Now, in LA, parents can take over a school! Of course parents don't necessarily have any idea how screwed up this is; they think they simply have more power. And they do! Power to screw things up even more! From edweek:
Who should decide when it’s time to overhaul a chronically underperforming school?h/t Democurmudgeon
Soon, in Los Angeles, parents can.
Under new rules released this week by the Los Angeles Unified School District, parents whose children attend some of the lowest-performing schools in the city will have the ability to force the district to launch new reform initiatives at troubled campuses. The rules—written by Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines and his team—are part of a series of regulations being crafted to govern the district’s new school choice policy, which will allow outside groups, such as charter school organizations, to operate schools where student achievement has not budged for several years.
By gathering a simple majority, or 51 percent, of parental signatures in a school community, parents can “trigger” the district to open up the targeted school for outside management. What’s more, the rules also grant that authority to certain prospective parents, such as those whose children attend schools that feed into the troubled campuses.