Parents present signatures to charter-fy a Compton school

[n2doc]

By Howard Blume and Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times
December 8, 2010
The Compton Unified School District looked like an ideal target to an organization created to help parents force dramatic reforms at poorly performing schools.

For many years, the troubled school system of 26,000 students south of downtown Los Angeles has had campuses with low test scores, distracted management, a poor reputation and, its critics say, hostility to change. It also has parents dissatisfied enough with their children's education to take on the local bureaucracy.

On Tuesday, those factors came together as 85 adults and children arrived at Compton's district headquarters to present a petition signed by 62% of parents at McKinley Elementary, one of the state's worst-performing schools. The petition requires the district to turn management of McKinley over to a charter school company. Charters are independently operated public schools.

Organizers say the effort is the first to use California's new "parent-trigger" law, under which a majority of parents can force a school to shut down, replace its staff or convert to a charter.

Compton Unified has no recourse under California law, state officials said, even though McKinley's test scores have risen significantly the last two years and steadily over the last six.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-compton-school-20101208,0,1038265.story

[jody]

1. Sounds like grassroots democracy in action. n/t

[Hannah Bell]

4. Funny. Parent Revolution is a front group for Eli Broad & Green Dot Schools.

Shouldn't Austin also mention that he pulled in $94,475 in 2008 as a private "consultant" for Green Dot?


Austin said his goal is not so much to create more charters as to improve public education using the lever of parental power.

He and Barr were key figures behind the one other local example of a school converted to a charter through an outside organization: Locke High in South Los Angeles in 2008.

"The obvious connection between McKinley and Locke is Ben Austin and Green Dot and Steve Barr," said Alexander Russo, an education blogger writing a book about Green Dot's takeover of Locke. "And there's also the sense that both situations involved people from their organizations doing something a school district seemed otherwise unable or unwilling to do."

At Locke, Barr and his then-lieutenant Austin worked behind the scenes with allied teachers to gather signatures on a petition. There, they used an older law that allowed a school's teachers to force a charter conversion. In the end, Green Dot retained few teachers.

At McKinley, with Austin's new group, the goal also was to keep things quiet. Compton school board members and a district spokesperson said they knew little about the petition a day before its delivery.

[stray cat]

2. A parent's union

[Hannah Bell]

5. LOL. It's no such thing. It's a phoney Eli Broad-funded astroturf group with paid "minders"

and some graft passed under the table.

[Hannah Bell]

3. sounds like Parent Revolution! Oh, I see it is! What a surprise, a charter school astroturf outfit

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. I wonder what they were bribed with

Is there a WalMart in Compton? If so, I'll bet every parent who signed this got a WalMart gift card.

[Starry Messenger]

7. Pity they didn't talk to parents who have already gone through this movie--it ends badly.

http://socialistworker.org/2010/03/26/charter-school-closing

Taking on a charter school closing

By Robert D. Skeels | March 26, 2010

LOS ANGELES--On March 22, students at Ánimo Justice Charter High School, with full support of their families and community, staged a sit-in and rally to protest the school's closure by parent company Green Dot Public Schools.

Over 400 students occupied the hallways of the school for nearly five hours. One Ánimo Justice student's sentiments reflected the general anger at the news: "Everything we do from now moving forward will be to expose all of Green Dot's lies, and everything they said to us and to our parents."

<snip>

In the letter, Petruzzi stated, "In this difficult budget environment, Green Dot cannot afford to supplement the costs of an under-enrolled school without impacting the quality of programming." The decision to close the school was made in secret by Green Dot's unelected board of directors.

<snip>

The closure decision was also made without any notification to or input from the school's faculty. This made for some dissent among Green Dot's traditionally compliant teachers. A shocked chemistry and environmental science teacher, Judy Riemenschneider, told the Los Angeles Times, "The ultimatum is at odds with Green Dot's principles, which call for teacher input into critical decisions."

<snip>

Following the sit-in on March 22, a rally by students, parents, teachers and supporters caused police to close 27th Street. Exasperated parents demanded to talk with Green Dot's CEO and school officials, but were turned away. This was especially poignant given that Green Dot's so-called "Parent Revolution" group, which claims to be the voice of parent empowerment, was nowhere to be found when Ánimo Justice parents needed support. Organizers of the protest vow more actions in the coming days.