I'm going to tell you a rather startling fact: Since submitting their historic Parent Trigger signatures (representing over 61 percent of their school) to the Compton Unified School District over a month ago, the parents of McKinley Elementary have not heard a word back from their school district.
Not one word.
They submitted this letter emphasizing the district's Feburary 5 deadline to ratify their petition, and requesting meetings with each school board member and the Superintendent. When they didn't receive any reply, they submitted a second letter to each board member, following up later with phone calls. And they still - over a month later - have yet to hear a word back in response, other than a vaguely worded press release essentially indicating that the district does not intend to follow the law.
So what has the district been doing for the past five weeks?
It seems that rather than bother to communicate with their own parents who are demanding change, they have chosen to spend their energies organizing an underground, secretive, unethical, unregulated, and possibly even illegal "rescission" campaign.
Let's unpack all that.
The unethical and possibly illegal tactics that the district and school staff members have been using are well documented by now. They have been using children as political pawns, telling them things like, "your mom is a big mouth and needs to shut up," or sending them home crying and saying things such as, "mom, I hate you for what you're doing at the school."
At the same time, school and district staff members have been telling outright lies to the parents themselves. Parents are being told that if their school is transformed under the Parent Trigger, all special education students will be kicked out, or even that just 80 percent of the kids altogether will be summarily removed altogether. One teacher, Mr. Tellez, summarized this deeply unethical "rescission" campaign perfectly when he told one mom, "Ms. Hernandez, you will regret having supported Celerity when your child is rejected by them." This same teacher, Mr. Tellez, was so brazenly confident in his unethical tactics that he wrote these same lies on the internet for all to see (although he has now attempted to cover up the evidence).
These are the tactics being used to gather so-called "rescissions" from parents who signed the Parent Trigger petition.
The district and the McKinley PTA, working in tandem, have chosen to be deeply secretive about this entire process. They recently told the media that they had gathered over 100 "rescission" signatures collected from parents, but then refused to show them to anyone, the media included. When later asked on a radio show about that claim, PTA member Pastor Lee Finnie immediately walked it back, said he couldn't talk about it at all "because our lawyers won't let us," and said that the "rescissions" are "nobody's concern."
Nobody's concern??
An overwhelming majority of McKinley parents organized and stood up for change, using the Parent Trigger law for the first time ever to force a transformation of their failing school. In response, the school PTA and the district have organized an underground, unethical, and possibly illegal "rescission" campaign. And they think their efforts and this process are "nobody's concern?"
Given the underhanded tactics that the PTA and school staff are using, I can certainly understand why they don't want their underground, secretive campaign to be anyone's "concern." But I think the parents and children of McKinley deserve better than that.
Furthermore, it is time for the district to finally answer to their role in this process. They have already deeply undercut their own credibility by claiming to the media that "no school resources have been used" to push "rescission" petitions, a claim that is both verifiably and laughably false. Besides this false denial, two critical questions remain.
First, who are these anonymous "lawyers" telling PTA parents what to do? We have been saying for weeks that this entire "rescission" campaign smacks of the same union-busting tactics used against workers who organize. As it just so happens, Compton Unified's outside counsel is Littler Mendelson, the most notorious anti-worker, union-busting law firm on the West Coast.
So is Compton Unified using Littler Mendelson, under the guise of some "grassroots" PTA campaign, to essentially "union bust" parents who are organizing for change? And if so, how much money are they taking out of the classroom to pay for this unethical and possibly illegal activity?
Not only is this "rescission" campaign unethical, secretive, and possible illegal, but it is also being done in a completely unregulated environment. Unlike the initial petition gathering, which was conducted in strict compliance with existing state law and regulations, there are no rules governing any of the underground "rescission" campaign now taking place. The district has taken advantage of this regulatory "wild wild west" to do just about anything - including lying to parents and children - in their desperate attempt to stop change.
