In the New York Times, Jennifer Medina writes about a topic that our own Ben Boychuk has chronicled at length: the effort to reform California schools through a trigger mechanism, which allows dissatisfied parents to convert failing public institutions into charter schools.
The piece provides some good insights for those unfamiliar with the issue, including this reprehensible description of the hostility some reform-minded parents in (crime and poverty-ridden) Compton received from local teachers:
The piece provides some good insights for those unfamiliar with the issue, including this reprehensible description of the hostility some reform-minded parents in (crime and poverty-ridden) Compton received from local teachers:
Every time that trigger laws or other school reform mechanisms threaten the union choke hold on public education, labor responds by saying that the real solution is for parents to work cooperatively with their local public school officials. When those same officials are threatening parents or running down their intelligence (and that of their kids), however, it's not difficult to understand why the time for compromise has passed.When parents began signing the petition last fall to replace McKinley Elementary School, several Latino parents said teachers had warned them that they could be deported if they did. Other parents said that teachers insisted the children were simply not trying hard enough to learn. Teachers, for their part, complained that parents had been coerced into signing the petition and that many did not know what they were signing.
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