Locking children into failing schools just wasn’t enough. Now, we’re locking up mothers for trying to send their kids to better schools.
This is madness. A mother has been sent to jail for lying about her residence because she was attempting to send her kids to a better school district.
If you ask me, the union thugs and their cohorts in Congress and state legislatures around the country should be the ones facing time for locking children into failing schools.
Time Magazine reports:
Much of the poltical rhetoric on education reform has centered on the ability of parents to send their children to better schools, particularly in situations where they were forced to send them to schools that were failing. But in the case of Kelley Williams-Bolar, her desire to get her children better educational placement landed her in jail, and may well derail her aspirations of becoming a teacher herself.
Williams-Bolar, 40, and her two children live in housing projects in Akron, Ohio. For two years, she sent them to school in the Copley-Fairlawn district, where her father lived, because it was a safer environment — the high crime rate in her area drove her decision. The suburban school district hired a private investigator to find their residential records and it turned out she listed the children as living in that district, although they actually stayed with her.
Technically, that qualifies as a felony since she falsified records, and Judge Patricia Cosgrove sentenced her to two concurrent five-year prison sentences. She suspended the sentence, though, in favor of a 10-day jail sentence, 80 hours of community service and three years probation. She had been working as a teaching assistant for special needs children and earning a teaching degree, but since she is now a convicted felon, under Ohio law she cannot earn that degree.
Our education system in this country is disgraceful.
And don’t expect help from the Obama administration despite the President’s remarks during the SOTU about making our schools more competitive. Remember two years ago, sat by and Congress revoked Opportunity Scholarships for 216 students in Washington D.C, according to the Washington Times.
Even Joe Lieberman called it “the civil rights issue” of our time. Speaker John Boehner and Lieberman introduced legislation just yesterday to return the school voucher program to D.C.
So instead of putting mothers in jail maybe we should let them send their children to a decent school. Crazy idea, I know.
January 27, 2011 at 4:37 pm
You know, it is disgraceful that the school district and the judge went as far as they went, hiring a private investigator and receiving a 10 day jail sentence. But the woman lied. We all need to make an account for our actions, good or bad. She may have had the best of intentions, trying to get her kids into a better school, but to lie….I'm not sure that is the best way to go about it.
January 27, 2011 at 4:57 pm
At least she has her children. People lose them for no reason.
January 27, 2011 at 5:49 pm
I live here in Akron. What the story did not point out is that this woman did not pay taxes for the Copley-Fairlawn school district since she is not a resident. She is also, in fact, an Akron Public Schools employee, so she knew full-well what she was doing. At first glance it looks like she was simply being a good mother, but I am also a public employee, and we are repeatedly reminded that we cannot cross certain lines as such.
I enjoy your blog very much, but I thought you would like to know there is more to this story.
Susan from Akron
January 27, 2011 at 5:53 pm
Schools hire private detectives all of the time because parents falsify records all of the time. You can go anywhere in the country and find people who actively lie in order to get their children in a different school, for whatever reason. When I say "actively lie", I mean that they take steps that are illegal and in turn, tell their children to lie. The children know what's going on most of the time, so they are being asked to participate in illegal activities. That's not such a great life lesson.
In our area, if a school has a poor grade (you can agree or not – this is the way it works), the parents are allowed to choose a school for their students to attend that is performing well. There are no limitations to the choice. The only stipulation is that the parents must provide transportation to that school. There are charters, Choices in Learning, magnets – many options for parents to choose, other than lying. Maybe Ohio doesn't have this – no idea.
January 27, 2011 at 7:01 pm
I have to agree with the judge's decision, especially given the tax evasion and the employee status of the mother. This is not a situation where necessity drove the mother to defraud the schools and tax system, nor lie about the children's residency.
January 27, 2011 at 7:02 pm
In nyc it was common back in the 80s and 90s for parents to use a family address so some or all of their children could attend a particular school. But no law regarding public education can be entirely separated from the plainly unjust laws mandating attendance or approved alternatives.
January 27, 2011 at 8:02 pm
Just like illegal immigration…..it's against the law for others, but in the same position, I'd do it myself and if you wouldn't – you're just a liar!
