Campaign season is well underway, and we’re seeing Democratic and Republican candidates lining up staff for the upcoming, seven-month sprint.
Here’s a personnel hire of interest to followers of education policy: Linda Serrato, currently the spokeswoman for the advocacy group Parent Revolution, is going to work for the Obama 2012 team.
Serrato will work as press secretary for the president’s re-election campaign in California, a traditional Democratic stronghold in presidential races. She also worked for Obama’s campaign in 2008, out of New Mexico, and on Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2007.
Based in Los Angeles, Parent Revolution is one of the most visible advocates for “parent trigger” proposals—efforts to allow parents to restructure schools or convert them to charter schools through a majority vote—and has led the fight to support those efforts in California and backed them elsewhere. Those proposals have proven controversial, and in some cases have drawn loud opposition from some teachers’ unions, a big part of the Democratic party’s base. A number of Democrats, however, support the trigger concept, viewing it as an important vehicle for transforming perpetually struggling schools.
Parent Revolution’s executive director, Ben Austin, has worked on numerous Democratic party political campaigns, and served in the Clinton White House.