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TitoMorelli
10/2/2011, 08:05 AM
By MICHEAL FLAHERTY

In case you needed further proof of the American education system's failings, especially in poor and minority communities, consider the latest crime to spread across the country: educational theft. That's the charge that has landed several parents, such as Ohio's Kelley Williams-Bolar, in jail this year.

An African-American mother of two, Ms. Williams-Bolar last year used her father's address to enroll her two daughters in a better public school outside of their neighborhood. After spending nine days behind bars charged with grand theft, the single mother was convicted of two felony counts. Not only did this stain her spotless record, but it threatened her ability to earn the teacher's license she had been working on.

In January, Ohioan Kelley Williams-Bolar was sentenced to 10 days in jail, three years of probation, and 80 hours of community service for having her children attend schools outside her district. Gov. John Kasich reduced her sentence last month.

Ms. Williams-Bolar caught a break last month when Ohio Gov. John Kasich granted her clemency, reducing her charges to misdemeanors from felonies. His decision allows her to pursue her teacher's license, and it may provide hope to parents beyond the Buckeye State. In the last year, parents in Connecticut, Kentucky and Missouri have all been arrested—and await sentencing—for enrolling their children in better public schools outside of their districts.

These arrests represent two major forms of exasperation. First is that of parents whose children are zoned into failing public schools—they can't afford private schooling, they can't access school vouchers, and they haven't won or haven't even been able to enter a lottery for a better charter school. Then there's the exasperation of school officials finding it more and more difficult to deal with these boundary-hopping parents.

From California to Massachusetts, districts are hiring special investigators to follow children from school to their homes to determine their true residences and decide if they "belong" at high-achieving public schools. School districts in Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey all boasted recently about new address-verification programs designed to pull up their drawbridges and keep "illegal students" from entering their gates.

Other school districts use services like VerifyResidence.com, which provides "the latest in covert video technology and digital photographic equipment to photograph, videotape, and document" children going from their house to school. School districts can enroll in the company's rewards program, which awards anonymous tipsters $250 checks for reporting out-of-district students.

Only in a world where irony is dead could people not marvel at concerned parents being prosecuted for stealing a free public education for their children.

In August, an internal PowerPoint presentation from the American Federation of Teachers surfaced online. The document described how the AFT undermined minority parent groups' efforts in Connecticut to pass the "parent trigger" legislation that offers parents real governing authority to transform failing schools. A key to the AFT's success in killing the effort, said the document, was keeping parent groups from "the table." AFT President Randi Weingarten quickly distanced her organization from the document, but it was small consolation to the parents once again left in the cold.

Kevin Chavous, the board chairman for both the Black Alliance for Educational Options and Democrats for Education Reform, senses that these recent events herald a new age for fed-up parents. Like Martin Luther King Jr. before them, they understand "the fierce urgency of now" involving their children's education. Hence some parents' decisions to break the law—or practice civil disobedience.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903285704576557610352019804.html?m od=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop#

sappstuf
10/2/2011, 08:15 AM
Forcing inner city kids(read minority) into schools that have failed for 50 years is about the most racist thing our government does on a daily basis.

badger
10/2/2011, 11:27 AM
at the same time, when people abandon failing schools, it just causes those schools to fail more. but yeah, I don't see the big deal in enrolling kids in an immediate family member's district, like the kids' grandfather, for example. It's not like granddaddy isn't paying the same taxes that fund the school district that other residents are.

diverdog
10/2/2011, 01:12 PM
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903285704576557610352019804.html?m od=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop#

This is not as easy as it sounds. First one has to ask how the school is funded. Secondly, what is the financial impact on the school. Third did these students deny kids in the district a spot in the school.

Vouchers sound good in principal but rarely work. Most great schools that I know of have waiting list.

sappstuf
10/2/2011, 02:00 PM
at the same time, when people abandon failing schools, it just causes those schools to fail more. but yeah, I don't see the big deal in enrolling kids in an immediate family member's district, like the kids' grandfather, for example. It's not like granddaddy isn't paying the same taxes that fund the school district that other residents are.

The people who could abandon those schools left decades ago... That is kind of the point.

TUSooner
10/2/2011, 09:19 PM
Only in a world where irony is dead could people not marvel at concerned parents being prosecuted for stealing a free public education for their children.
gold

yermom
10/3/2011, 05:44 PM
it's a crime to go to a school in a district you don't live in, but it's fine if you are in a country you shouldn't be in

Turd_Ferguson
10/4/2011, 05:08 AM
it's a crime to go to a school in a district you don't live in, but it's fine if you are in a country you shouldn't be ingold

dwarthog
10/4/2011, 06:00 AM
This is not as easy as it sounds. First one has to ask how the school is funded. Secondly, what is the financial impact on the school. Third did these students deny kids in the district a spot in the school.

Vouchers sound good in principal but rarely work. Most great schools that I know of have waiting list.

Vouchers rarely work, interesting.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/10/school-vouchers-swedens-free-market-success-story/?page=all

diverdog
10/4/2011, 06:18 AM
Vouchers rarely work, interesting.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/10/school-vouchers-swedens-free-market-success-story/?page=all

Where I live we have school choice. While it is not vouchers it is close. The problem for parents is that all the schools that are really good are full or close to full. So in reality few if any schools that are good are admitting more students. In the case of our local HS we only allow athletes to choice in. This is not the policy but it is the practice.

As far as I know all our great private schools are full or cost more than a voucher. St. Andrews, the school where Dead Poets Society was filmed, cost somewhere north of $45000 per year. Most of the good catholic schools are around $10K per year.

The big advantage Sweden has is it is a homogenious society. I can guarantee you that a place like Plano Texas is not going to want tons of inner city kids coming to their schools.

dwarthog
10/4/2011, 07:28 AM
Where I live we have school choice. While it is not vouchers it is close. The problem for parents is that all the schools that are really good are full or close to full. So in reality few if any schools that are good are admitting more students. In the case of our local HS we only allow athletes to choice in. This is not the policy but it is the practice.

As far as I know all our great private schools are full or cost more than a voucher. St. Andrews, the school where Dead Poets Society was filmed, cost somewhere north of $45000 per year. Most of the good catholic schools are around $10K per year.

The big advantage Sweden has is it is a homogenious society. I can guarantee you that a place like Plano Texas is not going to want tons of inner city kids coming to their schools.

Sweden has a homogeneous society? Hmmmm...

http://prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=06&year=2008&base_name=everything_you_think_you_know


Those skeptical about the applicability of Swedish policies and institutions often argue that to the extent Sweden “works,” it’s because it has an extremely homogeneous population. That was likely true half a century ago, but these days Sweden’s immigrant (foreign-born) share is virtually identical to America’s, at about 13% of the population.

Certainly there are issues to be worked out in the event that we wake up and actually decide to provide a sound basic education to our children in this country, I'm skeptical, but citing fallacies and anecdotal information to discredit the use of vouchers isn't helping the discussion.