What is going on in other states?

What is going on in other states?

Chris Geden, Community Outreach Director, Children’s Education Alliance of Missouri

As we here in Missouri wait for the outcome of our own “Parent Trigger” of sorts to play out in the Turner vs. Clayton Case, other states are busy trying to pass or implement a more traditional “Parent Trigger”.

I think Missouri’s education reformers could benefit from following the Parent Trigger and Parent Union stories from around the country. It might help us understand how to harness the power of parents to ensure policies that support kids are getting implemented here. The Parent Trigger started in California in 2010 and has swept to other cities and states around the country such as Texas and Mississippi while twenty other states are considering it. This powerful law allows parents to gather together as one powerful voice and force under-performing schools to take action to improve the quality of education provided to their students. The changes can include closing the school, replacing the teachers and principals and the parents having a say in staffing and budget concerns. The concept behind the parent trigger is really quite simple—the people who have the greatest vested interest in a high quality education (the parents) can use the power of this law, to get a seat at the bargaining table with unions and school officials. This simple concept that gave California and the others a Parent Trigger law is the same one that is driving the advocates and law-makers and most importantly parents who are pushing for the implementation and enforcement of the Revised Missouri Statute 161.137 of the Outstanding Schools Act of 1993. I hope Missourians who care about the future of our state, understand that this groundbreaking opportunity, much like the Parent Trigger in other states, will in the long run benefit the one who matters most….the children. To learn more go here.