Parent Trigger law based on false premise that teachers don't care about students.

[madfloridian]

However it is supported by the Democratic leaders unfortunately.

From a Huffington Post article pointing out the behind the scenes problems with showing the anti-union, anti-teacher, pro-parent trigger movie at the Democratic convention.

Democratic Split Over Education Reform Tested By Hollywood Movie

This part stood out for me.

Villaraigosa also happens to be chairman of the Democratic convention this year. After "Won't Back Down" is shown Monday in Charlotte, he is scheduled to speak on a panel at the theater, joined by Michelle Rhee of StudentsFirst, Ben Austin of Parent Revolution, and Sacramento, Calif., Mayor Kevin Johnson. Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker will also speak at the event.

Students First and Parent Revolution are not grassroots groups, they are supported by billionaire education reformers who want to turn schools into profitable enterprises.

More about Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the parent trigger. The writer rightfully points out that we can not paint the education reform movement as right wing. It is not.

Villaraigosa is the current president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and in June, with the support of several high-profile Democratic mayors, that group included support for "parent trigger" legislation in its platform. Such laws allow parents to take over a failing school if they meet certain requirements, usually having to do with acquiring a sufficient number of signatures from other parents. In a majority-Latino community outside Los Angeles, a fight between the school board and parents, who are trying to use California's parent trigger legislation to overhaul their local public school, has become a national story.

Some thoughts on how the movie came to be shown at the convention:

On Monday afternoon, a Hollywood film called "Won't Back Down" -- which opens in theaters nationwide on Sept. 28 -- will be shown to a select crowd of convention-goers in Charlotte, N.C., just as it was one week prior at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla.

But unlike Tampa, where the promoters had little concern about making waves with the party establishment and had no trouble when they ran the idea past the Republican National Committee, the request for a Charlotte screening went to the highest levels of the Obama administration, which passed the decision off to the Democratic National Committee, according to a source with knowledge of the chain of events. According to this source, Valerie Jarrett, Obama's close personal adviser, and David Plouffe, his top political adviser, both saw the request but eventually handed the decision over to the DNC's political director, Patrick Gaspard, who raised no objections.

It sounds like this writer thinks the movie is being shown by default....no one wanted to say no to the billionaire reformers.

Maybe that's why this school "reform" masquerading as parent "choice" has been steamrolling public education the last several years. Maybe no one really cared enough to stop it.

Background on the Parent Trigger laws and the harm they will do at this link.

[madfloridian]

1. The movie was yesterday, the DFER panel is today. Parents protesting.

http://parentsacrossamerica.org/2012/08/rally-for-public-education-sept-3-sept-4-at-the-dnc-in-charlotte-nc/

[madfloridian]

2. Parent trigger gives parents right to hire and fire teachers.

http://www.wbtv.com/story/19446074/protesters-wont-back-down-about-school-documentary

They are going to try again in FL next year. Parents and teachers helped just barely stop it this year, but they will not give up. Too much profit involved, and this will cause charter schools to be formed more quickly.

It's all based on a false premise that teachers don't care about students. That is BS.