A high-profile attempt to use a “parent-trigger” law to convert a traditional public California school to a charter was rejected by the local school board, after divisions over the plans surfaced in the community.

The superintendent of the Adelanto School District, northeast of Los Angeles, recommended that the board reject a parent petition to make the changeover, saying only 235 of 460 signatures submitted could be verified, short of the threshold necessary for the changeover, according to the Los Angeles Times. The board agreed, by a 5-0 vote.

A group of parents in the community had pushed to convert Desert Trails Elementary to a charter school, citing frustrations about its low academic performance. But in recent weeks, another group of parents raised concerns about those efforts, according to the Times, saying some of those signing the petition had been misled, and that there was not widespread support for a charter, as some had claimed. (Ninety-seven of the signatures tossed out were from parents who said they were misled about the conversion, or signed in error, the Times reports.)

So only half of the signatures from the Parent Revolution – driven effort could be verified? C’mon, man!

The current narrative of charter school advocacy/lobbying groups is to claim that opposition is somehow illegal. Cheri Shannon, of the Walton-funded Florida Charter School Alliance said this week that “we need districts to follow the law.” Parent Revolution called the invalidation of the signatures as “unethical and illegal.”

This is clearly to shrill by half, but is the sort of propaganda that Florida’s republican legislators and policy-makers don’t mind attaching themselves too. Jeb Bush’s education foundation and the Florida Chamber of Commerce trotted out a couple of Parent Revolution’s “professional organizers” for a presser after a hearing in January on Florida’s Parent Trigger legislation.

Earlier this month, Doug Rodriguez, the principal of the Doral Academy Preparatory Middle/High charter school, told a Senate committee that the lack of construction money has “placed a cap on our school. We’re not able to expand.”

But many charter schools, including Rodriguez’s, routinely collect more tax dollars than they spend, and sock away the unspent cash. The Doral Academy charter-school network, comprised of five Miami-Dade schools, had net assets of $13.6 million last year, much of it cash, records show.

The Doral Academy network is one of four large South Florida charter-school chains run by Academica, the state’s largest charter school operator. These four school networks — the Doral, Mater, Somerset and Pinecrest academies — had combined assets of more than $83 million last year, records show. This money is held by nonprofit companies that own the schools, which are managed by Academica, a for-profit company based in South Miami.

These schools could stand to gain millions more every year from the construction tax dollars, which would be distributed on a per-student basis. For example, the Doral, Mater, Somerset and Pinecrest academies — which now have 45 percent of all charter-school students in Miami-Dade County — would receive an additional $14.5 million from the Miami-Dade school district this year alone under the proposal.

Academica’s schools aren’t the only ones with growing reserves. The Keys Gate charter schools in Homestead, managed by Fort Lauderdale-based Charter Schools USA, have about $5 million in cash reserves, and the nearby Charter School at Waterstone, run by Charter School Associates, had $2.6 million in assets last year, most of it cash, records show.

To Charter School USA CEO’s Jonathan Hage’s credit, he’s on record as saying that charter schools shouldn’t get more money. But like any good business man, he’s not looking a gift horse in the mouth. And why aren’t charter schools and their legislative lackeys even having to face the reality that they don’t provide the same costly services as do public schools?  Or have to justify obscene management fees or creepy lease agreements?

Perhaps such reserves are spent on busing charter school teachers and kids from all over the state on a school day for a pep rally. What better backdrop for a bunch of preening politicians is there than a bunch of kids swagged out in the same yellow shirts?

Indeed.

But its not really over.

Yesterday and at  today’s charter school pep rally in Tallahassee,  well-funded charter school lobbies signaled they were targeting school boards like Palm Beach county’s  for turning down charter schools.

“We need districts to follow the law,” said Cheri Shannon, president of the Florida Charter School Alliance.

Shannon said the districts have set up roadblocks to allowing charter schools to offer parents a choice from the public education path.

She said of 53 charter school applications that were submitted in the past year, school districts across Florida have approved three.

The politicians whom spoke at the pep rally frequently used the word, “choice,” to justify their advocacy for bills which seek to put more cash into the pockets of charter school operators. Local school boards – like Palm Beach county’s whom are elected to serve local interests – are chosing to reject charter schools. It appears that charter schools and their hand maidens in the Florida legislature desire choice for me but not for thee.

In a message calling for parents to participate in School Choice Day, the Florida Coalition of Public School Options writes that “last year, Florida families worked hard to pass legislation to expand choice in the state including increased access to charter schools and virtual education, including allowing for the first time the creation of virtual charter schools.”

The Coalition adds: “While it was a big win for Florida families, the legislation has been in effect vetoed by local School Boards across the state who issued nearly across the board denials to virtual charters and the majority of brick and mortar charter school applications.”

