angry, nearly 90 percent of union members just voted to authorize a strike if ongoing contract negotiations falter.
"We are on the path to change," said Gloria Romero, a former California state senator who now runs that state's branch of Democrats for Education Reform, an advocacy group that funnels donations to politicians willing to buck the teachers unions. She called the mayoral vote a "landmark" that would inspire poor and minority parents to demand change in their schools. "This is a civil rights fight," she said.
Opponents of parent trigger, however, pointed out that the mayors' endorsement was largely symbolic, since such policies typically require legislative approval.
They said they would continue to fight - in part by reminding voters that parent trigger can be a mechanism for turning public schools over to private control. Some of the private management companies that run charter schools are for-profits that do not divulge much about how they spend public funds.
"Parents don't have control once they pull the trigger," said Kathleen Oropeza, co-founder of Fund Education Now, an advocacy group that successfully fought to derail a parent trigger bill in Florida earlier this year. "Who profits? Not parents and children."
SOURCE: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/18/us-usa-education-trigger-idUSBRE85H0J620120618
The U.S. Conference of Mayors, meeting in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday unanimously endorsed "parent trigger" laws aimed at bypassing elected school boards and giving parents at the worst public schools the opportunity to band together and force immediate change.
Such laws are fiercely opposed by teachers' unions, which stand to lose members in school takeovers. Union leaders say there is no proof such upheaval will improve learning. And they argue that public investment in struggling communities, rather than private management of struggling schools, is the key to boosting student achievement.
But in a sign of the unions' diminishing clout, their traditional political allies, the Democrats, abandoned them in droves during the Orlando vote.
Democratic Mayors Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles and Kevin Johnson of Sacramento led the charge for parent trigger - and were backed by scores of other Democrats as well as Republicans from coast to coast.
"Mayors understand at a local level that most parents lack the tools they need to turn their schools around," Villaraigosa said. Parent trigger laws, he added, can empower parents to do just that.
Representatives from the two largest teachers' unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, were not available for comment Sunday.
Parent trigger laws are in place in several states including California, Texas and Louisiana and are under consideration in states including Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York. So far, though, the concept has never successfully been used to turn around a school.
Parents in two impoverished, heavily minority California cities, Compton and Adelanto, gathered enough signatures to seize control of their neighborhood schools but the process stalled in the face of ferocious opposition from teachers' unions. Both cases are now tied up in court.
Though it has not yet been shown to work, parent trigger has support from many of the big players seeking to inject more free-market competition into public education, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.
Major philanthropies and wealthy financiers have poured money into backing political candidates and advocacy groups, including one called Parent Revolution, that promote parent trigger, according to campaign finance records in several states.
The concept has even inspired an upcoming Hollywood film, "Won't Back Down," in which Maggie Gyllenhaal portrays a single mother who organizes parents to take control of their failing school over union opposition. The movie was financed by Walden Media, which also backed the 2010 documentary "Waiting for 'Superman,'" which advocated for another central goal of education reformers - expanding charter schools.
For their part, mayors may have jumped on the bandwagon because parent trigger fits neatly with two of their key goals, said Kenneth Wong, a political scientist focused on education policy at Brown University.
'CONSUMER ORIENTED'
"Mayors are moving in a new direction on education, one that's more consumer oriented... and focused on serving parents and giving them choices," Wong said. Facing tight budgets and huge pension liabilities, many mayors are also looking to rein in the power of teachers unions and force them to accept more austere contracts, Wong said.
Teachers unions have long been among the biggest donors to Democratic politicians, but that alliance has frayed in many cities in the past 18 months.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Villaraigosa blasted union leaders as an "unwavering roadblock to reform." In Philadelphia, Mayor Nutter has backed a plan to close dozens of neighborhood schools and convert many others to charters, which are publicly funded but privately run - and typically non-union.
And in Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel successfully pushed to cancel a scheduled 4 percent raise for teachers and extend the school day by more than an hour. Teachers are so angry, nearly 90 percent of union members just voted to authorize a strike if ongoing contract negotiations falter.
"We are on the path to change," said Gloria Romero, a former California state senator who now runs that state's branch of Democrats for Education Reform, an advocacy group that funnels donations to politicians willing to buck the teachers unions. She called the mayoral vote a "landmark" that would inspire poor and minority parents to demand change in their schools. "This is a civil rights fight," she said.
