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.
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.
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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.
How about the countless illegally present Mexicans? In any other country, they would be jailed for trying to steal the money from the state by attending public schools. Here in CA, illegally present Mexicans can attend the University of California, and get a free ride by the existence of scholarships for illegally present Mexicans.
If she had been illegal she’d have been out of jail within 24 hours, offered an apology and they would have made sure she could get as many government benefits as possible.
Public education in america is not free. local taxes for each district pay for it. some districts have higher tax rates and more expensive property so…. those kids have better schooling. If you want better schooling move or vote for higher taxes in your area.
One more example that the voucher system, opposed to no end by teachers unions, is the only proper solution. You the taxpayer get money in your hands and enroll kids to school (public or private) that you deem the best. Install vouchers and this problem instantly ends.
Your mental acuity is astounding.
Unless of course you live in a rural area where the closest other optional school would be 30-45 minutes away, or more, with no buses. So mommy and daddy get to drive junior to and from at $3.00 + a gallon. Not everyone lives in an urban area with multiple choices.
Clearly the real problems in America stem from people seeking a life and future for their kids and circumventing the system.
The outrage here is warranted,
As someone that works in a Northeastern Ohio school I can tell you there were other options even if Copley-Farilawn Schools did not offer open enrollment. There are plenty of great schools that would enroll those students. Maybe not in Summit County, I can’t speak for them….. but Medina, Stark, Portage and Wayne Counties would have accepted her children. Schools get paid by open enrollment. My school does very well with open enrollment, and the funding allows up to serve all our students with better programs and technology.
Ms. Williams-Bolar did NOT do that. She broke the law. Was she made an example? yep!
In about the only thing our governor has done with a deft touch he reduced Ms. Williams-Bolar to a lower charge. Consider it done guys.
Funny how this extra information never makes into the press . . .
Can’t expect them to bother with the whole story now can we? One of my heroes was on Dr. Phil with Ms. Williams-Bolar (go Bob Dyer!) and they did a fair job of explaining the situation. I don’t think may people saw it. I don’t generally have time for that sort of stuff since my DVR is filled with Survivor and HDNet concerts 🙂
This treatment seems more than a tad excessive. I fully understand the “Fuck you, I’ve got mine” and “Let the Fucking poor rot!” mentality of some posters here but there has to be a reasonable approach to this situation. You can sit in you ivory tower and look down your nose at the “Worthless Rabble” but one day one of these poorly educated kids that you refused to even consider giving a break to, might kill you and your family while robbing you. No matter how much you might believe you live on an island, YOU DON’T! Everything has consequences.
Another person who believes that people who commit crimes are the victims of the system. No. The society is the victim of these worthless criminals.
A criminal has made the choice to not work, not been created by the society who offered education which was refused.
In Oakland, so many worthless black kids don’t finish High School it is disgusting. It is their culture’s choice, not Oakland’s fault.
And so, Oakland is full of criminals, because the culture there places criminals on a pedestal.
Don’t tell me it is not true, unless you have been there and seen it as I have.
I was once told by a jerk in prison that he was the “role model” for the youth in his neighborhood.
Great. Some people just deserve to rot.
Don’t get me wrong. You would absolutely be the victim in that crime but that would be small solace for your grieving family. The point I was trying to make is you can’t afford to ignore the growing problem or to overreact and make it worse (as our society often does). Sooner or later it will be everyone’s problem and it will be much harder to change it.
Who is this “we” you are referring to? I call FOUL!!!!! in the persona of bobbo, I am an elitist far left wing progressive liberal AND PROUD OF IT.
You are too much engaged in “either/or” thinking, or really not thinking.
OF COURSE===people who grow up without resources and opportunities turn to crime. They have been victimized by society who they in turn, turn around and victimize right back. Thats why its a process that can be broken by the right programs at the right time and place==yes always costing money, but more importantly, and in greater scarcity, is the will and the idea to do it.
A conservative today would rather spend 50K per year to put someone in jail than to spend 20K per year to keep him out. They are anti-criminal and anti-social safety net and can’t see a single dot much less connect them.
Stoopid Hoomans.
I thought you promised to go away.
You are not bobbo. Bobbo can read.
Not even a week yet, but lack of post numbering is fatal. Can’t find threads.
Very bad format.
We are all hooman, silly or otherwise.
