There is a moment early in Won鈥檛 Back Down, when Jamie, a poor single mother whose daughter is struggling to learn to read in a classroom with a lazy, cynical teacher, has gone to the school to complain.
She gets the ultimate brush off: some kids just won鈥檛 measure up, she’s told, and hers is one of them. 鈥淓verybody can鈥檛 rise to the top, I鈥檓 afraid,鈥� quips the weary educator.
It is then that Jamie, in her skinny jeans and down-market eyeliner, utters a line so effective and so emotionally manipulative that I found myself weeping and cringing at the same time 鈥� and only a few minutes into the movie, dammit! 鈥� a line that could be the slogan for all parents engaged in the battle for their children鈥檚 education.
鈥淵ou know those mothers who lift one-ton trucks off their babies? They鈥檙e nothing compared to me.鈥�
So begins this star-dusted quasi-fictional revolution: one angry mother, one failing school, and a boatload of education politics. Won鈥檛 Back Down, which premieres tonight as part of Education Nation, NBC鈥檚 annual education summit, promises to be the 鈥� the 1983 film about Karen Silkwood, who blew the whistle on the plutonium plant where she worked 鈥� for education reformers. It鈥檚 got the kind of star power that makes audiences sit up and pay attention like good pupils. Viola Davis (who starred in The Help) plays the teacher who partners with single mom Maggie Gyllenhaal to turn around a broken school in inner-city Pittsburgh, while Holly Hunter, the salty dog union leader, is torn between her professional loyalties and her growing disillusionment with union politics. It鈥檚 got that righteous story line of the little guys fighting a monstrous system and the small-minded people who guard it. And like Silkwood, the story is inspired by real events if not a real person: recent legislation 鈥� known as parent trigger laws 鈥� in a few states now give parents unprecedented power to take over low-performing schools.
But like any Hollywood flick, it doesn鈥檛 let reality (or the lack of it) get in the way of the narrative arc. What鈥檚 different about this story is that the real events are not part of the past, but unfolding as we speak. When Meryl Streep鈥檚 Silkwood glanced in that rear view mirror portending her death at the hands of thugs hired by the plutonium plant she was investigating, the film offered an interpretation of past events, not a salvo in a current political struggle. Won鈥檛 Back Down, however, offers an alternate reality of a history in the making.
No group of parents has used the Parent Trigger laws to complete a school turnaround, but there are a couple of efforts in the works. The struggle that’s furthest along is a small school in the middle of California鈥檚 Mohave Desert called Desert Trails, where parents gathered enough signatures to turn a low-performing elementary school into a charter school, won a court case against a resistant district, and now are waiting for that court to enforce the law against district employees who have refused to obey the court鈥檚 ruling. Moreover, the real parent trigger law differs from the one depicted in the movie in that it solely requires participation from parents whereas the law in Won鈥檛 Back Down also requires 50 percent participation from the schools鈥� teachers. Because a school takeover may include firing all the teachers, this makes it even more difficult to achieve.
The combination of immediacy and Hollywood-license makes Won鈥檛 Back Down both more potentially exciting for parents and all the more confusing. It also makes it more polarizing. Where the movie will no doubt dismay those who dismiss the argument that teachers unions, negligent teachers, and self-serving bureaucrats are the mountain between where we stand and the promised land of great public schools, ed reformers will see a rousing call-to-arms in the form of a fictional Waiting for 鈥淪uperman鈥�.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a unique situation because it鈥檚 a movie that parents can walk out of and immediately participate in,鈥� explains Ben Austin, the architect of the parent trigger law that inspired the movie.
The film has from critics who decry its 鈥渦nion bashing鈥� narrative and point out that the film was green-lighted by a highly partisan crowd. Philip Anschutz, a big supporter of conservative causes, owns Walden Media, the maker of the film.
