Poll: Americans Support Parent Trigger Laws

Published May 23, 2013

Forty-nine percent of U.S. adults support Parent Trigger laws, which give parents the ability to petition for reforms at their children’s failing school, and 40 percent oppose such laws, a new poll finds.

In urban areas, 57 percent of adults support a Parent Trigger law. California passed the first such law in 2010, and now seven states have some version of it on the books.

“Parents should be the architects of their own children’s future,” said Gloria Romero, author of the California Parent Trigger law. “Parents want real rights, not just to be asked to show up at bake sales to raise money for schools. When a school doesn’t work for their child, they deserve another choice.”

Of the 1,000 people polled, the largest proportion (27 percent) said the best Parent Trigger reform would be to offer children a voucher for a better private school. Twenty-six percent said the best option would be replacing staff. And 20 percent favored converting a failing school into a charter school.

Braun Research conducted the poll, and the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice sponsored it.

Image by John Stavely.