Get in the cattle car, my little Jewish kids, they told us we have to. Everything will be OK.
January 27, 2011 at 8:16 pm
Maybe she didn't pay taxes in one district, but:
– She was paying taxes in another district that were like "free money" for that school–since her children didn't attend.
– Any homeschoolers in that district DO pay taxes and do not "reap the rewards" so to speak, so her children's education may have been paid for.
Gimme a break. Heaven forbid parents are allowed a choice here.
January 27, 2011 at 9:24 pm
Uh — let me get this straight.
You're the guy who's all against central government, likes to keep things local, doesn't want Federal standards, but when there's an actual difference in local schools, and a woman breaks the law to take advantage of these differences, you think that's fine?
So — do we need to have state and/or national standards or not?
Are people allowed to move to high-tax districts where their kids get better schools (and keep freeloaders out) or not?
January 27, 2011 at 9:43 pm
We all pay for public school. Parents should be able to send their kids where they want. Heck I should get money back because I don't have children in public school.
January 27, 2011 at 10:06 pm
I made this comment on another FB posting,
"I don't know how I feel about this. I want to know what she did to help out within her own school district to make it better? Why not become an activist there, rather then commit fraud. I live in an urban area with schools the test below the suburbs, there are many parents who do their best to make their system a better one. In fact when you factor out family concerns at home, those who come from relatively stable homes do fine in our public schools."
Thanks Susan from Akron for that info.
January 28, 2011 at 12:14 am
If people had school choice — yeah, I'm "pro-choice" on schools! — that would immediately motivate the failing schools to do better. Parents should have the choice to send their kids to better schools at least within the same school district. Definitely pols who vote against school choice, like the DC program, are not helping kids.
That being said, I don't think this mom did the right thing, because two wrongs don't make a right.
Still, if her sentence was just, then is it just that those who voted to end the DC voucher program get off scot-free?
January 28, 2011 at 2:12 am
Ohio has an open enrollment policy. School districts that accept students from outside the district get the state money along with the students. Many students come to Akron Public Schools under open enrollment. Many Akron students go outside the district to enroll legally in suburban districts that participate. Copley-Fairlawn doesn't participate. But this woman had other choices.
January 28, 2011 at 3:39 am
If one parent is paying taxes in a school district, I don't see that the kids' residency should matter at all. Heck, if Cousin Bob or Auntie Sue is paying taxes in the school district, I think they should be allowed to have at least four or five of their kid relatives attend school in that district.
As other people have noted, there are plenty more childless people paying taxes, than there are kids beating on the public school's doors.
January 28, 2011 at 4:33 am
It's kind of odd seeing CMR supporting "undocumented" families gaming the system in order to make their lives a little better for them and their families. Aren't they "illegal"?
January 28, 2011 at 10:41 am
How many nights a week would the kids have had to stay with the Grandfather to satisfy the residency mandate?
If the hoops (laws) are silly and mandate an inferior option, it's likely the burdens placed on the citizens are designed with special interests in mind rather than the best interests of the people who must live under them.
Time for tea.
January 28, 2011 at 12:59 pm
She did the crime and is serving the time. While I applaud her desire to get the best for her kids, her method was wrong, and now she is paying the price.
She knew that what she was doing was illegal.
Changes need to be made to our education system, but that doesn't excuse illegal activity. She should have pursued other, legal, actions.
January 28, 2011 at 3:13 pm
Matthew, I've never believed in the "law is the law" argument. Some laws should be resisted openly otherwise we become gray faceless automotons like the North Koreans.
January 28, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Her father needed to adopt his grandchildren. Our immoral culture is a persistent poison.
January 28, 2011 at 5:07 pm
"that doesn't excuse illegal activity"
the law is a miscarriage of justice, and the punishment far too harsh
"two concurrent five-year prison sentences"
why was it suspended? mercy? or the child would have moved in with the grandparent and then attended the same suburban school – d'oh! Or would the state not have allowed that due to possible collusion on the grandfather's part, and kidnapped the poor kid for their foster-rape system.
The public school system is one of the deadliest poisons in the history of governments.