Fla. parent trigger headed to House vote

The Florida parent trigger bill cleared its third committee Friday – again along party lines – and is headed to a vote by the full House.

More than 20 people signed up to speak before the House Education Committee on HB 867, with a nearly even split between supporters and opponents. They and lawmakers echoed the same arguments that have circulated since last year, when a similar bill passed the House but failed the Senate on a 20-20 tie.

“When we let these corporate interests take over the schools” it won’t empower parents, said Rep. Mark Danish, D-Tampa, a teacher and teachers union representative. “It’s going to muzzle parents and prevent them from voicing their concerns.”

“Let’s not make this a partisan discussion. Let’s not be concerned of this boogieman of phantom interests,” said Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Doral, the bill sponsor. Opposition is coming from “the unions and the establishment that are trying to control the debate and trying to control jobs.”

Rep. Joe Saunders, D-Orlando, proposed an amendment to the portion of the bill that bars districts from placing a student, for a second year in a row, with a teacher who received a poor performance evaluation. The amendment would allow parents to opt out of that provision.

“I don’t think we are empowering parents” when we don’t give them a choice about a teacher whose poor rating may be based on a faulty evaluation, he said.

Saunders withdrew his amendment at the hearing but said it would be refined and reintroduced.

So far, the trigger bill’s counterpart has not been heard in the Senate.

The House Education Committee also passed a bill that would allow charter schools to have dibs on unused school district buildings. More on that from The Buzz. More on what some Senate education leaders think about the idea from Gradebook.