Indeed, as one seasoned ed reformer and former Teach for America (TFA) teacher with whom I watched an early screening put it, Won鈥檛 Back Down offers 鈥渆very education reform clich茅 there is.鈥� There鈥檚 the lottery scene for the new charter school, where the principal asks the sea of desperate parents, 鈥淎re you angry?鈥� and gets them chanting, 鈥淲e will not wait!鈥� There鈥檚 the Kafkaesque process that Jamie encounters when she first tries to get an appointment with the district to start a new school and hears it may take 3 to 5 years. There鈥檚 the young, hunky TFA teacher who gets his kids singing their curriculum in hip hop line dances juxtaposed against the soon-to-retire teacher who reaps the most benefits from the teacher鈥檚 union rules, which privilege seniority over skill, while her students learn squat. There鈥檚 the tony private school where the local board of education members send their kids. And there鈥檚 the mother whose dawning realization of her own child鈥檚 academic struggles galvanizes a movement.
And this is where sometimes accurate clich茅s move more toward fantasy. It鈥檚 not that parents concerned about their own child鈥檚 struggle can鈥檛 turn into public school spark plugs like Jamie. They can 鈥� though far more often, they vote with their feet and move schools. But even those parents who have become ed reform warriors don鈥檛 do it alone.
Indeed, there is one very important character missing from Won鈥檛 Back Down 鈥� and that鈥檚 Ben Austin himself. As the creator of the parent trigger law (鈥渋t was my idea,鈥� he told me) this seasoned Democratic activist has fueled the parental political movement in ways that are hard to underestimate, but perhaps boring to immortalize on the silver screen. His “Parent Revolution” campaign not only drafted or provided inspiration for legislation that has put power in the hands of parents in California, Texas, and Mississippi (with bills in 20 other states pending), but it trains and supports those parents as well.
鈥淚 thought it was prank call,鈥� explains Austin, referring to the phone call he received explaining that a movie had been made about the parent trigger. Though his opinion of the movie is overwhelmingly positive 鈥� 鈥渁 good movie cinematically and in the way in which it approaches a very complex issue鈥� 鈥� he characterizes it as a G-rated version of the actual events.
鈥淢y critique of the movie is that it doesn鈥檛 depict the harsh reality. As dramatic as the movie is, it makes it look way too easy.鈥�
Although early critics of the movie (who mistakenly interpreted scenes from the trailer) suggested that Hollywood had overplayed the drama, Austin contends the filmmakers didn鈥檛 come close to showing how ugly these parent trigger campaigns can become. At Desert Trails, there have been accusations of district officials forging documents, threatening to turn undocumented parents over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and refusing to follow court orders. (: 鈥淎nd if I鈥檓 found in contempt of court, I brought my own handcuffs, take me away. I don鈥檛 care anymore.鈥�)
鈥淚f you鈥檇 have put any of this in a movie, no one would have believed it,鈥� says Austin.
Indeed, even one of the film’s most Hollywood rip-your-heart-out moments 鈥� when Jamie鈥檚 daughter experiences mistreatment from her teacher, presumably because of her mother鈥檚 activism 鈥� pales in comparison to Austin鈥檚 tales from the trenches. He claims that at one school children were denied access to the bathroom, so they’d wet their pants and then be sent to the nurse to wait for their parents to arrive with clean clothes. 鈥淭he school nurse was in charge of the rescission campaign to get parents to remove their names from the parent trigger petitions, and would then pressure parents when they arrived with clothes for their child,鈥� he claims.
Whatever your politics, if you are parent of a child in a public school, this is a movie worth watching. You may love or hate it 鈥� or some strange mixture of both depending on your politics and stomach for Hollywood gloss, but it鈥檚 nothing if not a good conversation starter about the battle taking place over the future of our public schools. It鈥檚 also history worth watching: this October 5, the parents at Desert Trails will be back in court asking the judge to enforce the order that鈥檚 already been issued. If that happens, it may become the first time in American history that parents have quite literally taken over their school.
