Parents Unite to Transform Your Schools! (just kidding…)
When the LAUSD passed the Public School Choice Resolution last summer, the hope was that this time it would be different -- that in this historic moment, the leadership of the LAUSD would put special interests aside and make this all about kids.
Well, you can't fault us for daring to dream...
While last summer represented a potentially historic step forward as the LAUSD grapples with systemic failure all across Los Angeles, one problem still remained: with over 250 schools designated for transformation, it could take a decade or more to cycle through and transform each one. And as it's written, all a parent can do is hope that their school gets picked by the Superintendent in time to affect their own child. So over the past few months, the parents of Los Angeles had been lobbying for a "Parent Trigger," to empower parents to trigger the transformation of their own school through grassroots organizing alone. This cuts to the core of what Parent Revolution stands for: transfer raw power to parents, because parents are in the best position to make decisions about what's good for their kids, and our collective future.
What transpired is Exhibit A as to why we need a Revolution.
On October 23rd, Superintendent Cortines endorsed a bold, historic Parent Trigger. For the first time in America, he announced that half the parents at the focus school OR half the parents at the feeder schools could automatically trigger a transformation of their own school simply through grassroots organizing. National media took notice, and hailed the LAUSD as a new reform leader, rather than a poster child for the status quo.
Predictably, the special interests defending the status quo freaked out at the idea of giving parents real power over the education of their own children. So, last Friday, the Superintendent issued a "revised" Parent Trigger. Instead of giving the power to half the parents at the focus school OR feeder schools; he changed it to half the parents at the focus school AND half the parents at the feeder schools AND half the parents in preshools -- setting the bar impossibly high to transform a school the District and the Federal Government have already designated as needing radical improvement. Even after raising the bar to absurd heights, the District STILL feared the wrath of empowered parents flexing their newfound muscle. So Cortines went a step further and stripped parents of any power whatsoever -- designating their grassroots organizing as only a recommendation to him, which he alone would have the power adopt or reject.
As the LA Times editorializes today, "(The Parent Trigger) Cortines has laid out seems more likely to frustrate parents than empower them." We'd take it a step further and guarentee parents will see right through this charade, and that not one school in Los Angeles will be transformed by this patronizing new policy.
Corines' 180 degree reversal on parental power represents not only a giant step backwards for the movement to empower parents, but also a proof-point as to why we need a Revolution in the first place: because the same old special interests and bureaucrats are still dominating the LAUSD's policy agenda at the expense of parents and children.
The Times editorial concludes by calling upon the District to put kids first for a change, because of what's at stake in this moment for our kids and our future: "If the Public School Choice initiative does not emerge as a strong reform policy, L.A. Unified will be signaling its ongoing inability to fix itself and its schools -- which could prompt an outside takeover of the district. It is imperative that students' needs not be overshadowed this time by adult priorities."
We couldn't agree more.
Parents all across Los Angeles are standing up and standing together to demand change. We will take back our schools and we will transform public education throughout Los Angeles. History, morality, as well as plain 'ol common sense are on our side. The only question for the District leadership is whether they stand for change in this transformational moment, or whether they stand for more of the same special interest politics that have gotten us to where we are today.
