In legislation passed in January to strengthen the state’s Race to the Top application, the Legislature included landmark reforms that potentially could give parents a lot more control over their children’s education.

This week, three parent advocate groups sent letters to the powers that be in Sacramento asking the right question, So what now?

If the “parent trigger” and open enrollment – the two measures contained in SBX5-4 – are to avoid protracted litigation, the process for implementing them must be well-defined. So far, there is no process, only broad concepts. The bill lacked details.

The three groups – the state PTA, Public Advocates and PICO California – are calling for the Department of Education to create a working group to draft guidelines and to propose a bill resolving confusion if necessary. That’s a good idea.

Under the parent trigger, if the majority of parents at a low-performing school sign a petition, the school board will be required to adopt a restructuring strategy that could include inviting in a charter school. The bill limits the parent trigger to the first 75 schools that are petitioned. It will apply to 1,700 schools that have failed to meet their targets under the federal No Child Left Behind law for at least four years —a large universe.

Some of the questions needing answers: Can there be paid signature collectors? Will each parent or each family get a vote? Since families of students feeding into the school will be included, how will their eligibility be determined? How will parents get fair and impartial information about the choices and information about their school? Who will oversee the petition drive?

An example of what to avoid was Los Angeles Unified’s advisory elections in January, in which parents and community members were invited to vote on  proposals for running 30 schools of choice. They proved to be a farce, with double voting and heavy lobbying by teachers.

Parent groups are reportedly starting to organize parent-trigger petition drives, so it’s time to get cracking on regulations.

Open-enrollment questions

Open enrollment will present other challenges. Under the new law, students in low-performing schools will have the right to attend a better school in any district where there is room.

It’s already too late for this fall, so there is time to prepare for 2011-12. Surrounding districts will have latitude to determine space needs and can also deny outsiders based on an adverse financial impact, such as having to enlarge class sizes or hire new teachers. But special education students and English learners must not be discriminated against because they cost more to educate. And clearly under-enrolled schools should open their doors to outsiders. How to determine if they must needs to be clarified.

The three parent organizations raise another, immediate issue: how to involve parents in the 188 failing schools that the state Board of Education this week will designate as needing to be restructured, starting next fall. The state law that set the criteria for listing the schools also required that parents be consulted before deciding which form of restructuring – closing a school, firing teachers, bringing in a charter – is made.

Those decisions must be made by June. School districts must involve parents in coming weeks.

By John Fensterwald on March 9th, 2010