“The Big Three”
I just read a thoughtful op-ed from Tuesday's LA Times arguing that LAUSD should use all it's stimulus money exclusively on hiring back teachers, rather than letting principals and local school sites make decisions on what to do with the money. There was one part, however, that as a parent I found troubling. Towards the end, the authors write that "The LAUSD's Big Three -- (Superintendent) Cortines, the board and UTLA -- can put no other goal ahead of students."
The idea that there is an all important power structure, be it the "Big Three" or anything else, that does NOT include parents, is an unfortunate example of the status quo in our education governance. The experts, the politicians, and the teachers union- in this mindset, those are the three and only three relevant powers in our schools. Parents make a nice talking point, but ultimately aren't trustworthy with real power over their child's education.
The parents leading the Parent Revolution desperately want to keep good teachers in the classroom, not lay them off. We desperately want the district and union leaders to put aside their own interests and do whats best for kids, not adults. But as even this op-ed implicitly acknowledges, we cannot always trust them to do so. Everyone in the so-called "Big Three" has an inherent conflict of interest when it comes to our kids. Parents are the only ones who don't. And that is exactly why we need to fundamentally transfer power to parents if we ever want real change in our children's schools. That is precisely what the Parent Revolution will do.
