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PARENT POWER….VOX POPULI…  A tidal wave of “parent power” is demanding education for their kids, proving again that father…and mother… and grandmother and grandfather, and loving guardians… know best!  And you know we’ve been talking about parent power since (eek) the 90s! 

THERE’S A NATIONAL PARENTS UNION! And its work reinforces that parents are not happy with the state of play in education today. In addition to helping parents build advocacy and legal defenses to fight for their rights, NPU has released a new survey of 1,002 parents of K-12 public school students which finds that only 5% think unions should heavily weigh on reopening plans and most do not want teachers to wait to be vaccinated to feel safe enough to send their kids back. NPU President Keri Rodriques summed up respondents’ feelings nicely;  “parents want high-quality consistency and are growing increasingly frustrated with the dismal outlook that their child is falling further and further behind.”

STORM WARNINGS IN SAN FRANCISCO. Even in the always windy San Francisco Bay area, the gales of parents’ revolting are being noticed. A bi-partisan, multi-racial group of fed-up parents is working to recall all members of the city school board.  Union-captive board members mis-managed the COVID crisis so badly that the very liberal San Francisco City Council sued the school district — also very liberal — calling its reopening plans “woefully inadequate.”

PARENTS IN WINE COUNTRY are also demanding open classrooms. Creative folks in the North San Francisco Bay Sonoma County used an electronic billboard to get their message “Missing: all California students, last seen March 13, 2020. Reward-their future. #OpenSonomaCountySchoolsNow”  to thousands of commuters every day. (NOTE: We are available to come help you find them!🍷) 

GARAGE PODS? A short drive across the San Francisco Bay Bridge in Benicia are frustrated parents who couldn’t wait any longer. They created learning pods in their garages, where classes are taught by teachers of the local school district (clearly they don’t have a school problem!). Why do a pod? One parent explained that, “We (California) are the only state where our kids can’t go to [any] school. Can’t play sports. The social element for them is detrimental. Getting up in the morning to look at a computer screen? That sucks.”

A SNOWSTORM DIDN’T STOP Parents and students in New Jersey from rallying for a return to in person learning. And for the “out of the mouths of babes” file is this remark by a perspicacious 5th grader at the rally, “We’ve got to keep on going, because if we don’t now we’re going to lose…we can’t accept the defeat from the district, who are just bullying us the whole way, and that’s just not right.”

PARENTS ARE MOVING FOR GOOD EDUCATION. A mom in Philly wants to move to Florida to educate her children, others are  running for office, suing, relocating and looking to private schools.  Parents shouldn’t  have to move or sue in court to ensure quality education for their kids. But every parent understands what is motivating the parents in the City of Brotherly Love…

GREAT SCHOOLS are making it happen for kids.  Summit Public Schools in California and  Washington St., Purdue Polytechnic High School in Indianapolis, and the Leadership Academy Network in Fort Worth are among the schools who were able to pivot quickly to remote learning. The answer isn’t rocket science — it’s  because their public school districts gave them significant autonomy. Autonomy = choice = quality education for kids. Simple as 1 – 2 – 3.

GOT A STORY TO TELL? We’re looking for your best tales of parent power, or schools innovating. Just drop us a line at [email protected] and we’ll get on it!