Find the Latest Resources in Education Today
Readers: Parents not experienced enough to run failing schools
eSN readers say that while parent support is needed, ousting qualified leaders is not the answer
"Parents taking over school boards in the flux of wanting change and improvement may not be the best response," said one reader.
It must be exasperating to be a parent whose child is in a “failing” school, with nowhere else to go. But should parents be allowed to take over control of their local schools in cases like this, as some lawmakers are proposing?
We recently asked readers: “Florida just narrowly killed a bill that would have allowed parents with kids in failing public schools to take over their local school boards. What do you think of the idea behind the ‘Parent Trigger’? Could this ever have merit or be useful? Why or why not?”
And though most readers were sympathetic to parents’ struggles, none recommend Florida’s Parent Trigger idea.
The reason, say readers, is because as much as parents might have the best intentions, they also should have experience in education and in running school matters. Without that experience, reform can’t happen. Do you agree?
(Some responses edited for brevity.)
It takes support
“As a Canadian, I am really quite amazed at the destruction of the morale of professionals in your education system. Parents taking over school boards when schools are failing? Is that really going to result in anything other than chaos? I am amazed at the notion that replacing elected people, who have at least some grasp of what needs to be done, with parents who know little about how to run a school board is going to make things better. Meanwhile, the morale of your poor teachers is going down the drain as everyone blames the educators for the woes of your educational system. Why not support your teachers and school boards, rather than venting your anger at them?” —William Badke, associate librarian, Trinity Western University, British Columbia
Parents should play a part, but not run the enterprise
“I absolutely believe parents should have a role in takeover of failing schools. I DO NOT think they should be able to take over the school, however. In other words, they have control of the trigger if they represent a majority of the students and if they recruit capable administrators that agree to develop a proposal for the renewal efforts (kind of like what’s required for a charter, only with the data regarding the school and its problems). Also, there would need to be a commitment on the part of parents to form an education community with teachers, proposed administrators, students, and general citizens to engage deeply in the reform efforts for the school—if the proposal is accepted.” —John Bennett, emeritus professor/associate dean, University of Connecticut
It takes reform at home, too
“Fortunately, this bill was narrowly defeated when the Senate vote was a 20-20 tie. There are (at least) two major flaws with such a scheme: (1) It is far from clear that parents have the expertise or even interest in taking over control of a school. A significant factor in the success of a school is the support provided by parents to their children. Children with supportive parents, those who read to them, encourage them to ask questions, help their children to maintain the curiosity with which they were born, and teach them to respect others, are far more likely to succeed in school than those with parents who fail in these aspects. It is incredible that control of schools would be turned over to a group that could contain members who have already failed their children. (2) It seems possible, perhaps likely, that those who would benefit financially from a school board losing control would encourage parents to ‘pull the trigger.’ We have seen the extraordinary influence of money in influencing voters. Money could be even more focused to influence a small group of parents.” —Steven Blumsack, emeritus professor, mathematics, assistant-in-research, LSI, Tallahassee, Fla.
5 Responses to Readers: Parents not experienced enough to run failing schools
You must be logged in to post a comment Login
petergud
March 29, 2012 at 7:42 pm
It seems like letting parents take over is a good idea for failing schools. Emotions aside, there are only three logical outcomes that are possible:
1. Parents do a better job than the professional incumbents which means a victory for the students.
2. Parents do the same job as the incumbent professionals in which case the parents will at least learn to appreciate the professionals more.
3. The parents fail in which case the community will try something else or at minimum appreciate the challenges faced by the professionals.
Considering how bad things are, what is the harm in trying?
kindraking
March 29, 2012 at 8:05 pm
Parents are extremely helpful when they support both their child AND their child’s teacher. The problem with parents taking over failing schools is 1) Other than being a parent, what are their qualifications? 2) Which parents will do it? Likely it will be the parents who are currently active in their child(ren)’s school(s). Who will represent those children who come from homes that are not supportive of their schooling? In failing schools they make up a very large percentage. 3) If this is a small community, you have to worry about the “good ‘ole boy” system. Who will assure fair access and treatment to all staff and students?
To run schools effectively you need to be an accountant, politician (what isn’t political now days?), policy writer, grant writer, data analyst, have a wealth of legal knowledge, flexible, open minded, a great collaborative worker, etc… It’s a big job to hand over to parents who may not be prepared. Every year in a child’s schooling is critical and cannot be wasted while people who do not know what they are doing “figure it out.” Something has to be done, but, I do not think that letting parents take over is the answer.
angelgarden
March 29, 2012 at 9:02 pm
One fine day in 1989 in New Zealand, all state schools ceased to be run by local authorities as this power devolved to school boards – i.e. the elected parent body in the schools. They are still running and in fact New Zealand isn’t doing too badly in the PISA tables. That’s not to say that there aren’t problems, hierarchies among parents in schools is one, or that it wasn’t tough going for those parents who suddenly one day found themselves running the school. It’s also problematic in areas where parents have less privilege and resources in the community, less well-connected lawyers, doctors etc., for example and some schools have eventually found their way back to the MInistry for increased involvement.
The main effect of these reforms, and the reason they were implemented was the enormous financial saving of parents doing for nothing, what had cost millions in administration.
In registering for this site just now, I had to tick a box marked non-educator/parent which imho does shed light on this question. I also ticked all the subjects I’ve taught my children during our home-education over the last year. Homeschool or not, being a parent a priori makes you an educator, and to the extent that school and college education isn’t tied in with societal values, questions would have to be asked about the point of it.
When schools are failing, it would seem to make sense to examine these relationships as they are probably a part of the problem – if parent/school relations disintegrate to the point of oppositional politics, what are the children learning?
rsmyth
March 30, 2012 at 4:52 pm
It’s a sign of how badly the profession has lost respect of political leaders to have a bill come so close to passing. Would you let parents take over as lawyers or doctors? The notion is absurd. If anybody thinks they can do better, have them get trained and step in and do the best they can. Then they’ll find out what’s really going on.
jcschweitzer
March 30, 2012 at 5:03 pm
The problem seems to be that readership is skewed toward educators and not toward parents.
Public education is run primarily by people in an echo chamber who choose not to hear the frustration of their customers. University education schools are run by the same academics that run the K12 schools. I believe that forcing the academic establishment to be truly accountable to parents has great benefit.
Considering the performance of the “experts” that run schools systems today, amateur parents may provide an interesting perspective from outside the shell educators put themselves in.