LESPA

FEA applauds Senate for rejecting parent trigger aka "Parent Empowerment"

 

TALLAHASSEE – Florida Education Association (FEA) President Andy Ford praised the Florida Senate for rejecting the controversial parent trigger bill that was promoted by the for-profit charter school industry and Jeb Bush’s foundation. The measure failed on a 20-20 tie vote.


“The parent trigger measure is a political device created by venture capitalists looking to rapidly expand for-profit charter school chains. Major parent groups in Florida opposed this bill,” Ford said. “This bill depends on professional lobbyists and outside forces to use marketing forces to persuade parents in a challenged school to transfer a valuable public asset from the jurisdiction of an elected school board into the hands of a corporation.”

Ford said he was heartened by the fact that this bill was defeated for the second straight year, but remains concerned that this idea will return again in future legislative sessions.

“Public schools are our schools. They don’t belong to the school board, the Legislature, the governor or the State Board of Education, and they certainly don’t belong to a privately owned, for-profit charter-school company,” Ford said. “They belong to all of us in Florida because they’ve been bought, paid for and maintained with our hard-earned tax dollars.”

Ford said it’s past time that the state make a serious effort to properly finance our public schools and make a significant investment in our children.

“Instead of chasing gimmicks like parent trigger, we should be making the investment to ensure that every neighborhood public school is as great as it can be,” Ford said.