This is demonstrably false, but this group who purports to represent families knows they won’t have to face a follow-up question. They also know that the Florida legislature has been usurping local school board control and  no longer have final say in charter school matters. Apparently the Florida Coalition of Public School Options doesn’t care about taxpayer money either as it is local school boards who are custodians of how their property taxes are spent. The Coalition must believe that it should be going freely to the charter schools. This  easily dispatched spin demonstrates they seeks to serve charter schools first.

School principal David Mobley said the conflict has spilled onto campus. He said he has had to intervene to calm parents and ask them to step off school grounds as they try to distribute dueling information and corral support. The tension has also filtered to the students, who have begun fighting as well, he said.

“It’s sad because these kids used to be really good friends,” Mobley said. “Now these kids have become pawns in a political mess, and it just breaks my heart.”

This California school also received significant logistical assistance from billionaire-funded Parent Revolution who provided shirts and an orchaestrated photo-op. If Florida’s DOE gets its way a new school grade system which will triple the number of D and F schools. Coupled with passage of the Bush-Scott-Rhee Parent Trigger will ensure that more well-paid, trained operatives from Parent Revolution will be parachuting in to agitate inside Florida’s communities. 

Notably, ALEC gives no credit to the classroom teachers, counselors and principals who actually achieved those gains.

Instead, ALEC’s report gives all of the credit to its reformers and to high-stakes testing and charter schools. Its opening paragraphs compare Republican legislators to the English who endured the bombing of London in World War II. It compares teachers and their unions to Hitler’s forces, who “overreached” in their assault and now must suffer the consequences

“Organized in every state legislative district in the country, they put both paid and volunteer ‘boots on the ground’ during election season,” the report says. “The unions hire legions of lobbyists around the nation, enlist academics to defend their positions, and have very clear goals.”

The portrayal is offensive and factually inaccurate for Florida.

For example, one of ALEC’s favorite reforms in Florida are charter schools, designed to be free of unions and regulation. Yet, local and state data show charter schools have consistently underperformed regular old public schools. Mathematically, Brevard County could improve its achievement numbers just by closing all charter schools and .the kids to traditional campuses.

Meanwhile, teachers have little power in a right-to-work state where they cannot strike and there are fewer Democrats than legislative committees in the Florida Senate.

Reed does not mention the author of the report. Matthew Ladner is the Senior Advisor for Policy and Research for Jeb Bush’s foundation.  Ladner’s salary is paid by the same people whom financially benefit from his slurs. Perhaps a well-connected journalist like Matt Reed will ask Bush or Patricia Levesque if they agree with Ladner’s characterization of teacher’s unions as “Hitlers forces.” Or maybe they do and feel they can get away with it by Ladner delivering his spew under another banner.

Miami Herald reporters Kathleen McGrory and Scott Hiassen write that the Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools (FCPCS) is taking a turn at advancing Steve Wise’s bill which would force local districts to hand over more of their  millage to charter schools. The Florida Charter School Alliance (FCSA) tried last month. Write McGrory and Hiassen:

TALLAHASSEE A legislative plan to give charter schools a cut of local school districts’ construction money would steer millions of additional dollars to large charter-school networks that are already sitting on tens of millions of dollars in cash, records show.

The charter-school industry is lobbying hard to gain a share of tax dollars raised by school districts to cover the construction and maintenance costs of traditional public schools — tax revenue that has dropped dramatically in recent years with plummeting real-estate values.

School districts say the proposal could cost them as much as $140 million a year statewide and cripple their ability to repair aging buildings and pay debts for past construction. But charter school operators say the lesser funding for their students is unfair, and argue that withholding construction money has stifled charter schools’ growth.

Many charter schools collect more tax dollars than they spend, and sock away the unspent cash. The Doral Academy charter-school network, with five Miami-Dade schools, had net assets of $13.6 million last year, much of it cash, records show.

The Doral Academy network is one of four large South Florida charter-school chains run by Academica, the state’s largest charter school operator. These four school networks — the Doral, Mater, Somerset and Pinecrest academies — had combined assets of more than $83 million last year, records show. This money is held by nonprofits that own the schools, which are managed by Academica, a for-profit company based in South Miami.

These schools could stand to gain millions more every year from the construction tax dollars, which would be distributed on a per-student basis. For example, the Doral, Mater, Somerset and Pinecrest academies would receive an additional $14.5 million from the Miami-Dade school district this year alone under the proposal.

Lynn Norman Teck, spokeswoman for the Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools, said charters should not be cut out of construction funding because some schools have been financially savvy.

I wondered last October why there was a need for another charter school lobby when the Florida Charter School Alliance was formed with Wal-Mart cash last October. Perhaps the difference lies in the people who are behind the two. The Alliance has people close to Jeb Bush on its board of directors.  FCPCS  includes on its board representatives on Florida’s three most controversial charter schools - Academica, Mavericks and Imagine.

Its no surprise that this current effort uses quotes from sources part of Academica’s vast Florida network. The treasurer of FCPCS is Academica president Fernando Zuleta. The Miami Herald reporters are clearly skeptical of Academica’s massive profit margin generated from  Florida’s taxpayers. Maybe some charter school advocates are too, and it’s what prompted the creation of a lobby which didn’t have the appearance of promoting Academica’s bottom line.

