“Parent-trigger Bill” Approved by State House Education Committee

It now goes to the House Rules Committee, which will decide when the full House votes on the bill.

The lawmaker behind the legislation says it gives parents an opportunity to have a greater involvement in ensuring a good education for their kids.

The first phase would allow parents to petition the local school board for a traditional school to become a charter school. Hence the term parent-trigger law.

That applies for schools identified as low achieving by the state board of education.

And according to the bill, the petition could include removing the principal and staff of the school.

Afterward, says Republican Rep. and House Majority Whip Ed Lindsey, once the signatures are verified and approved by the local school, they {the petitioning group} would have 90 days to submit a charter application.

The local school board would then review the application and either approve or deny it.

Rep. Lindsay says it’s a law the state needs.

“We have schools in school systems that are not achieving at the level they should be achieving in order to provide every child in the state with a quality education. What we are doing here is giving parents a greater voice to participate in their children’s education.”

But some educators like Wayne Au have major concerns with the petition.

“There have been issues in California, for instance, of a lot parents not fully understanding what it meant to sign the petitions.”

Au is an assistant professor in education at the University of Washington at Bothell.

He’s also an editor at Rethinking Schools, a non-profit organization that publishes materials dealing with social justice within education.

“The other thing that happens with a lot trigger laws is that parents sign these petitions and then what they get is a charter management organization taking over their school and then the parents are still locked of the educational process of their kids,” says Au.

Georgia Representative Ed Lindsey says those issues would be left up to the local school board to deal with.

The state house did approve some amendments to the bill.

One would prohibit a local school board from hiring a charter school management organization already operating a low performing school.

Another would allow parents to vote by secret ballot on transforming from the traditional school to a charter.