When Push Comes To Pull In The Parent Trigger Debate

Matthew DiCarlo:

The so-called "parent trigger," the policy by which a majority of a school's parents can decide to convert it to a charter school, seems to be getting a lot of attention lately.

Advocates describe the trigger as "parent empowerment," a means by which parents of students stuck in "failing schools" can take direct action to improve the lives of their kids. Opponents, on the other hand, see it as antithetical to the principle of schools as a public good - parents don't own schools, the public does. And important decisions such as charter conversion, which will have a lasting impact on the community as a whole (including parents of future students), should not be made by a subgroup of voters.

These are both potentially appealing arguments. In many cases, however, attitudes toward the parent trigger seem more than a little dependent upon attitudes toward charter schools in general. If you strongly support charters, you'll tend to be pro-trigger, since there's nothing to lose and everything to gain. If you oppose charter schools, on the other hand, the opposite is likely to be the case. There's a degree to which it's not the trigger itself but rather what's being triggered - opening more charter schools - that's driving the debate.

If, for example, the parent trigger originally arose as a mechanism for decreasing class size or eliminating the role of high-stakes testing within a school (or, ironically, converting charters back to regular public schools), I suspect that many (but certainly not all) of its current opponents would be more supportive, or at least silent, while a substantial proportion of advocates would likely protest.*

Posted by Jim Zellmer at July 4, 2012 4:54 AM
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