tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post835296714489572526..comments2023-04-24T23:09:57.655-04:00Comments on All Things Education: Parent JiggernautUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-79208459782675153532012-04-06T10:20:30.983-04:002012-04-06T10:20:30.983-04:00Parent Revolution, the nonprofit organization back...Parent Revolution, the nonprofit organization backing the latest CA parent trigger petition in Adelanto, needs to apply some common sense. They had parents sign two different petitions and submitted the least favorite one to the district. They call it strategy to get district to negotiate. State Senator Gloria Romero, the author of the parent trigger law, initially called their two petition strategy a dubious strategic choice. No wonder parents rescinded their signatures. You only need one petition at the ready to threaten a district to negotiate under the parent trigger law - not two. How does having parents sign two different petitions and submit the least favorite choice a strategy to convince a district to negotiate? I'm in favor of parent empowerment and that argument sounds dubious to me too.<br />http://educatormusing.blogspot.com/2012/04/state-senator-gloria-romero-addresses.htmlCarlos Mendozahttp://educatormusing.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-2971225321350342892012-04-02T22:31:50.141-04:002012-04-02T22:31:50.141-04:00Um, your school gets negative money under Prop 13....Um, your school gets negative money under Prop 13. So sad.Rachel Levyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06844728669493681943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-54632193880957907372012-04-02T20:51:24.517-04:002012-04-02T20:51:24.517-04:00It seems to me that two of the biggest factors tha...It seems to me that two of the biggest factors that got Prop. 13 passed in the first place are still in effect: CA property values are very high and property tax revenues cannot be dedicated to local schools. Yes, people don't know much about Prop. 13 these days, but it's not obvious to me that offering middle and upper-income folks the opportunity to steeply increase their property taxes to fund schools largely in poorer areas isn't going to get them excited. I'd love to see it happen, but I don't see the case for optimism.Paul Brunohttp://twitter.com/mrpabrunonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-41216592297342866832012-04-02T20:43:49.462-04:002012-04-02T20:43:49.462-04:00Ben, there are two complicating institutional fact...Ben, there are two complicating institutional factors that I think make it unlikely that parent trigger legislation would lead to Prop. 13 repeal or other revenue generation.<br /><br />First, one of the main reasons Prop. 13 was passed in the first place is that the CA supreme court ruled that property tax revenues couldn't just be spent locally - and therefore inequitably - they have to be sent to the state and then redistributed more or less equally. Even if people would pay higher property taxes for their own schools, they are less excited about their property taxes paying for other kids' schools.<br /><br />Also, CA makes it very difficult to raise taxes generally - usually requiring supermajorities, rather than the regular majorities required for approving services/spending. That's what I see as one of the big problems with parent triggers: majority power for service demands but no plausible mechanism for resource acquisition.Paul Brunohttp://twitter.com/mrpabrunonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-6632149463898839862012-04-02T19:24:17.264-04:002012-04-02T19:24:17.264-04:00I think most halfway aware people vaguely hear of ...I think most halfway aware people vaguely hear of cuts' being attributed to Prop. 13, but without any awareness of what it actually was. I heard one young parent (probably born after Prop. 13 was passed) ask, "How much money does our school get under Prop. 13" -- she thought it was some kind of funding mechanism.carolinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08127336930949752636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-60276632501066321532012-04-02T18:22:53.405-04:002012-04-02T18:22:53.405-04:00@caroline: Thanks so much for commenting. That see...@caroline: Thanks so much for commenting. That seems amazing (and incredibly depressing) to me that the majority of Californians don't even know what Prop 13 is and what it's done to the state.Rachel Levyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06844728669493681943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-62367437750565075162012-04-02T18:10:47.744-04:002012-04-02T18:10:47.744-04:00I should be clear that Prop. 13 was passed in the ...I should be clear that Prop. 13 was passed in the statewide election of June 1978. One would have to have been born by June 1960 (as I was) and living in California in 1978 to have voted on it, and not many people who weren't around for that election are likely to have much idea of what it is.carolinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08127336930949752636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-9978788199851998002012-04-02T18:08:47.512-04:002012-04-02T18:08:47.512-04:00I'm a lifelong Californian who was an aware vo...I'm a lifelong Californian who was an aware voter when Prop. 13 was passed, unlike most of the state. I challenge the notion that Prop. 13 is really the "third rail" -- that's mindlessly parroted by the press, over and over, till it's accepted as received wisdom.<br /><br />The reality? The vast majority of Californians actually have no idea what Prop. 13 is. As a blogger, I interviewed one of the state's major pollsters, who acknowledged that they have to tell most poll respondents what Prop. 13 is (they have a brief, neutrally worded paragraph) before they get an answer. <br /><br />Currently, two tax-increasing measures are attempting to qualify for the California ballot -- one backed by Gov. Brown and the teachers' unions, one by the state PTA. Let's hope. <br /><br />The worshipful treatment of Rocketship Education echoes the fawning over past education "reform" fads that has gone on over the past 15 years or so -- think Edison Schools. That's another subject for another post, though at least read Paul Farhi's piece on fawning news coverage in American Journalism Review. http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=5280carolinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08127336930949752636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-26901770648769231472012-04-02T17:52:04.975-04:002012-04-02T17:52:04.975-04:00@Cedar: Exactly. Why would I as a parent want to p...@Cedar: Exactly. Why would I as a parent want to put people in charge of my kids' school who subscribe to the very same poor educational practices and curriculum I want my children to escape from in the first place?Rachel Levyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06844728669493681943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-89985348643474286252012-04-02T16:40:05.402-04:002012-04-02T16:40:05.402-04:00@Ben I think what Rachel is getting at is that she...