Indeed, there are many complicating factors and challenges that create barriers to success.

Among these are ever-increasing federal and state regulations on and accountability for schools and teachers, addressing the needs of English-language learners, contending with a growing number of students living at or near poverty, and the frustration with parents or guardians who are not involved in their children’s schooling.

No wonder Bush or Robinson weren’t there. They are the agents of the barriers to success the editors allude to. Lets hope the business leaders that are part of the Alliance  don’t acquiesce to the Florida Chamber of Commerce when it becomes time to oppose legislation which inhibits their local agenda.

When it comes to deceiving voters, Florida politicians earn an A+ every time. The “Parent Empowerment Act” or “parent trigger” promoted as “opening the door to a whole new level of communication between parents and the schools,” is nothing more than another bait-and-switch scheme like the Florida lottery.

The deception started when Rep. Michael Bileca [R-West Miami] and Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto [R-Fort Myers] pulled a ready-made parent-trigger bill right off the shelf, attached their names and cemented their allegiance to the education “reform” agenda.

This bill was not carefully crafted to help Florida parents and children. Its only supporters are billionaires and corporations. When the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries and the Foundation for Florida’s Future are the most eager supporters of a bill, the Florida voter can assume there’s a profit motive.

Instead of empowering parents, this infamous parent trigger does the following:

Uses parents as a tool to pull the “trigger” and hand their neighborhood school over to a private for-profit charter-management corporation.

Takes power away from parents, leaving them to resolve disputes long distance with out-of-state charter management boards.

Strips power from parents and voters, removing all local control from taxpayers.

Destroys the democratic process by taking neighborhood schools away from the jurisdiction of duly elected district officials.

Allows a small group of people to make major fiscal and education decisions for everyone else’s children.

Makes no provision for returning the school to the district, robbing Florida taxpayers of a significant capital investment.

Not one legitimate grass-roots parent group asked any legislator to present this legislation. In fact, an alliance comprised of the Florida PTA, Citizens for Strong Schools, 50th No More, FundEducationNow.org. Marions United for Public Education, Save Duval Schools and Support Dade Schools issued a public statement strongly opposing the Parent Empowerment Act.

Florida already has significant laws on the books that address struggling schools and require parent involvement. The people pushing the parent trigger are not real Florida moms and dads. Not even close.

The only parent testifying in favor of this bill was an employee of California’s Parent Revolution, a $1 million grass-tops group whose purpose is to promote and implement this law. The Parent Revolution is not an authentic parent group — it’s a lobbying tool created and funded by reform-agenda billionaires Gates, Wasserman, Broad, Hewlett-Packard and Walton.

Florida voters must wise up. We must ask ourselves, “How can it be that something called Parent Empowerment actually robs parents of every shred of control in the end?” The sad answer is that our Florida politicians stopped working for the moms and dads of this state a long time ago.

One by one, they have slipped away and joined a radical education-reform agenda that sees dollar signs instead of the hopeful faces of the children we love. As parents, we must always ask, “Who is profiting from this?” That’s real empowerment.

The superintendents especially took issue with a proposal to include the academic performance of students with developmental disabilities and students learning English in calculating a school’s scores.

Both said the rule change would make severely disabled students who are merely learning to swallow count toward a school’s proficiency. Duval’s Mt. Herman Exceptional Student Center, which currently doesn’t receive a grade because of the severity of its students’ disabilities, would earn an F under the proposal. This would be the first time that severely disabled students are included in the academic proficiency category.

“It’s dumb,” said Joyner. “That is really dumb.”

“It goes beyond reality,” said Pratt-Dannals. “I just don’t understand it, why this would be taking place

Why, indeed. Perhaps the reason lies in something that both Joyner and Pratt-Daniels are both aware of, but cannot dare say publicly. For a clue, Floridians should look to the news that Parent Trigger legislation was just rammed though a House committee. HB 1191, publicly supported by Jeb Bush, Michelle Rhee and Governor Rick Scott provides this:

Authorizes parents of students assigned to certain underperforming public schools to submit petition to school district requesting implementation of school turnaround option selected by parents; requires school district, upon request, to provide parent with performance evaluation for classroom teachers assigned to child; requires notification to parent of student assigned to teacher who is teaching out-of-field or has received unsatisfactory performance evaluations; requires such notification to include information about availability of virtual instruction.

Coupled with the new school grade standards which would increase the number of Duval county schools which received a D or F from 23 to 66, the so-called parent trigger provides  more targets for their charter school cronies. Last March I wrote of similar republican coercions via tweaks to the Opportunity Scholarship program.  

Bill Proctor cut off opponents of his parent trigger bill during the hearing on HB 1191. Proctor, along with Bush and Scott are well aware of the school grade change proposal which will create more of those “certain underperforming public schools.”  To game the system on the backs of disabled kids is despicable.