Opponents of parent trigger, however, pointed out that the mayors' endorsement was largely symbolic, since such policies typically require legislative approval.
They said they would continue to fight - in part by reminding voters that parent trigger can be a mechanism for turning public schools over to private control. Some of the private management companies that run charter schools are for-profits that do not divulge much about how they spend public funds.
"Parents don't have control once they pull the trigger," said Kathleen Oropeza, co-founder of Fund Education Now, an advocacy group that successfully fought to derail a parent trigger bill in Florida earlier this year. "Who profits? Not parents and children."
SOURCE: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/18/us-usa-education-trigger-idUSBRE85H0J620120618
I believe part of the problem with American public schools is that they try to be all things to all students. To me, the European model, where high school age students either attend a university prep type school or a technical or trade school makes more sense.
I understand that in large cities, charter schools are taking desperately needed resources from public schools, but from what I've observed in the last few years, they may be a better fit for smaller semi-rural communities. In one small town in the Texas Hill Country, there are two high schools. The larger, public school has the options of offering sports, a lot of agriculture and horticulture classes, AP Social Studies, and the like. Apparently, the ranchers and country club parents send their kids there.
The smaller, charter school is a zero-tolerance-for-trouble-making school where a lot of kids who've had problems in public school end up as a last chance. Also, a lot of the tie-dyed, back to nature locals send their kids there. Too small to offer sports teams or a 4-H club, they concentrate their resources on hiring topnotch teachers. Excellent programs in journalism, university prep courses, and some AP math and science. My step-daughter just graduated from this school, and from what I could see, all the Goths and Emos and nerds and granola-eaters and delinquents who would be at the bottom of the food chain at a public school, and would expend huge amounts of energy just getting through the day without getting bullied, got along just fine together, had positive attitudes, and made good grades.
Maybe not a representative sample of what's going on in this country and maybe even a goad to the polarization that OH posted about in her 'Science and Rational Thought' post (which pretty much confirms what I've observed), but if we won't commit the resources needed to be 'all things to all people', we've got to start allocating to students what meager resources we have, based on what they can best use. Send your kid to a school that teaches Creationism and refers to clearly observable natural selecion as the 'Theory' of Evolution. Just don't ask me to send my kids there or pay for it.
I understand that in large cities, charter schools are taking desperately needed resources from public schools, but from what I've observed in the last few years, they may be a better fit for smaller semi-rural communities. In one small town in the Texas Hill Country, there are two high schools. The larger, public school has the options of offering sports, a lot of agriculture and horticulture classes, AP Social Studies, and the like. Apparently, the ranchers and country club parents send their kids there.
The smaller, charter school is a zero-tolerance-for-trouble-making school where a lot of kids who've had problems in public school end up as a last chance. Also, a lot of the tie-dyed, back to nature locals send their kids there. Too small to offer sports teams or a 4-H club, they concentrate their resources on hiring topnotch teachers. Excellent programs in journalism, university prep courses, and some AP math and science. My step-daughter just graduated from this school, and from what I could see, all the Goths and Emos and nerds and granola-eaters and delinquents who would be at the bottom of the food chain at a public school, and would expend huge amounts of energy just getting through the day without getting bullied, got along just fine together, had positive attitudes, and made good grades.
Maybe not a representative sample of what's going on in this country and maybe even a goad to the polarization that OH posted about in her 'Science and Rational Thought' post (which pretty much confirms what I've observed), but if we won't commit the resources needed to be 'all things to all people', we've got to start allocating to students what meager resources we have, based on what they can best use. Send your kid to a school that teaches Creationism and refers to clearly observable natural selecion as the 'Theory' of Evolution. Just don't ask me to send my kids there or pay for it.
That's my point....... you can't evaluate teachers, based on a system of test taking, when some have students who can't even TAKE a test, let alone score.
There are some wonderful teachers out there, who simply have too many students and can't be effective, no matter how hard they try.
In our case, where we have class size limits (20 students/class) and most have an aide, you can't really blame class size. I blame the emphasis on test scores, only. Once the testing is done, everyone, including teachers expect to "coast" the rest of the year.
There are some wonderful teachers out there, who simply have too many students and can't be effective, no matter how hard they try.
In our case, where we have class size limits (20 students/class) and most have an aide, you can't really blame class size. I blame the emphasis on test scores, only. Once the testing is done, everyone, including teachers expect to "coast" the rest of the year.
