By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org
    
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Unified School District board made history Tuesday afternoon when it unanimously approved a Parent Trigger petition to overhaul 24^th Street Elementary School, one of the district’s most dysfunctional schools.  
    
It marked “the first time a group of parents has succeeded in pulling a ‘parent trigger’ on a struggling school without resistance,” writes the HechingerReport.org.
    
Parent Trigger laws empower the majority of parents of children in a chronically failing school to demand extensive changes in how the school operates. Parents typically can choose from a variety of “turnaround” options, including replacing a school’s teachers and administrators, or turning the school over to a charter school operator.
    
The 24^th Street Elementary parent leadership team will vote on a transformation plan by April 1.
    
Previous Parent Trigger petitions have been met by balky school boards that used every legal challenge they could find to stop turnaround efforts.
     
That was the case in Adelanto, California, where a parent group was forced to sue to take control of a failing elementary school. That case was the first successful Parent Trigger effort in the state.
     
The L.A. school board’s cooperation wasn’t too surprising. In 2009, a year before California adopted its Parent Trigger law, the school board created its own policy allowing parents to force major changes at low-performing schools.
    
Still, 24^th Street parents expressed joy over the board’s affirmative decision.
    
“With their unanimous vote, the LAUSD Board has given its full support to transform our school and give our children the opportunity for a better education,” said parent leader Amabilia Villeda, according to the HechingerReport.org.
    
LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy noted how unusual it is for school board members to agree to anything unanimously, and called the 7-0 vote “a powerful signal” that everybody on the board agrees with the underlying premise of the Parent Trigger law. 
    
Outgoing L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has also been an outspoken Parent Trigger supporter, as are three of the five mayoral candidates who hope to succeed him in office, reports LAWeekly.com.
   
This Parent Trigger victory highlights the importance of local school board elections. When teacher unions succeed in choosing board members, they effectively block any innovative reforms that shift power away from school employees to parents.
    
The 24^th Street parents are very grateful that the union didn’t dominate the last school board election in Los Angeles.