This editorial by Amanda Ong placed 10th in the OCJEA Writeoff Feb. 28.

Education is the foundation of great people, and great people are the foundation of a great society. Yet somehow, within the democratic bases of America, our education system has become exempt from the principals of change by and for the people. However, a ray of hope in the people’s ability to create change in our own education system comes in the form of the Parent Trigger law authored in California  in 2010 by former California State Sen. Gloria Romero.

The Parent Trigger dictates that if half the parents plus one of a students at any chronically underperforming school petition, they can convert the school into a charter school, replace the staff and make budget decisions, dismiss the principal or close the school

As other nations in Europe and Asia have been quick to reform the education system, we must adapt to this change as our own education system falters; and who knows what is better for their child than its parents?

Romero holds that families have no power in their ability to cater an education to their children. Our rights to a proper education, the foremost platform in which we can be of equal status no matter our socioeconomic background, is hindered from the age we enter kindergarten and our parents, no matter how concerned, have no control over the matter.

“My mother was a hero,” Romero said. “She received a sixth grade education but she knew that education would be the thing that raised her kids to the prosperity and freedom, that education was a right and this, therefore, was a civil rights issue. And she knew that there were other parents who similarly understand the value of education.”

I myself come from a Chinese family. My grandparents came to this country with little money and received little respect, but they too knew education was the key to achieving the American dream. Society criticizes the academic work ethic of Chinese-American culture, but we know what Romer’s mother dictates to be true.

My mother and father both pushed themselves for this very reason. My mother’s family even moved in order to give her a better high school education when the public school system dictated she could only attend the school designated to her zip code, a standard Romero refers to as “zip code redlining.” Both of my parents and all of their siblings went on to receive Ivy League educations, except for one uncle who attended MIT. My father was the first non-white Anglo Saxon Protestant man on the board of his employer’s company.

A good education is the best way to create a better society. As Romero points out, 70 percent of those in prison did not receive a high school education. There are millions of inequities in our society—racial, socioeconomic, ability-related—which put citizens at a disadvantage, yet each can be mended by education. But the disparity between schools’ performances in America is staggering, making it difficult to amend these inequities and achieve equality.

If equality is our fundamental right, then making a proper education is our right too. Some of these schools test as critically underperforming for up to 12 years, the “shelf life” of a child’s entire education up to college.

Fullerton High School’s assistant principal, Marv Atkins, argues that the fault in the Parent Trigger law is that it takes educators out of the equation—but if educators are underperforming, parents have a right to take them out. Atkins says it takes a village to raise a child, that both parents and educators have a stake in the child’s life and education. Yet if parents are neglectful, a social worker can separate them from their child. If an educator is neglectful, what happens next? Often these educators continue to work and not just in the classroom with one or two children, but perhaps hundreds of children and for many years.

With Parent Trigger, parents who truly value the education their children receive can reform a neglectful school. If the government does not allow parental neglect, then why does it allow educational neglect?

Romero says that she believes parents are the architects of their children’s futures. I believe this too, But education is the foundation of that building that is the child’s life and in many cases that building is crumbling and decrepit and there is little to nothing parents can do about it. The Parent Trigger law will allow parents to repave this foundation with fresh concrete, to rebuild the futures of their children.

The law is being discussed for enactment in 20 states but with the support of American Citizens, one day it can be achieved federally. It is our duty as American citizens to make sure our rights are received and to make sure this justice is done.

Education is the key to a brighter future and a brighter American we we as American citizens need to take action and make sure we can bring this brighter future to our society.