Here, "no child left behind" requires testing children whose IQ's are so low that they will never be able to read.... then that of course screws up the curve in which all kids are judged upon.
There are some horrible teachers out there that the system hides.... there are some wonderful teachers out there that the system handcuffs to a poor cirriculum.
There are some horrible teachers out there that the system hides.... there are some wonderful teachers out there that the system handcuffs to a poor cirriculum.
The issues in the US may be different the the issues here, but I suspect they are similar.
I know some really great, dedicated teachers. My husbands cousin teaches first grade, and I can tell you, I'd want her teaching my son. Problem is she has 40 kids in her class. 40! How can you be effective with 40 6 year olds running around the room. Another teacher I know teaches junior high level physics. During parent teacher interviews probably only 1/2 the parents actually show up. Of the one's that do, quite a few blame him if their kids are struggling in school. He asked the parent of one child that was failing his class how much time the parent spent with their child on homework. The parent told the teacher that was "his job". I have heard many stories like this.
I do also agree there are just plain old bad teachers. But I also think that there are a lot of really good teachers who simply are handcuffed to the point of not being able to be effective. And I also think that there are a lot of parents not stepping up to the plate and well, parenting. Here the problem is multi faceted and I'm sure you folks are facing similar challenges. So much really does need to change, at least in my opinion.
I know some really great, dedicated teachers. My husbands cousin teaches first grade, and I can tell you, I'd want her teaching my son. Problem is she has 40 kids in her class. 40! How can you be effective with 40 6 year olds running around the room. Another teacher I know teaches junior high level physics. During parent teacher interviews probably only 1/2 the parents actually show up. Of the one's that do, quite a few blame him if their kids are struggling in school. He asked the parent of one child that was failing his class how much time the parent spent with their child on homework. The parent told the teacher that was "his job". I have heard many stories like this.
I do also agree there are just plain old bad teachers. But I also think that there are a lot of really good teachers who simply are handcuffed to the point of not being able to be effective. And I also think that there are a lot of parents not stepping up to the plate and well, parenting. Here the problem is multi faceted and I'm sure you folks are facing similar challenges. So much really does need to change, at least in my opinion.
I just retired, last year, from a County school system. The biggest problem we have here is that too much emphasis is put on test scores and not enough on actual "teaching". Students are learning only to be "test takers", not how to actually "do" things that will help them become productive members of society. A friend's grandson started getting really bad grades and when asked why, he said "FCAT's are over, I don't have to do anything for the rest of the year"...
There are a lot of bad teachers, who should not be allowed to teach, but I don't think teachers should be evaluated, based, simply on FCAT's either. Some really good teachers will be tossed out of the system, because their classes may not score high on tests (think learning disabled or other special needs). We have class size limits, here, so teachers can't blame that for bad teaching.
There are a lot of bad teachers, who should not be allowed to teach, but I don't think teachers should be evaluated, based, simply on FCAT's either. Some really good teachers will be tossed out of the system, because their classes may not score high on tests (think learning disabled or other special needs). We have class size limits, here, so teachers can't blame that for bad teaching.
My sister just retired after years of first being a teacher then running a program for students with learning disabilities.
It's easy to blame teachers who have too many students and not enough funding.
I saw a teacher at the local copy shop, making copies to hand out to her kids of work that used to be in workbooks. They cut the funding for supplies and while doubling up on class loads then, blame the teachers.
I've been to countries where children had to pay to go to school and the poor simply weren't educated.
As much as I hate to say it, with this huge gap between the rich and the poor we are rapidly turning into a third world country, no matter how many computers we have.
It's easy to blame teachers who have too many students and not enough funding.
I saw a teacher at the local copy shop, making copies to hand out to her kids of work that used to be in workbooks. They cut the funding for supplies and while doubling up on class loads then, blame the teachers.
I've been to countries where children had to pay to go to school and the poor simply weren't educated.
As much as I hate to say it, with this huge gap between the rich and the poor we are rapidly turning into a third world country, no matter how many computers we have.
Yes I will look more into that being that I live in one of those areas and that multiple schools are being closed after being given a "failing grade". I thought the idea was terrible when it was initated and I never thought it would be carried out to this point. Concerns about specific schools can be addressed without closing them, firing half the staff and reopening them after students who depended on those schools have to go elsewhere. I also know having a family member who worked in the education system there what some of the real concerns are and how they could be addressed.
