The state's largest teacher's union does not like what it's seeing.
“Why are we flying in an executive director of Parent Revolution from California to talk about Florida schools and parents in Florida and what they need?" said the Florida Education Association's Jeff Wright. "How in the hell does he know what parents in this state need?”
It’s round two of a fight between traditional public school supporters and those in the school reform movement. In one corner are the teacher’s unions, public school advocates and the parent-teacher organizations. In the other corner, is the group Parent Revolution out of California who crafted the original parent trigger bill as a way to get parents a say in what to do with failing schools. A task the group says is not easy.
“To actually work hard, organize, develop leadership...to analyze the local school, come up with a recommendation for changing it, motivate your peers to take action to change it, that’s a lot of work," said Pat DeTemple, Senior Strategist at Parent Revolution. "And you’re not going to do it unless there’s some realistic prospect that it’s going to happen.”
Parent Revolution participated last year in Florida’s debate of the bill, along with the powerful pro-school choice group backed by former Gov. Jeb Bush, the Foundation for Florida’s future. New to the coalition this year is Students First. It's backed by Washington’s D.C.'s controversial former chancellor and Gov. Rick Scott’s education advisor, Michelle Rhee. In an invitation-only event for reporters Tuesday, the coalition sought to dismiss what they say are “myths” about the trigger bill:
“The notion that there’s an army of charter operators out there waiting to take advantage of the bill just flies in the face of the facts. Please, let’s move the debate on a little bit of a higher plane instead of the deadlocked, sterile, union-vs-charter frame of reference that was so popular 15-20 years ago," said DeTemple.
The parent trigger legislation, also known as the parental empowerment bill to its backers, has several parts. But the one in the spotlight is a provision letting parents with kids in failing schools petition districts to consider one of four, federally-mandated improvement options. That includes closure, overhauling the school’s administration, or converting it into a charter school. If districts don’t agree, the issue bumps up to the state board of education. The option of a charter school conversion has the attention of traditional school advocates, who call the bill a giveaway to the charter industry. The FEA’s Jeff Wright says the bill may say one thing—but how it’s implemented is another:
“If you look at the email traffic the Foundation and Patricia has received from charter companies asking her to loosen the laws around the country to allow them to have more availability, we have reason to suspect there’s more to this story than what was presented."
Patricia Levesque heads the Foundation for Florida’s Future, the school-choice group. And the “them” Wright refers to are charter school operators. Under the bill, once a school has received an F-grade the petition process kicks in. But if a school improves the next year, the petition dies. Right now only 25 schools in the state would be subject to the trigger provision. Levesque says she heard and read about a situation in Duval where parents wanted one thing for failing high schools, and the local school board chose a different option.
“There were four high schools in Duval...and there was a good faction of parents who wanted single-gender schools: they wanted an all-girls school and an all-boys school because they thought it would be better for the kids. And the school board didn’t listen to the parents at that time," she said.
Instead, the district chose to have outside management groups run the schools. Meanwhile, the union’s Jeff Wright points to Orlando’s Evans High School where the community got involved and the school went from an “F” to a “B”.
“We changed the faculty and administration three times. Moved a bit, but didn’t get out the bottom rung. When the community and businesses decided they wanted to own the school , it worked," said Wright.
"They put a YMCA next to it, they extended the day, hey put more money in to extend the day and do tutoring, their scores went up. There are ways to fix this. It’s an investment. And right now the state hasn’t wanted to invest in its kids.”
In California, results of using the trigger on failing schools has been mixed. Supporters lost one legal fight, and two other attempts were resolved before they got to court. The Florida House could vote on the bill in the next few weeks, a companion measure is still making its way through the Senate, where it died last year amid Republican in-fighting. Gov. Rick Scott hasn’t indicated whether he’d sign the bill if it clears the legislature.
