Comments on: What’s next for ‘parent trigger’?

By: Lance D. Shaw

Lance D. Shaw — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:43:50 +0000

Hello John,
I happened to see your “Silicon Valley’s Great Divide” piece.
Somehow, I believe the responsibility for their own learning and achieving must be placed into the minds of the students.
I came from the other side (race-segregated) of the divide-graduated HS in 1961 in the separate (not equal) public school system of Temple, TX., reared by a widowed mom.
I took responsibility for my learning.
When I was working in Silicon Valley, my marriage ended. I got initial physical custody of two youngsters for the first 3 of 4 years …when my daughter Kim was 3 1/2; her brother Lance is 18 months older. We made learning a game.
I transposed the same skills I’d used managing high-tech engineers, scientists, and business innovators into fun practices then we three shared parenting.
They became responsible for their own learning since, they’d be transferring from school to school as a part of the custody. I designed into our games, the criterion that they become leaders-leaders create options. It was fun and worth it (not easy). My book tells how and why we did it.
If you can accept it as a gift, I’ll mail it or attach it to an e-mail as a pdf. I own all rights.
I kept them focused on enduring values which were fun. All three of us tweaked our systems daily-even when they were not “parent of the day”.
I share your urgency. Our nation’s health and security are at stake.
My contact info-916-863-0544 (h), 916-653-1227 (w), 916-718-9838 (c).
Thanks for the wake-up call.
ps: As a diplomat, US Dept. of State, Kim works in several foreign languages, Lance-has two earned Masters Degrees-Civil Eng; MBA Penn Wharton as a Leadership Fellow

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By: CarolineSF

CarolineSF — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 04:36:44 +0000

Pretty feisty for a professional lobbyist. Usually the pros don’t get quite so personal and hot under the collar. … And, by the way, I don’t fabricate, and I dispute and object to that slap, and it’s unprofessional for a paid spokesman to hammer on a longtime parent volunteer advocate. … I looked at items linked from your website. Clearly it’s wrong to threaten parents that they’ll be deported if the vote goes the wrong way. I saw an amateurish-looking flier in English and one, more polished, in Spanish — I read some Spanish but not enough to get all of it. But in both of those latter cases I saw some points that I’d question and some that I know are perfectly valid, such as the shunning of special education students by the charter operators vying for the schools. Some of the claims, as these are produced by amateurs, may well be innocent errors. … You’re going to get heated and ugly campaigns if you set up this kind of divisive, vicious, scorched-earth battle among factions of school communities. That’s an obvious problem with this destructive and predatory process. You set the fire; it’s hypocritical to yowl about getting burned.

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By: Gabe

Gabe — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:02:00 +0000

Here is an incredibly simple reason why the rumors against us are different than the claims about teachers (and others) unfairly influencing votes and intimidating parents – the latter is supported by a mountain of actual evidence, including flyers, emails, and other documents. You can visit our blog, where we have posted many of them. We can produce tons of parents who can personally speak to this matter. You, on the other hand, have a random YouTube video and an anonymous “charter advocate.” Seriously, head over to our blog and check out everything we posted, online, for the whole world to see… we already did the hard work for you!

So we’re not having it both ways at all. Every single allegation that we’ve made a) we can personally support with tangible evidence, or b) has already been printed in the LA Times or Daily News. We happily invite any reporter, blogger, or anyone else to find proof of a single Carl’s Jr card (or other monetary compensation) we have handed anyone in exchange for their signature. This is just beyond silly. Let’s talk issues, not rumors and fast food joints.

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By: CarolineSF

CarolineSF — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:50:58 +0000

And, by the way, I’m not claiming to be a reporter. I’m an advocate and blogger. I agree vigorously that we do need trusted full-time reporters who dig for facts (and who do their best to be impartial)!

