Clean sweep of teachers in Senate parent trigger bill
Take a look at this Google doc of the newly revised Parent Empowerment bill, notable for the clean sweep of any mention of teachers or educators. See my blog yesterday on the odd changes to this bill.
Sponsored by House Majority Whip Edward Lindsey, R-Atlanta, the bill initially had been called the Parent and Educator Empowerment bill, but you can’t find the words “teacher” or “educator” any longer. (I have sent Lindsey a note for comment, but have not heard from him.)
In its original form, House Bill 123 allowed a majority of teachers and parents in a low-performing school to petition to the school board for new management of their schools.
The bill, which passed the House, was discussed in a Senate subcommittee today. However, the subcommittee could not vote the bill out as it lacked a quorum at the time.
State Sen. Fran Millar, R-Dunwoody, explained why he excised teachers from the bill. He noted that teachers are not part of the parent trigger laws in the seven states that have such legislation, which is correct. Legislatures in Florida and Oklahoma are also now considering parent trigger laws
The existing parent trigger laws speak only to parents triggering a takeover of a failing school. However, those existing laws also don’t speak to parents at any schools, even high performing ones, seeking management conversion to charters, which is a key provision in the proposed Georgia law.
One point that Millar raised would seem to have some validity: If teachers go to the school board to petition for a management takeover, they could be subject to retaliation if the petition fails and they have to go back to work for the same bosses.
Lindsey addresses that possibility in his bill by allowing the teacher vote to seek a management change to be a secret ballot. However, the bill requires that a majority of teachers support the petition. The argument can be made that the school management would be angry at the entire staff or, at the very least, suspicious of all of them.
Some theories making the rounds in the Gold Dome for why teachers were struck from the bill: The bill has opposition, and this issue could be volatile enough to derail it. Teachers were only included in the bill initially to gain passage in the House. The teacher petition takeover smacked too much of teacher unions so the Senate eliminated it.
–from Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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102 comments Add your comment
CJae of EAV
March 21st, 2013
11:36 am
@ Myth – Your comments in rebuttal to @Pride&Joy regarding Drew’s student population is more misleading and overstated that the orignal comment you were seeking to correct.
The success that Drew built in the first 10 years of its existance was without question achieved with a student population the majority of which was black and low to middle income. But the unspoken to context to your claim is the demographic surrounding Drew has shifted over throughout it’sexistance. The demographics of East Lake, East Atlanta, Edgewood & Kirkwood have shifted upward and are solidly middle income areas in large part. Therefore, its difficult to fault Drew for the shift in its student demographic considering the coorsponding shift in the primary zone they attempt to pull students from.
Its true within the last couple of years, the Drew’s student population has become abit more diverse that has been the case historically. I personally don’t see anything wrong with widening the diversity of the student population at Drew. However, I don’t think by any stretch of the imagination that Drew is rapidly becoming anything close to ANCS which frankly couldn’t hold a candle to Drew. Drew benfits from a strong parent community that is dedicated to the success of the school and the academic achievement of their kids. If more schools charter or traditional had that they likely would be able to achieve some measure of the same success over time. Even Drew wasn’t an overnight success story it took some time to develop.
dave
March 23rd, 2013
9:14 am
This parent trigger is yet another means to strip teachers of their authority and relevance in the system; hence a large part of the lack of discipline and consequently progress of students. Is it any wonder teaching has one of the highest turn-over rates of any profession when teachers are increasingly told to shut up and sit down, and let others write policy. How many of these parents would welcome, in their work places, a group of untrained and inexperienced workers creating policy that effected their environment and, more importantly, productivity? To be sure, there are problems in all school systems, but to consistently, and conveniently, advocate the removal of “bad” teachers/administrators will only result in a temporary fix. How long do you think replacement personel will stay once they too begin to see their irrelevance in the governing process? The idea of a master teacher is fast becoming a thing of the past, and student progress is now showing the results of learning from teachers who have become long term substitutes as they look to other types of work with less hostile conditions.