Education

In California, Adelanto Parents Vote in ‘Parent Trigger’ Case

By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo — October 29, 2012 1 min read
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Parents at Desert Trails Elementary School in Adelanto, Calif., recently chose a charter operator to take over their children’s failing elementary school in what is the first implementation of the state’s “parent trigger” law. The law allows parents to drive educational reform through petitions. This month parents at the Southern California school voted between the two local nonprofits that applied to manage the failing school. My colleague, Sean Cavanagh, wrote about those two organizations here.

LaVerne Preparatory Academy, which received the majority of votes, runs a nearby elementary school, but has no experience turning around a failing school. In what has already been a highly publicized litigious battle between parents and opponents, some of whom stand to lose their jobs in the overhaul, parents of the school have remained tenacious in their efforts.

Now that parents have cast their votes for the charter school, the decision heads to the school board, where they will have 60 days to decide the fate of the school, according to the Associated Press. The San Bernardino Sun also reported on the vote here.

Versions of the parent-trigger law have been adopted in six other states, but this is the first example of the law being carried out. A previous attempt surfaced in Compton, before it was tossed out on a technicality. U.S. News & World Report hosted an interesting debate on this topic in the past week, with contributors providing some interesting pros and cons for parent trigger laws.

What do you think?

A version of this news article first appeared in the Charters & Choice blog.