Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/42291
Testifying before the SBE with a differ- ent viewpoint from that of Parent Revolu- tion were several Compton, Los Angeles and Inglewood area parents who urged members to balance support for parents with acknowl- edgment of the realities of the classroom. Part of the Wild West atmosphere that permeated the first attempt at using the parent trigger stemmed from the vagueness of the law itself. One issue of contention was the ability of the state board to adopt regulations that supersede current charter school law. Daly Jordan-Koch, Pixie Hayward-Schickele, San- dra Thornton and Larry Carlin, serving as CTA liaisons to the SBE, all urged the board to keep teachers as partners in the process of converting existing underperforming schools to charters, and reminded them that regulations must not sidestep legislation that requires teacher signatures on charter con- version petitions. "There was no legislative intent to set aside the charter school law, and we are asking you to follow that law," Hayward-Schickele told the board. The adopted final regulations reject that notion and appear to be in conflict with existing legislation. CTA legal counsel has submitted public comment challenging the SBE's authority to pre-empt current law through its own regulations. CTA has also urged the board to restore a requirement for an open public meeting for parents in the affected school to discuss all options. While the new regulations are certainly better than the prior temporary ones, CTA still has serious concerns about some aspects of them and about the law. "Even if you sup- port the parent trigger concept, which we believe is deeply flawed, the law itself was very poorly written and has already led to a great deal of needless confusion and disrup- tion," says Hayward-Schickele. Story by Frank Wells September 2011 / www.cta.org 43