How many days left for you, Bobbo?
I’ll be buying a cake.
Simple fact. The high status teachers get assigned to the high status schools in the high status neighborhoods.
Simple fact. Kids from broken homes and single parent households rarely do as well as kids from homes with two committed parents.
Simple fact. Kids from wealthy homes normally are way ahead by the time they start school. The things that caused them to be ahead to start with continue to compound through their educational career.
If you expect a school with a 180 day school year to make the gains that one with a 270 school year is making you need to get off the hard stuff and let your brain recover.
It took me a while but I think I get it. American education is for Americans. Would someone explain to me why all your best physicists, chemists, mathematicians and computer scientists are Indian, Chinese and Korean?
Can’t have blacks do well for themselves. It is important they stay dependent on the government, so they will then vote for the party of government. Moynihan admitted this was why Democrats were against his Social Security reform proposal.
Even blacks in poor schools could do well, even in segregation. It was a matter of how the schools were run. Then the educational reform theorists came in and made things worse. Go ebonics!
To Uncle Dave or whoever else designed the newer but not better format:
You need to go back to the previous blog format that was easier to read. It wasn’t broke, so fixing it wasn’t needed.
In New Mexico at least, the biggest problems with the school systems have been lack of support from parents or the school districts. In some places this was because school funding had been drained off to support someone’s pet political project (the current and previous governors).
What makes you think I had anything to do with it? I’m just one of the guys who posts stuff. I have no control over anything other than what I post.
It is not necessary that a person having a master’s degree makes a better teacher, a teacher is the one who arouses interest in the students and today’s teachers are failing in this.
Bingo!
Someone on this board recommended we watch “Waiting for Superman.” I did and was shocked at what I saw. I knew we had problems but I had no clue they ran this deep.
You want to see what is wrong with the American Education System, boiled down to an hour or so, watch this movie.
My favorite line was when the head of the National Teacher’s Union responded to a question as to why she was against paying teachers based on performance instead of tenure. I can’t remember the exact words she used, but it was something like, “I don’t want a system where there are two groups of people — those who are good at something and those who aren’t.”
WTF!
She tried, unconvincingly, to explain why someone who was a star performer should get the same pay as someone who just put their time in.
You can blame it all you want on politicians and the unions, but ultimately, it is our responsibility, the parents, to fix this mess. It’s our kids that suffer. For starters, we need to banish that lady from the human race.
Site comments:
I like the threading model. Keep that!
I wish the older stuff was back on top and it all loaded in one page. I don’t like paging to get to where I left off reading and don’t know how many pages to go back.
I’m not keen on the colors. The contrast affects my older eyes.
I can solve the font size with Ctrl + but it’s annoying.
This is surprising to know. How can one go upto this extent?? This is not fair practise & government has to take seious measures against this.
What bull, I would dare anyone to find a illegal alien that has been charged much less prosecuted for stealing an education, all the while they steal social services, welfare/food stamps, and the education sucking in 10 to 20 times out of the country and out of our standard of living.
Welcome to a country in which a citizen is a second class citizen to everyone else. Only here do the elites hold us in such disdain.
Whatever……………………………………………………………………………………..
Traaxx
Vouchers are not the magic bullet of school reform that people claim it will be.
For starters, vouchers are not very useful for poor families who can’t afford the rest private tuition even after the voucher.
They are mostly useful for affluent families who generally live in areas where the public schools are good, anyway.
I’ve been working in public schools for a couple of years and don’t believe that teacher unions are the problem with our educational system.
Nor are bad teachers. Most teacher I work with are good and dedicated.
I think the biggest problem is the parents. Find me a failing kid and, almost always, their parents are not supportive of their education. Find me a successful kid and, almost always, they have supportive parents.
The issue with Miss Bolar was the lack of safety, not opportunity. That being said, we need a system where the parents that DO care about their kids can put them in a better system. we already know that a good chunk of the parents are themselves illiterate in many cases.
You can’t have a mom teaching the ABCs when she can’t do them OR 123s.
Ah geez – the all new, ugly format, and STILL no filters for Hooman, Pukes, Dumbs, etc. Pointless.
my brain needs the filter, its a pain to find people who’s you regularly read now. That means we all spend more time reading flamers and fools as we look for our favorites…..format sucks.
Format sucks!