So I'm reading along in Nate Rau's story in The Tennessean about parents wanting more information on Tennessee's trigger law, which would allow a school to petition to flip to charter if 60 percent of parents or teachers requested it. And I'm mulling it over, because it's interesting to me, but I don't really have an opinion on charter schools. I don't think they're going to turn out to be the great public school fix-it folks are hoping for, but I certainly don't blame desperate parents for wanting to try new things. So, my feeling is that as long as there's a good mechanism for making sure kids who go to charter schools are learning what they're supposed to, and for shutting the schools down if they're not, then I'm curious to see how charter schools might do.
Then I hit this part:
The statute states that “an eligible public school may convert to a public charter school pursuant to this chapter if the parents of 60 percent of the children enrolled in the school or 60 percent of the teachers assigned to the school agree and demonstrate support by signing a petition seeking conversion, and the (local school board) agrees to the conversion.” [Metro Councilperson Emily] Evans said the law as written leaves many unanswered questions, such as how would the school district handle a possible conversion if parents were able to garner the necessary signatures? She said parents would be reluctant to pursue a conversion if they ultimately must cede control of the process over to the school district. The law does not define how a conversion would work, if the effort received school board approval.
