Scott Shackford on How Parent Trigger Law Leverage Helps Reform Public Schools
(James Kingman | Dreamstime.com)
Parent trigger laws allow parents to vote to force a public school to hand the reins over to a charter program. But reforms don't have to be so drastic, and parents are discovering that they may not even have to bring the matter to a vote to get what they want. Parents at West Athens Elementary School in the Los Angeles area discovered they could force changes just by threatening to invoke the parent trigger law. Ultimately, they didn't even need to advance to the signature-gathering stage. Scott Shackford notes how the parent trigger law can push for improvements at public schools even if they don't shift to charter programs.