On Top of the News
State Lawmakers Throttle Back on ‘Parent Trigger’
5/21/14 | Ed Week

Behind the Headline
Pulling the Parent Trigger
Summer 2013 | Education Next

Parent trigger laws, which allow parents to force low-performing schools to be transformed, are no longer so popular with state legislatures, according to an article by Andrew Ujifusa in Education Week. California was the first state to pass a parent trigger law, in 2010, and six other states have passed some type of parent trigger law, but no state has done so since 2012.

The Summer 2013 issue of Education Next features a debate over parent trigger legislation.

Is the parent trigger a good idea? Can empowered families transform the system one school at a time? Making the case for the parent trigger is Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution and former deputy mayor of Los Angeles. Questioning the merits of the trigger is Michael Petrilli, vice president for policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and an executive editor of Education Next.

-Education Next