Through it all, however, parents are still standing up, fighting for change, and growing this campaign by the day. Not only are more parents coming on board every week, but parents who signed "rescission" petitions are now rescinding those "rescissions" and coming back on board with McKinley Parents for Change.
Just listen to one such mother in her own words. From a recent LA Weekly article:
But after a private "town meeting" between parents and McKinley administrators, this mother says the failure of school administrators to communicate any real reform plan to help her little girl made her go with Parent Revolution. The Compton school leaders "didn't have a [formal] agenda," she says. Some people she had never seen before arrived at the town meeting, claiming they were parents, and she says they "were yelling, 'Don't believe Parent Trigger' because of all these things that didn't make sense."
This mom, who has since rescinded her "rescission" signature, perfectly summarizes why the Parent Trigger is such an important law; because parents just see public education differently than everyone else involved. For them, it's not about yelling and screaming, or ad hominem attacks. It's not about who can be the angriest or yell the loudest. It is about who can get their children - her little girl - the best possible education. Period.
Follow Ben Austin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@parentrev
Jerry Brown vs. the Parent Trigger Law? | Mother Jones
Ready, Aim, Fire: California's Parent Trigger : Education Next
Parents pulling 'trigger' on school - LA Daily News
Parent Trigger - Put power over California's schools in hands of ...
Compton school district fires superintendent - Los Angeles Times
Compton public school ratings and district information
Little Compton School District Information and School Reports
What's more, Celerity Educational Group discriminates against children with special needs. Their special education numbers are abysmal and they outsource special education, separating these children from their siblings and further stigmatizing them. For references and documentation on Celerity's practices see:
http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/2010/12/astroturf-spawns-ever-more-astroturf.html
Further, Celerity is also the school famous for firing teachers for the "crime" of reading a poem about Emmit Till. Their reactionary revisionist administrators had the unmitigated bigotry to sugest Till somehow deserved his fate.
http://firedoglake.com/2007/03/21/la-charter-school-emmett-till-deserved-to-die/
Parent Revolution is funded by the Gates, Broad, Annenberg, and Walton (Wallmart) foundations. Their sole reason for existence is increasing market share for charter-voucher schools. Social justice activists everywhere should be horrified by this corporate charter takeover in the guise of some disgruntled parents.
There is a reason (or reasons) why this school is the lowest performing school in California and it says much about the incompetence of those who run the school. Their actions following the receipt of the petition are simply more of the same behavior that got them into this mess in the first place. My prayers are with the parents of McKinley that their shall prevail and their students prosper.
No, no, no! There are quite a few Green Dot charter schools that score lower than McKinely. But Parent Revolution and Green Dot are quite cozy, so I probably can't plan on seeing Parent Revolution shut down the failing Green Dot charter schools.
For a refresher on Parent Revolution's (neé LAPU) founding, see the infamous Annenberg Document:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/25496653/Green-Dot-Public-sic-Schools-Los-Angeles-Parents-Union
1. Every school district DOES NOT operate the same.
2. Inner City public schools are different from Suburban public schools (SES IMPACTS FUNCTION).
3. Criticism from people who have never experienced the challenges of the inner city are suspect.
4. It is UNTRUE that Teachers have ANY control over student perfomance in the inner city schools.
5. CA teachers have no control over whether students are held accoutable for learning standards teachers are expected to teach. SOCIAL PROMOTION allows children to be promoted even if they FAIL EVERY CLASS, based on their ages (Social Promotion Ed Code is made by CA State Board of Education).
8. Low performing Inner City Schools pass children from year to year, by middle school these babies are so frustrated. With NCLB teachers must teach grade level standards to children 2-3 years behind.
9. Academically frustrated children become behavior problems. There are no consequences for disruptive, disrespectful students and students know it. After years of this the good kids that come to learn decide to join in.
10. Teachers don't control the home. They cannot force parents to turn off the TV, supervise homework and test prep, or make their child have manners and stop disrupting and disrespecting their fellow classmates.
