The State Board of Education holds a hearing on the Parent Trigger law today and how the board reacts will be a first test of the Brown Administration’s view on school reform. Last month, Brown, in one of his first acts as governor, dumped a majority of the 11-member education board, removing advocates of the Parent Trigger and replacing them with new members, a number with ties to the teachers’ unions.
Teachers’ union officials have opposed the new Parent Trigger law. The Parent Trigger allows for major changes to be made to an under-performing school, including converting the troubled school to a charter school, if more than 50-percent of the parents sign a petition. One teacher union official complained that the law amounted to "mob rule."
However, some parents see the Parent Trigger as a way to shake up a failed school and seek a better education for their children. In Compton, 63-percent of the parents signed a Parent Trigger petition seeking change at the McKinley Elementary School. A heated battle over the petitions broke out with charges of signature tampering shouted by both sides.
When the Compton school district put in place a signature verification method that required parents to validate their signatures in what Parent Trigger supporters thought was an burdensome fashion, a Los Angeles superior court judge last week granted an injunction to stop the process and called for a new hearing on the matter.
The State Board of Education is to decide on implementing regulations for the Parent Trigger law. Any law can be made to function smoothly or can be derailed depending on how it is implemented. How Brown’s appointees respond to the new law will be a signal to the governor’s approach on education reform.
With the governor’s move of eliminating the post of Education Secretary from his cabinet, the decisions by his appointees on the board will be the clearest picture of his thinking on education issues.
The board’s action may have wide-ranging effect, not only for education reform, but also on Brown’s proposed special election. There has been talk that a number of education advocates, normally expected to line up for the tax extensions Brown wants voters to approve and strongly supported by teachers’ unions, may oppose the taxes if the administration turns its back on the Parent Trigger and other education reforms.
A lot is at stake at today’s hearing.