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Columbus
Dispatch...
Kasich plan would let
parents overhaul failing schools
By Jennifer Smith Richards
Can’t fix failing schools? Parents could get tough on Ohio’s districts.
Gov. John Kasich’s budget plan would give parents the power to force
radical changes on chronically underperforming schools.
“Failing to address the concerns of parents could for the first time
come at a high cost,” said Chad Aldis, executive director of School
Choice Ohio, which pushes for charter schools and private-school
vouchers.
The “parent trigger” would apply to schools that rank in the state’s
bottom 5 percent in academics for three consecutive school years. If a
majority of a school’s parents sign a petition demanding change, the
school would be forced to accept the reform the parents propose:
• Converting into a charter school.
• Replacing at least 70 percent of the staff.
• Contracting with another school district, an effective nonprofit
group or a for-profit group to operate the school.
• Turning the school’s operation over to the Ohio Department of
Education.
• Making “fundamental reforms” to the school’s staffing or governance.
If parents pull the trigger, the reform would take effect the next
school year. The lowest-performing 5percent of schools would be
identified using performance-index scores, which measure how well
students do on state tests.
Applied to the past three years of school data, fewer than 50 schools
in the state fall into that category. In Franklin County, the only
district with trigger-eligible schools would have been Columbus, where
a handful of schools would be considered failing by Kasich’s measure.
Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said the trigger provision is based on
California’s parent-empowerment law, which was enacted early last year.
A dozen other states have discussed similar measures.
Ohio’s largest teachers union questions the California example.
“Given the confusion and disputes that have arisen with California’s
experience with a parent-takeover law, including parents who feel they
were misled in signing petitions, Ohio should proceed with caution,”
Ohio Education Association spokeswoman Michele Prater said in an email.
California’s law has been tested in only one school district: Compton
Unified in the Los Angeles area. A parent-organizing group funded by
people with charter-school ties rallied parents to sign a petition to
overhaul an elementary school, but the board of education wouldn’t
validate the signatures unless each signee showed up in person with
identification. The parent group thought that was onerous and filed a
lawsuit. The battle over the overhaul is in court.
In Ohio, the governor’s proposal doesn’t spell out what would happen to
the physical building, curriculum and furniture if schools are handed
over to an outside manager or charter.
Nichols said the administration expects that a district would retain
“ownership” of physical items.
If the school became a charter, it would collect per-pupil funding from
the state but would not receive taxes from local school levies. An
outside operator managing a school would collect “the per-pupil funding
typically spent at the building level,” Nichols said.
Other details on funding and logistics are scarce.
“There was room purposely left for legislative input, allowing the
General Assembly to work out details,” Nichols said.
Kasich’s proposal says that, after parents file their petition with a
school district’s treasurer, the district would have 30 days to declare
the signatures valid or dispute them. The district wouldn’t have to
overhaul the school if it determined that parents were motivated by
something other than student safety or academics. Also, the state
Education Department could refuse to take over a school.
Critics say they want parents involved in school reform, but perhaps
not like this.
“I don’t know how you don’t create chaos when you’ve always got this
specter of parents who are dissatisfied in some way saying, ‘We’re
going to initiate this process and reconstitute this school,’” said
Scott DiMauro, a Worthington teacher who heads the Central OEA/NEA, a
regional union branch. He spoke on behalf of Join the Future, a new
group advocating for public schools and teachers.
The reform options offered in Kasich’s plan are nearly identical to the
federal turnaround options for failing schools under the No Child Left
Behind Act and other programs. Few Ohio schools that have been forced
to overhaul under the No Child law have enlisted the help of outside
operators or restarted as a charter.
The Columbus district has overhauled several struggling schools by
swapping out most of the staff. Superintendent Gene Harris said that
parent involvement is powerful and important to the district as it
works to improve, but it’s not clear that this reform strategy would
improve schools.
“My question is, do we have enough evidence to say this is the strategy
to bring the kind of acceleration we need?” Harris said.
She said she’d like to see a demonstration project, in which a district
lets parents choose how to reform a school, before the state adopts the
“parent trigger” proposal as it’s written. Harris said she’d like
Columbus to be the test site.
Read it at the Columbus Dispatch
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