An educational revolution is sweeping across the United States: "parent trigger" laws that offer hope to the downtrodden, give a voice to the voiceless, and that finally bring together the most lefty of liberals and the most conservative of tea partyers.

The nation's first parent trigger law was authored in 2010 by former Democratic state Sen. Gloria Romero, a tireless fighter for the underprivileged whose mother arrived in the United States from Mexico with a fifth-grade education. It was passed by a Legislature controlled by Democrats. It provides that in schools designated failing by the Department of Education, a majority vote of parents can mandate the conversion of the school to a charter – a locally controlled public school of choice.

The first parent group to vote for the change was in Compton, with the dysfunctional McKinley Elementary School.

The law almost got derailed. After Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed it, the newly elected Gov. Jerry Brown appointed a state school board that at first appeared likely to gut the law. The Compton parents fought back, however, and organized bus brigades to drive through the night up Interstate 5 to testify at state board meetings.

Those Compton parents included African Americans who had long lived in that city, as well as Latinos who were relative newcomers. The two groups had often seen frictions, but their love for their children brought them together. In the end, they not only worked shoulder-to-shoulder, but at times they were jumbled one on another on the bus as they tried to sleep through the night on the convoys.

On July 13, the California Board of Education voted unanimously to support the families, a deliriously joyful moment filled with all the drama of the climax of the movie "Stand and Deliver," about legendary inner-city educator Jaime Escalante. Even the African American California Teachers Association representative on the board couldn't bring herself to vote against the future of the minority children.

Already, three other states – Texas, Ohio and Connecticut – have passed parent trigger laws, and at least a dozen other states are seriously considering them.

What has brought about such an astounding change so rapidly is that it quickly became clear that, other than opposition from teacher unions concerned about job security for their members, there is strong support for parent trigger across the political spectrum.

Even the most liberal supporters of traditional public schools find themselves uneasy with the reality that people with money already have freedom of choice in education, either through private schools or by buying a house near a good public school, while the poor minorities get the leftovers.

Parent trigger laws automatically target those most desperately in need of a hand. And, since charter schools throughout the nation are funded with lower per-student spending than traditional public schools, each conversion to a charter with parent trigger also means more money per student for those remaining in public schools.

One criticism progressives have often leveled at previous school choice approaches is the possibility that schools could cherry-pick and leave behind the weakest students. With parent trigger, that is impossible. With conversion to a charter, all families in that public school would get a cherished opportunity for a world-class education.

The phrase "no child left behind" has lost some of its luster because of the flawed law that bears that name. But with parent trigger, the child who is a classroom behavior problem gets the same right to attend the new charter school as everyone else, including those who speak Spanish, Hmong or even Urdu in the home. Truly, no child is left behind.

Thus, the community built around the old public school remains intact, and families are strengthened by the sense of belonging, of involvement, and even of home that school choice engenders.

For these reasons, many of the strongest supporters of parent trigger are progressives such as Californian Ben Austin, executive director of the national advocacy group Parent Revolution, and support has come from surprising directions, such as the liberal Mother Jones magazine.

For the tea party folks, while parent trigger is far from the Milton Friedman-style free market voucher they yearn for, it still means far more freedom of choice. And, just as with liberals, there is no element of parent trigger that is objectionable to conservatives.

Thus, in an era in which many despair of polarization and the difficulty of having civil discourse in the political arena, in parent trigger we have a concept that is embraced by almost all.

Last year the nation was shaken by the film "Waiting for Superman," with its revelations about the dismal quality of public schools, and touched by its heartwarming look at what charter schools have done for the disadvantaged. Parent trigger laws could well turn out to be the Superman we have been waiting for and bring an educational renaissance to many families that are struggling.

But, almost as important in these troubled times of divisiveness, polarization and shrill political posturing, parent trigger unifies us by offering a game-changing educational reform that almost all can enthusiastically embrace.

Parent trigger will bring us together.

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Alan Bonsteel is president of California Parents for Educational Choice, www.cpeconline.org.

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