Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/649572
By SHERRY POSNICK- GOODWIN and FRANK WELLS Photos by SCOTT BUSCHMAN P alm Lane Elementary School in Anaheim doesn't look like a battleground, with its neatly trimmed lawns, gently sway- ing palm trees and orderly students. But it's one of a handful of schools in California under attack by Parent Revolution — an organization dedicated to using the Parent Empowerment Act to "pull the trigger" on public schools in an effort to privatize them, charterize them, and drive out unions. Kristen Fisher If an impending legal battle results in a successful pull of the trigger at Palm Lane, the school could be restructured as a charter run by a private company with non-district employ- ees. e principal or teachers could be replaced. Or the school could be shut down and its students sent elsewhere. Anaheim Elementary Education Association President Kristen Fisher says the staff is staying calm, but educators w o r r y a b o u t t h e f u tu re of t h e i r school and students. "Teachers are focused on doing their job and on what's best for students." The looming legal decision will not only affect Palm Lane; the out- c om e c oul d d et ermin e th e l egal validity of the parent trigger law, which in five years has done nothing but divide communities, traumatize students, and hurt public education. Because of this, there is waning support for the law. Recently the Los Angeles Times, an initial supporter of the legislation, urged in an editorial that it be reconsidered, not- ing that the law has backfired by allowing "fairly good and improving schools to be targeted" and remains an "unproven idea." In five years, the editorial says, there have only been Palm Lane School in Anaheim is fighting parent trigger efforts to restructure it, possibly turning it into a charter. PA R E N T T R I G G E R F I V E Y E A R S L A T E R A misfire with no clear successes 24 cta.org