On Saturday, the U.S. Conference of Mayors met
in Orlando, Florida, and unanimously backed “parent trigger” laws
that would empower parents of children trapped in failing public
schools to sidestep elected school boards, fire bad teachers and administrators, and even turn schools over to private management.
Parent
triggers are also creating a strong wedge between Democrats who favor
them and the big teachers unions who vehemently oppose them.
From Reuters:
In a sign of the unions’ diminishing clout,
their traditional political allies, the Democrats, abandoned them in
droves during the Orlando vote.
Democratic
Mayors Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, Antonio Villaraigosa of Los
Angeles and Kevin Johnson of Sacramento led the charge for parent
trigger – and were backed by scores of other Democrats as well as
Republicans from coast to coast.
“Mayors
understand at a local level that most parents lack the tools they need
to turn their schools around,” Villaraigosa said.
Groups
seeking to infuse more free-market competition into U.S. public
schools, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walton
Family Foundation, also support parent triggers.
However, even in states like California where parent triggers exist, the big money teacher unions have been successful in stymieing poor, minority parents:
Parents in two impoverished, heavily minority
California cities, Compton and Adelanto, gathered enough signatures to
seize control of their neighborhood schools but the process stalled in
the face of ferocious opposition from teachers’ unions. Both cases are
now tied up in court.
Other states, like Connecticut, Mississippi, and Texas already have similar pro-parent
provisions. Parent triggers are currently being considered in
Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, and elsewhere.
Source: Breitbart Feed