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By: CarolineSF

CarolineSF — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:49:16 +0000

I agree that the claims about Parent Revolution’s tactics during the signature-gathering are in the category of rumor. … However, it’s being widely treated as received wisdom that teachers cheated and inappropriately influenced the vote. Why is it OK to treat that charge against teachers as God’s truth — even in supposedly impartial news coverage — and then get outraged when rumors about Parent Revolution’s tactics are repeated? That’s inconsistent and unfair.

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By: Paul Muench

Paul Muench — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:49:42 +0000

I watched the YouTube video. It was an excellent example of why we as a community need trusted full time professional reporters who dig for facts. The speaker in the video claims that some parents were offered monetary compensation by Green Dot in exchange for signing a petition. The speaker also claims that a representative of Parent Revolution gave incomplete and misleading information to parents who were signing a petition at a local church. Unfortunately both accusations lacked relevant who, what, where, when, why, and how to lend credibility to the accusations. For example: How much money was offered? Who was offered the money? Was it illegal? If it is illegal, why? If it is illegal are charges being pursued? What information was misleading? Should a reasonable person expect complete information in the time of the communication? It’s these kind of details that make this blog worth reading.

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By: CarolineSF

CarolineSF — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:26:07 +0000

Well, Gabe, after initially getting chided for spreading rumors, I agreed, apologized and decided not to mention the Carls Jr. gift card rumor again. Then two things happened: First, a charter advocate who had chided me for spreading the rumors apologized and told me that he had learned that the rumors about Parent Revolution buying signatures were true. But I STILL wouldn’t have brought it up again — until there was this huge clamor from the charter/privatization/teacher-bashing forces and their allies in the press claiming that teachers had unduly influencing the vote. Their line is that it’s just a given that all the votes were improperly influenced and dishonest. … Well, you can’t have it both ways. If you’re going to scream and yell that the other side is cheating, and there are also rumors that you’re cheating, you can’t get all offended and indignant when the other side brings them up. … And of course this coldblooded campaign invites that kind of ugliness — almost guarantees it. The whole thing is destructive, dishonest and harmful to children and school communities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNLkAjTLFoY

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By: Gabe

Gabe — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:15:10 +0000

Caroline, the idea that we pass out Carl’s Jr cards to get parents to sign a petition is just so far beyond ridiculous I don’t know where to start (and as a lifelong vegetarian, this rumor offends me even more than your previous fabrications). There’s a rumor out there that Obama is a Muslim born in Kenya sent to destroy America, but most responsible people (especially those who claim to be “reporters”) show a basic ability to separate baseless innuendo on YouTube from actual facts.

Every time people start talking about carl’s jr gift cards or all this other nonsense, they just further prove that you don’t have any more intellectual arguments to make in defense of the status quo. If you do, let’s hear them, rather than wasting everyone’s time trying to distract people from the real issues at hand (like a 600,000+ student District that can barely graduate half their students from high school).

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By: Chris Bertelli

Chris Bertelli — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:12:39 +0000

David: Schools and school districts already have the ability to appeal to the State Board of Education for waivers from most of the education code. The SBE is also sympathetic to these requests and it doesn’t require a formal process on behalf of parents. Unfortunately, very few schools or districts try this route.

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By: CarolineSF

CarolineSF — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:01:38 +0000

Since word was widespread in Los Angeles that Parent Revolution — an “astroturf” (fake grassroots) organization run by charter operators, not an actual parent group — was handing out Carl’s Jr. gift cards in exchange for signatures on school takeover petitions, it’s a little one-sided to claim that teachers unfairly influenced the voting. … In reality, it just seems unlikely that many parents are willing to dismantle their kids’ schools in quest of some unknown future reform model. Both surveys and anecdotes tell us that many parents will agree that “public schools are failing” overall, but that they like their OWN kids’ schools, even when those schools are struggling. And parents often mobilize to fight plans to close even “failing” schools, as is happening in NYC right now. … Of course, the fact that people outside those school communities can vote to dismantle the schools is a wild card. The potential for ugly divisiveness, intimidation and other unpleasantness is sky-high. And of course all of this invites even more of that perennial favorite pastime of the “reform” crowd, teacher-bashing.

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