The Parent Revolution helped push for a new law that gives parents to power to
make changes. (Photo Courtesy Parent Revolution)

In a modest office with mostly bare walls and a few desks in downtown Los Angeles, Parent Union organizer Shirley Ford spends her time these days strategizing for, what she calls, a revolution.

"I'm making a list of people that I'm going to sit down with now that the Parent Trigger Law is passed, because that gives us leverage," says Ford.

A new state law gives wings to a promise the Los Angeles Parents Union first made early last year, when it was headed by Green Dot, its mission to get parents to sign on to transform poorly performing Los Angeles schools to charters. They call the movement the Parent Revolution and promise parents to deliver new charter schools within three years if 51 percent of parents sign up for reforms. But no laws held-up their pledge, which was more hope than certainty.  

"We were building the airplane while it was in the air. We didn't exactly know how we were going to back it up," said Ben Austin, the executive director of the L.A. Parent's Union.

Now they do know. After the Parent Revolution aggressively campaigned for the trigger law, the state passed it earlier this year. For the first time, parents have the codified right to demand changes in failing schools. If a majority of parents organize to reform consistently failing schools, they can call on officials to take one of three steps: transform the school to a charter, fire the principal and half the staff or close the school altogether.

The law is changing how the Parent Revolution is positioning itself in the charter school movement. The Parent's Union is saying they aren't working for Green Dot or Green Dot's agenda anymore. But the law is also fueling fire between the organization and other players in the education field who say the Parent Revolution simply pushes a charter school agenda, which is not necessarily better for students.  

"The parent trigger assumes charters are the answers and they are not," says UTLA Vice President Gregg Solkovits. He underscored studies that show charters have struggled to serve disabled and ESL students.

But Austin points to the new law as proof that other solutions are on the table and to show his organization will advocate for whatever parents deem necessary.

"The idea of the parent revolution is to say F-U, that every single thing about our school is going to be about kids. Otherwise, I'm sorry, we are going to take our kids and go elsewhere," said Austin.

Still, the Green Dot origins of the Parent Revolution often muddy the goal of giving parents a voice in the education debate.

"The parent trigger is really about Green Dot," says Solkovits. "UTLA fully supports working with parents, but they [the Parent Revolution] are working for Green Dot."

The Parents Union was started by Green Dot and is still principally funded by Green Dot. Austin and Ford are former Green Dot employees.

Austin says the Parent Union plans to cut financing from Green Dot in the next few months. They're distancing themselves from the charter school only agenda "for the simple reason you can't serve all kids with charter schools," says Austin.

They'll opt for funds from major education foundations, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Parent Revolution acknowledges they don't have the answers to educational woes in Los Angeles, such as fixing the less than 50 percent high school graduation rates. They do, however, believe they can tap the players that have been excluded from education reform efforts to begin to find those answers.

"Parents have been thought of like ancillary appendages to the school, you know if they want to have a bake sale that's fine, but they weren't part of decision-making processes at schools" says Austin, an LAUSD parent and former Clinton White House staffer.

"Parents now have power and are going to do what is best for their kids," he says.

They'll use the new law to prove the Parent Revolution is all about the parents by supporting parents in any reform, charter or not, says Austin. Still, they'll use the charter option to put pressure on the district to consider drastic reforms.

"Hopefully for every charter school we open, we create ripple effects that force the school district because of the threat of competition to learn how to run better schools. If we can't do that, we will have failed," says Austin.

But instead of identifying schools that need reforms and campaigning aggressively at the site, the Parent Revolution is looking for change to come from the bottom up.

"There will be more focus on training parents, and then helping those leaders identify other parents," says Ford, a parent of two Green Dot graduates and who was first tapped by the charter to recruit parents. But, now she says her work with Green Dot is done and she's simply working to empower parents.

"It's about awakening people and saying we don't have to accept this anymore," she says.