@Ben I think what Rachel is getting at is that she is not sure she wants a seat at the table (or "the Bridge"?) on a Rocketship School, when standardized testing is still a clear priority. Maybe I'm wrong, but when I see a paragraph like this on their website: <br /><br />We devote significant time and energy to develop founding regional leaders and we only select veteran Rocketship school leaders for these roles who have demonstrated a track record of opening successful Rocketship schools that quickly generate high student achievement outcomes.<br /><br />I see the emphasis on "quickly generat[ing] high student achievement outcomes" and I think "test scores mean a lot to us."<br />A little more snooping turns this up:<br />"Basic reading and math skills must be mastered as a foundation for academic success in grade school and college, and demonstrating this mastery on standardized tests opens doors of opportunity for our students. Thus, we expect our students to show high levels of mastery and growth on standardized tests, including state exams and NWEA."<br /><br />This is exactly what she (and I) oppose, and for that reason we would not be happy with a seat at this table. We want a different table and a different room.<br /><br />I should mention that I also found a lot to like on the Rocketship website (project learning, home visits), but I wasn't sure what it would actually be like changing a public school over to a "high performing blended operator" like Rocketship. Would my kids have more project time? I doubt it. Would they have more computer time? Definitely. Would they take more tests? That seems to be pretty clear.Cedar Rienerhttp://cedarsdigest.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-2951881641275109062012-04-02T15:57:48.616-04:002012-04-02T15:57:48.616-04:00@Ben: I think you should read my follow-up post. I...@Ben: I think you should read my follow-up post. I've got a meaningful "seat at the table" at my kids' school. But I want a say (even better than just a seat) at the table that tells my kids' school what to do. In fact, I don;t even need a seat at that table. I just want the people at that table to stop making district leaders, principals, and teachers mis-educate my children at the same time that they waste precious resources. I want the policies that govern our public school to change in a substantial, meaningful way. I don't see Parent Trigger laws fixing that, especially not when their proponents are the ones buying and supporting those bad policies to begin with. When Parent Trigger laws aim to get rid of stupid reading tests and stupid reading test-based curriculum, and add more of everything I said in my follow-up post that I wanted to "opt in" to, maybe I'll start seeing them as more than just more BS smoke & mirrors.Rachel Levyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06844728669493681943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-36553807123079990642012-04-02T14:36:57.500-04:002012-04-02T14:36:57.500-04:00Yes, Proposition 13 is still referred to as the &q...Yes, Proposition 13 is still referred to as the "third rail" of California politics -- no one dare touch it.<br /><br />California's Parent Empowerment Act gives parents a direct stake in the governance of schools by giving them options (specifically, to convert to a charter school or invoke one of the federal turnaround models). What's interesting is that the power to invoke these options is enough to give parents a seat at the table when it comes to developing a new governance model. <br /><br />As far as charters and parent involvement, this actually varies quite a bit depending on the operator. Rocketship Education, for example, is a high-performing blended operator in San Jose that makes tremendous effort to keep parents involved in school governance (http://rsed.org/index.php?page=empower-2). In Washington DC, all charter operators are required to have at least two parents on their board; as one charter CEO told me recently, "we'd do this anyway even if it wasn't a law, the parents are fantastic contributors to our board."Ben Rileynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-90877935792136202582012-04-02T13:07:18.532-04:002012-04-02T13:07:18.532-04:00Thanks for commenting, Ben. I could talk about Cal...Thanks for commenting, Ben. I could talk about California governance and politics all day. Do a majority of voters really still support Prop 13? Though, either way, I agree that there is a real disconnect for many California voters between the revenues that must be collected to support the services they want provided. <br /><br />Every parent knows their own children and what they want for them, but not every parent is an education expert (and even those who are don't everything--I, for example, don't know much about math education) so I absolutely think parents should be given a direct stake in the governance of their children's school and yes, that might make parents realize that revenues must be raised. As they're currently designed, however, I don't see Parent Trigger laws doing that and I could be mistaken but it's my impression that many charter schools don't have PTAs, parent organizations, or parents on their boards.Rachel Levyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06844728669493681943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-87757979879151031042012-04-02T09:46:28.925-04:002012-04-02T09:46:28.925-04:00One wonders if the reason California voters contin...One wonders if the reason California voters continue to support Proposition 13, which requires a 2/3rds majority to raise taxes, is due to their fail to recognize the connection between revenues collected and services provided. <br />If parents are given a direct stake in the governance of the schools their children attend, might this create a political constituency that would support raising revenue to provide the education services these parents want for their kids?Ben Rileynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-77156656003101063692012-03-30T00:43:41.434-04:002012-03-30T00:43:41.434-04:00Agreed, Paul. Great point. Yes I remember, during ...Agreed, Paul. Great point. Yes I remember, during my brief time living in California, wondering how the state was possibly going to pay for all of the things voters wanted without any real means of raising revenues, not to mention trying to figure out enough to inform myself of which way to vote. So crazy. I know I said in the post we need more democracy but there is also such a thing as too much. It's a shame when people feel they can't trust their legislators with anything.Rachel Levyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06844728669493681943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2836584065506164163.post-58014929754623451812012-03-29T22:14:13.851-04:002012-03-29T22:14:13.851-04:00It's somewhat ironic for CA to be a testing gr...It's somewhat ironic for CA to be a testing ground for parent trigger laws, since we've already ably demonstrated the budgetary dangers of letting voters impose unfunded mandates directly at the ballot box under a system of arbitrarily-restricted revenue generation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com