Yes, Romney and son has a charter school up their sleeve. They want to make it all about charter schools. Privatize everything. Thats the answer to all of our problems. That IS the new way. Privatize prisons even. Oh wait, they are already doing that!
March 2
As students across the country stage a National Day of Action to Defend Public Education, we look at the nation’s largest school systems—Chicago and New York City—and the push to preserve quality public education amidst new efforts to privatize schools and rate teachers based on test scores.
In Chicago, the city’s unelected school board voted last week to shut down seven schools and fire all of the teachers at 10 other schools. In New York City, many educators are criticizing Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration after the release of the names of 18,000 city teachers, along with a ranking system that claims to quantify each teacher’s impact on the reading and math scores of their pupils on statewide tests. "The danger is that if teachers and schools are held accountable just for these relatively narrow measures of what it is that students are doing in class, that will become what drives the education system," says Columbia University’s Aaron Pallas, who studies the efficiency of teacher evaluation systems.
"The effects of these school closings in [New York City] is one of the great untold stories today," says Democracy Now! education correspondent Jaisal Noor. "The bedrock of these communities [has been] these neighborhood schools, and now they are being destroyed." Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, says, "When you have a CEO in charge of a school system, as opposed to a superintendent, a real educator, what ends up happening is that they literally have no clue as to how to run the schools."
Lewis recounts a meeting where she says Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel told her that "25 percent of these kids are never going to be anything. They’re never going to amount to anything.
http://thetruthbyrcoldguy.blogspot.com/2012/03/occupy-education-teachers-students.html
As students across the country stage a National Day of Action to Defend Public Education, we look at the nation’s largest school systems—Chicago and New York City—and the push to preserve quality public education amidst new efforts to privatize schools and rate teachers based on test scores.
In Chicago, the city’s unelected school board voted last week to shut down seven schools and fire all of the teachers at 10 other schools. In New York City, many educators are criticizing Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration after the release of the names of 18,000 city teachers, along with a ranking system that claims to quantify each teacher’s impact on the reading and math scores of their pupils on statewide tests. "The danger is that if teachers and schools are held accountable just for these relatively narrow measures of what it is that students are doing in class, that will become what drives the education system," says Columbia University’s Aaron Pallas, who studies the efficiency of teacher evaluation systems.
"The effects of these school closings in [New York City] is one of the great untold stories today," says Democracy Now! education correspondent Jaisal Noor. "The bedrock of these communities [has been] these neighborhood schools, and now they are being destroyed." Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, says, "When you have a CEO in charge of a school system, as opposed to a superintendent, a real educator, what ends up happening is that they literally have no clue as to how to run the schools."
Lewis recounts a meeting where she says Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel told her that "25 percent of these kids are never going to be anything. They’re never going to amount to anything.
http://thetruthbyrcoldguy.blogspot.com/2012/03/occupy-education-teachers-students.html
The problem with this article is it ignores the attempt to get rid of public schools and replace them with charters. Public schools are going to disappear and only the rich will be able to educate their children.
Blaming the teachers, is mostly scapegoating.
Where I live they have decided to close 5 elementary schools that are working well for the local children. They plan to rent out these schools to private charter schools.
One mainly serves lower class children. Parents are upset that now they will need to drive their children to schools where they can now walk.
Parents here want these schools to stay open.
Mayors are politicians too.
Who really wants this to happen ?
Those who want to do away with public education.
Blaming the teachers, is mostly scapegoating.
Where I live they have decided to close 5 elementary schools that are working well for the local children. They plan to rent out these schools to private charter schools.
One mainly serves lower class children. Parents are upset that now they will need to drive their children to schools where they can now walk.
Parents here want these schools to stay open.
Mayors are politicians too.
Who really wants this to happen ?
Those who want to do away with public education.
We've had a few real decent teachers in our little community quit because of this stuff. The system buries the bad teachers or the teachers that do not perform to a top level. This is yet another piece of the public school system that is broken.....
yehhhh Go Parents ...and if only the people employ same on Congress Senate and all ...
I WISH business worked that way.. typo, sorry!
What a novel concept... getting rid of teachers and administrators that perform poorly.
Huh. Never thought of that.
I sure with business worked that way.
Oh yeah, it freaking DOES.
Next step, employing this in Congress, the Senate, and the Executive branches of the gov't.
Huh. Never thought of that.
I sure with business worked that way.
Oh yeah, it freaking DOES.
Next step, employing this in Congress, the Senate, and the Executive branches of the gov't.
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