Good News For Parent Empowerment From CA And OH [Or, Look How We Helped Manipulate The Ignorati!]

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In a previous blog post, Olivia Demas, mother of three, wrote about the attacks that were occurring across the country against parents who were advocating for a better education for their kids.

Parents in Compton, Calif. had petitioned for their failing neighborhood school to convert to a charter school under the state's Parent Trigger Law. Both parents and their children were being intimidated in an effort to get them to remove their signatures.

An Ohio mother, fearing for her kids' safety in her dysfunctional neighborhood school, had used her father's address to enroll her students in a different nearby school district. Her penalty for using this last resort to have access to a decent school -- 9 days in jail and a felony on her record.

A leading school reform blogger writes about the turn of events for these cases.

California Parents Celebrate Two Historic Victories!
LOS ANGELES – Today, parents across California -- from Compton to Sacramento -- are celebrating two historic victories. Parents in Compton celebrated the opening of two new high quality charter schools that were the direct result of the historic first Parent Trigger campaign at McKinley Elementary, and parents across California celebrated the unanimous, final passage of the Parent Trigger implementing regulations at the State Board of Education.

"A year ago or even six months ago, we could have never imagined that we would be celebrating such a momentous day," said Ben Austin, Executive Director of Parent Revolution. "Just one year ago, parents at McKinley Elementary had no voice in their children's educational destiny and were forced to send their children to schools where children are 50 times more likely to drop out of high school than go to college. Now parents across Compton are breaking the cycle and sending their children to one of the two new Celerity campuses, including one only two blocks from McKinley Elementary." Read More

Ohio Mom Who Sparked Viral Petition Campaign Granted Clemency by Governor John Kasich
COLUMBUS, OHIO – Gov. John Kasich today reduced the charges against Kelley Williams-Bolar, a single African-American mother jailed and convicted of a felony earlier this year for enrolling her children in a school district in which she did not live. 

The news comes after more than 184,000 Change.org members emailed Kasich's office in support of Williams-Bolar since January of this year, when her conviction sparked a viral campaign on Change.org created by Massachusetts resident Caitlin Lord. Read More