A Plan for Parents to Shut Down Schools

[waiting for hope]

And so it begins ...

A Plan for Parents to Shut Down Schools

May 12, 2009 12:06 PM ET | Eddy Ramírez

It might be the next school movement to sweep the country. Emboldened by charter school operators, parents of children attending failing schools in Los Angeles are signing petitions that could force the nation's second-largest school system to shut down those schools and reopen them as charters. Steve Barr, the founder of Green Dot Public Schools, a charter school operator, is one of the forces behind the grass-roots campaign. It is being called the "Parent Revolution," the Los Angeles Times reports. (Barr's organization operates 10 charter schools, including Animo Leadership Charter High School in Inglewood, Calif., which U.S. News ranks among the 100 Best High Schools in the nation.)

Barr, who was dubbed "the Instigator" in a recent New Yorker profile, is known for employing headline-grabbing tactics to drive reform within the L.A. Unified School District. He is perhaps best known for engineering the controversial takeover of Locke High School, one of L.A.'s worst-performing schools. Barr was able to pressure the district into giving him control of the embattled school after collecting enough signatures from teachers there who said the change was necessary. It was the first time that the district ceded control of a public school to a private operator.

The latest effort to improve the city's schools envisions at least 51 percent of parents signing a petition at every failing school. These petitions would give the organizers of a parent organization known as the Parent Union leverage to convert those schools into charter schools. The parent union says the charter schools would be smaller, safer, and better at preparing all students for college. Principals would also have the authority to dismiss bad teachers swiftly, which rarely is an option at traditional schools. If the district ignores these petitions, Barr's organization or another charter school operator could threaten to open charter schools in the neighborhood where a bad school exists. These charter schools could drive students away from the failing neighborhood school, depriving the district of state funding that follows students.

"Now I know this sounds a little crazy, but it's very real," Ben Austin, an attorney and political consultant who is heading up the parent petition drive, says in a promotional video. Ramon Cortines, the superintendent of L.A. Unified, seemed surprisingly open to the idea of converting the worst schools into charters. But he emphasized collaboration over a hostile relationship. "I think that competition is healthy, but I don't think any of us have all the answers," he told the Los Angeles Times .

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan probably is carefully watching what happens in Los Angeles. He has said publicly that turning around the nation's worst-performing schools—1,000 each year for the next five years—is one of his top priorities. So far, Duncan has been encouraged by the work of Barr's charter school organization. According to the New Yorker , the two men had a meeting in March in which Duncan seemed to place confidence in Barr's model of closing failing schools and then letting private management organizations take a stab at fixing them. As CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Duncan followed a similar strategy.
(Shouldn't that be your job Arnie?)


If enough parents demand change in their schools, will local politicians listen to them? Or will they side with charter school opponents, including teachers unions, which have long argued that charter schools rob traditional schools of the best students and the funds to train teachers? Speaking at a Washington think tank this week, Duncan called some traditional schools "dropout factories" and said that closing them down will take "real courage" on the part of elected leaders. It sounded as if he were channeling Steve Barr, "the Instigator."

Is anyone else seeing the handwriting on the wall? And to start off in California, where the worst unemployment rate and highest deficit is ... something is so terrible wrong with this picture.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Next will be charter fire departments and charter roads

and charter this and charter that...

But then again, a talk with local State Senator enlightened me... he is all for ZERO taxes

Oh never mind that his pay will come from the money faerie

They hate the country, PERIOD

[cornermouse]

2. To some extent they already do.

Charter fire departments - some rural fire departments already are. If you don't join their group/co-op/ or whatever they call it and pay their yearly fee they are more than willing to stand beside you and watch your house burn down. That happened a few years ago in this area. Big scandal but in the final analysis nothing much changed.

Charter roads - they call them toll roads. The state builds the road for the company, the company takes over and collects the toll, and in some states the state even does road repairs for the company.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Those rural fire departments are the way they were oh

250 years ago... and in many ways they are abhorrent, but we did that too, Volunteer fire don't get state funds.. and a fire engine is very expensive, not to mention turn coat gear, helmets and training. I find it abhorrent since I worked for a volunteer group where many a times I paid for the gas to get to a call... and we went to the call, period

And the toll roads are a revival or the pike-turns...

But the point stands, these people hate government, they get into government to destroy it

[Buck Laser]

4. Does anyone know of a charter school that's actually succeeded?

I sure as hell don't.

[imdjh]

5. If I were poor in LA and had kids...

I think I would move to some cheesecake town in Indiana if I had to work at McDonald's and live in a tent- as long as my kids didn't have to go to some of the public schools in this country. I am OBVIOUSLY NOT saying that all public schools suck- I am simply saying that there are many that are simply too dangerous and useless to risk sending MY kids to. YMMV

[cornermouse]

6. If you're going to call rural America

a cheesecake town, you probably don't want to move there.

Btw, I know a "cheesecake" town that had a school with graduating class sizes of 15 to 30. They graduated a couple of bankers, some teachers, computer programmers, a mathematician, an anesthetist, a doctor, a state senator, and several accountants in a span of about 8 years or so.

[imdjh]

7. Naw, I was being specific.

Cheesecake means nice. Shithole means bad. I grew up in cheesecake rural America, but now it's Shithole usedtoberural America. This is in no small part due to meth, population increase, loss of good jobs, increase of make-do jobs.

[cornermouse]

8. Okay.

Sorry. I misunderstood.

[SoCalDem]

9. So.. Let's see. Take it one step futher

They "fix" those schools, and more kids "graduate"..

Then WHAT?

80% or more will NOT be going on to college.. Just where exactly, will these graduates be working?

Will we be telling these kids that their "reward" for staying in school is to get that $7.00 an hour job 2 years later than they would have if they dropped out at 16?

I am ALL for graduating kids, after they have been taught "what they need to know", but just WHAT IS that these days?

Most low-level jobs at minimum wage (which is what a high school deploma gets most kids these days) consist of pushing buttons on registers that have pictures of what's being sold, or phoning people at dinner time to ask them if they are happy with their long distance provider.

Not that many years ago, a high school diploma meant that a guy could get a job that would support a family, pay rent (maybe even buy a house after a while), pay car payments, take vacations, and actually LIVE a life..

There are COLLEGE grads these days who cannot find ANY job, so "selling" that high school diploma to a bunch of inner-city kids who don't even HAVE job opportunities, and many of whom don't even SEE themselves living past 21, is kind of Alice in Wonderland-ish.

There HAS to be a carrot on the end of that stick..and it has to be reachable, and worth reaching..

[imdjh]

10. We need an option for vocational education

There is no reason why a kid who wants to be a plumber or electrician shouldn't be studying towards that goal while those who want to be rocket scientists take college level math and science.