Facts About the Parent Trigger

Caroline Grannan, a Parents Across America founding member, has a well documented list of facts about the Parent Trigger in an article at Parents Across America -- Beyond the parent trigger hype and propaganda: just the facts. Some examples...

The organization that created the parent trigger, Parent Revolution, organized [the California] parent trigger campaigns.

Parent Revolution has been inaccurately described as “grassroots” and as founded by concerned mothers. Actually, Parent Revolution was created by charter school operator Steve Barr, who founded the Green Dot charter school chain. Parent Revolution has a $1 million annual budget and 10 full-time staff members. Its funders include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, the Wasserman Foundation, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisers, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and more.

References for these two items...

This Los Angeles Times article (May 11, 2009) describes how Steve Barr, founder of the Green Dot charter school chain, created Parent Revolution in 2009.

The Los Angeles Weekly (Dec. 9, 2010) described Parent Revolution’s funding: Parent Revolution, with 10 full-time staff members and a $1 million annual operating budget, is funded by blue-chip philanthropic endeavors, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wasserman Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.

(See page 3 of the LA Weekly article, above, for links to the Wasserman, Broad and Hewlett foundations.)

This is just another example of how corporate charter operators manipulate and lie to pad their "bottom line" -- profits. The parent trigger is not about parental rights...or parental power. The parent trigger is a way for edupreneurs to take over public schools and reap a profit at public expense. It's not for the parents. It's not for the students.

Grannan added...

Public schools are almost always governed by democratically elected local school boards. Charter schools are often run by unelected boards that are not answerable to the parents, voters or the community.

The parent trigger bills don't give parents more control. They give parents less control. They allow 51% of current school parents to give away the public school to a charter operator. What happens in two years if 51% of the parents want to take the school back for the public schools? The parent trigger bills don't allow for that. Once the schools have been converted they're stuck with what they get. No parental rights. No public oversight.

How many of the stars in the Won't Back Down movie and the Teachers Rock concert know this? It's not too late to tell them. Go to time-to-tweet-the-stars/ for information and links.

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