ALEC is behind the introduction of "Parent Trigger" bills across the country.

[highplainsdem]

I ran across this information courtesy of a post from a Maine blogger (an architect whose wife is a teacher)

http://www.dirigoblue.com/diary/2924/aec-inspired-parental-trigger-bill-introduced-by-amy-volk

who describes what the "Parent Trigger" legislation just introduced in Maine will do:

Volk's bill would allow a parents of a majority of the students at a school deemed "failing" to petition requesting the district administration to restructure the school by:

1. Closing the school;
2. Turning the school into a charter school;
3. Replacing school;s administration;
4. Implementation of a turnaround for staff.

So I did some more searching and found this page on the Heartland Institute's website, which has a link to that model bill on the ALEC website:

http://www.heartland.org/schoolreform-news.org/Article/29322/Research_Commentary_Indiana_Parent_Trigger.html

Parent Trigger: A Model for Transforming Education
http://www.schoolreform-news.org/article/28202
The Heartland Institute’s education team offers a substantive review of the genesis of the Parent Trigger in California. This Policy Brief offers a prescription for a significantly improved Parent Trigger policy going forward.

ALEC Model Bill: The Parent Trigger
http://www.alec.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Education&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=15043
Written and introduced by The Heartland Institute, this American Legislative Exchange Council bill outlines a recommended Parent Trigger policy. This is a useful guide in developing Parent Trigger legislation.

A New Model of School Reform: The Parent Trigger
http://www.schoolreform-news.org/article/28279/
This op-ed was featured in several Indiana publications and makes the economic and academic cases for instituting a Parent Trigger policy in Indiana.

-snip-

‘Parent Trigger’ Proposals Spread Across Nation
http://www.schoolreform-news.org/article/28929/
Ben Boychuk, managing editor of The Heartland Institute’s School Reform News, reports on the rapid spread of Parent Trigger bills across the nation. He points out the draft parent trigger legislation in Indiana offered by State Rep. Cindy Noe (R-Indianapolis) would provide “tuition payments for students who wish to transfer from the school to another school corporation or a nonpublic school.”

-snip-

To find more information on this group, including hundreds of links to more sources, see the long compilation topic on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

[madfloridian]

1. Dangerous law. In CA 51% of parents can change a school to a charter.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/7136

"Did Compton Parents Really Want the Trigger Pulled?

Were parents tricked into signing a “parent trigger” petition that sets into motion the takeover of a Compton, California elementary school by a charter school operator? That claim, and a slew of other accusations, are bringing the drama to 497-student McKinley Elementary-and making it ground zero in the national education reform debate.

Takeover opponents claim that almost 60 parents have rescinded their signatures from the petition given to Compton Unified School District officials last week. Karla Garcia, a parent of two McKinley students, told the Los Angeles Times that representatives from the non-profit organization behind the parent trigger movement, Parent Revolution, misled her to get her signature. “They told me the petition was to beautify the school. They are misinforming the parents, so I revoked my signature.”

The number of signatures matter. According to California’s “parent trigger” policy, if 51 percent of parents at a low-performing school sign a petition calling for change on their campus-change which can include conversion to a charter-the district must abdicate control. Although 61 percent of parents at McKinley signed the petition, if the signatures drop below the required percentage, the revolutionary takeover is off the table.

..."Parent Revolution says intimidation tactics are being used to squash the takeover. Some parents at the predominately Latino school have been told they can be deported if they go through with the “parent trigger” move. Others report being told that they’ll have to pay tuition once the school becomes a charter operated by Celerity Education Group."

Not really a grassroots movement at all.

[prairierose]

2. Thanks for another important find,highplainsdem...

I'm so glad that you are staying on this.

:kick:

[highplainsdem]

8. Thanks, prairierose!

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. So they have tricked the parents into creating tax payer funded Charter schools?

Amazing.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. You have done excellent job of staying on this group.

I found the earlier posts on ALEC, thanks to our linking to them.Now bookmarked, with many thanks.
:hi:

[highplainsdem]

9. Thanks, dixiegrrrrl!

[marcoestreich]

5. Correction: The Heartland Institute behind much of the Parent Trigger

Marc Oestreich here, Education Legislative Specialist at The Heartland Institute. Just wanted to drop a quick note of correction here. The Parent Trigger was formed rather organically in California and was pushed by a group called Parent Revolution. Myself and the education gurus at The Heartland Institute saw the policy as a great way to empower parents and localize control over failing schools. We removed the weaknesses of the California bill which allowed the district to veto a petition and had two reform options that were bureaucratic and costly. We added a school-wide voucher component and we were off. The idea was taken to ALEC by Heartland.

The Parent Trigger idea has been gaining popularity mostly as a result of what The Heartland Institute has done to educate legislators about its great potential.

Feel free to email any questions about this to me at [e-mail] . We aren't trying to hide anything about this bold and transformative new education reform. In fact, we're quite proud to be the heavy-lifters and loudest champions for such a great cause.

Thanks much-
Marc Oestreich
Education Legislative Specialist
The Heartland Institute

[Hector Solon]

6. Welcome Marc. Yes, have a question. Could you decribe Heartland's relationship to these orgs?

... just a brief description of the nature, shared funding sources or other joint activities you have there at Heartland with the follow organizations (think they are 'charities' as well):

National Tax Limitation Committee
Americans for Tax Reform
Free Congress Foundation
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy (MI)

Discovery Institute
American Shareholders Assn.
United Seniors Association
National Taxpayers Union
Competitive Enterprise Institute

Divided them into groups with priority with the first four in particular.

Such collaborative activities would say co-authored papers, working groups, shared resources (people and funding), etc.

Will take your answers here, we know your organization is very much into transparency for government and the American political process, isn't that right?

Hope you are have a great day.

Thank you,

[highplainsdem]

7. Marc, please note that the subject line says that ALEC is behind the introduction of these bills

across the country. That sort of widespread introduction of cookie-cutter bills is exactly what ALEC's model legislation is designed to facilitate. Which of course is why Heartland took the bill to ALEC. (It would be interesting to see how a list of Heartland's donors compares with ALEC's private-sector members.)

And while you believe that "the Parent Trigger was formed rather organically" in California, what you consider "rather organic" could also be called (and has been called) astroturf, given the involvement of Green Dot charter schools. The changes made by the Heartland Institute make the bill even more damaging to education, IMO.

But I know you see things differently at the Heartland Institute, and we'd never reach any sort of agreement on this.

FWIW, I think Linda Darling-Hammond is correct and we could learn a lot from Finland:

http://www.nea.org/home/40991.htm

But again, I wouldn't expect someone employed by the Heartland Institute to agree. :)

Most DUers are already familiar with the Institute, but here are a few links for those who aren't:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute
(I believe the Water policy section there would be especially interesting to DUers not already familiar with it.)

http://motherjones.com/environment/2009/12/dirty-dozen-climate-change-denial-06-heartland-institute

http://mediamattersaction.org/transparency/organization/Heartland_Institute

DUers should also be aware that although the Heartland Institute is supposedly independent and not affiliated with any political party, it offers a slew of helpful little booklets for the Tea Party, described on this website

http://sttpp.wordpress.com/library/heartland-institutes-teapartytoolbox-library/

as the Heartland Institute’s TeaPartyToolbox Library, and including The Patriot’s Toolbox, described as "a guide to public policy for patriot-activists in the Tea Party movement as well as for candidates for public office, incumbent office holders, civic and business leaders, and journalists assigned to cover the movement." The link for that is

http://www.heartland.org/article/28512