Nothing on the trigger law's proposed regulations barely mentioning admitting all students within an attendance boundary, has no language discussing charters being REQUIRED to fully accommodate special education, SWD, or ELL? The closest thing appears in §4806 under "Permissible activities. LEA may also implement comprehensive instructional reform strategies, such as: ... (C) Providing additional supports and professional development to teachers and principals in order to implement effective strategies to support students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment and to ensure that limited-English-proficient students acquire language skills to master academic content;"
In other words, programs for children with special needs are entirely optional -- not required. Charter-voucher industry has found yet another way out of the obligation to educate every child!
Amidst accusations of deception and dishonesty towards McKinley parents like Pastor Finey, there's no mention that your staff may have destroyed important documents pertinent to the Attorney General's investigation of your organization?
Seems the above are "underground, secretive, unethical, unregulated, and possibly even illegal" activities being omitted from your narrative. Must by the $15,000 a month the Walton and Gates Foundations pay you.
And he's right. Charter schools cherry-pick their student body, and it's amazingly sad that these parents don't understand that many of their children will be even worse off after they get the "action" they're demanding.
The group that is being fired does not want to be fried so they are trying to get some of the people who are angry change their minds.
See. Clear as mud.
That said, I spearheaded a school battle to reinstate recess a few years ago in which the administration tried all the same tactics (when it would have been easier to simply grant kids 20 minutes time to run around)..
66 Billion divided by 70,200 minutes = 950 Million and change. Almost 1 million dollars a minute. Letting kids "Run around" for 20 minutes costs 20 million dollars a day, which works out to 3,321,214,800 for a school year. The California budget shortfall is 20 Billion. The California schools were cut by a little over 4 Billion. You want us to piss away 3.3 Billion on "recess"? I was pink slipped last year, because of "budget cuts". Now, don't get me wrong, I think there is PLENTY of money, it is just in the hands of the "Montgomery Burns" Super-Rich villian class, and we aught to tax the crud out of them and provide education with whatever it wants, but if teachers are getting cut, and there are still THOUSANDS of teachers out there who WANT to teach, and plenty of CROWDED CLASSROOMS, like MINE, that could use some de-flating some by adding new teachers to the school, then we can't afford "Recess", if they are still outside, selling insurance and not teaching.
Secondly, since the purpose of school is to LEARN, and there is now ample evidence that physical activity and taking breaks in between learning/teaching sessions benefits children's attention, memory, and overall cognitive abilities, recess and physical education should not be cut in the midst of budget crises. To do so is counterproductive and may ADD to the number of hours needed to accomplish the same learning goals (which, as you point out, is expensive). If you're interested in the research, here are a few sources to start with (including sources on how brain development is linked to fitness):
See:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090331183800.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128113246.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128113246.htm
to start with.
Using children as political pawns pretty well sums up a decade of destructive corporate/politico ed reforms which have diverted billions to private hands while calling poverty an "excuse" for the achievement gap.
What I see occurring is disaster capitalism.
These politicians and school board members are telling you that the teachers are the problem........these are lies.
Poor, uneducated parents are easily manipulated by these politicians. These parents are told to expect the schools to do it all. You do not see Middle Class parents relying on the schools to teach everything, especially in elementary school.
"Waiting for Superman" was the worst message to give to parents of the inner city. Parents need to fight to support the teacher by telling the school board that the teacher needs to have the ability to get rid of the behavior problem children, so that they can teach. The school board makes rules that force teachers to keep very disruptive, disrespectful children because they need the ADA money. Parents need to volunteer to help in these large classes.
Politicians and corporations have sold us all out, do not trust them, please!
Disruptive, disrespectful (and at times dangerous) children keep the other children in the class from learning. My concern is for the children that came to school to learn...........they deserve to get an education.
Manners should be taught at home!
Oh and by the way I am not a teacher!
A little honesty would do you good.