California’s Parent Trigger Law Is (Finally) Helping Improve Public Schools

Lawmakers in California passed the Parent Trigger law back in
2010. The law allows parents of children attending failing public
schools to force major changes if half of the parents sign a
petition. Last year, parents of children attending Desert Trails
Elementary School in Adelanto, Calif., pulled the parent trigger
and transformed the school to a public charter school called Desert
Trails Preparatory Academy. “We’ve seen major, major progress…since
the beginning of the year,”
says Debra Tarver, executive director of Desert Trails Preparatory
Academy.  

In other California school districts,
just the threat of Parent Trigger is helping parents get what they
want.

Back in 2011, Reason TV covered the first ever attempt by
parents, with the help of the non-profit organization Parent Revolution, to use the
Parent Trigger. While the effort by parents at McKinley Elementary
to use the Parent Trigger ultimately failed, parents at other
California schools are figuring out how use the law to their
advantage, and at least seven other states have adopted some form
of the Parent Trigger.

“California’s Parent Trigger Law: Compton Parents Take
on the Public School System,” produced by Paul Feine and Alex
Manning. About 8:30 minutes.

Original release date was March 2, 2011. The original writeup is
below.

Last year, parents of students in failing California public
schools were given a reason to be hopeful when Sacramento
politicians passed something called the “parent trigger” law. The
way the law works is that if 51% of parents at a failing school
sign a petition, they can turn the school into a charter school,
replace the staff or simply use the petition as a bargaining chip
to initiate a conversation about change.

On December 7, 2010, with help from the non-profit group Parent
Revolution, parents of children attending McKinley Elementary in
Compton became the first group of parents to pull the parent
trigger. Their dream was to transform the school into a Celerity
charter school. Instead, the Compton parents were thrust into a
prolonged fight with supporters of the status quo: the Compton
Unified School District, the teachers’ unions, Gov. Jerry Brown and
Tom Torlakson, the newly elected Superintendent of Public
Instruction.

This is the story about a group of parents in Compton who are
fighting to give their children a better education.