I find this to be a shocking display of why the powerless can never get ahead. What this woman did is something I might have done if I lived part of the time with my father in another town. I would have felt it OK to enroll my children in that school. Instead, this whole family was taken to court for trying to stay safe and improve their lives. And now, this woman is a convicted felon and her life is ruined. Way to go, America. Someone who is willing to take on their generational responsibility and gets thrown in jail for doing it.
ABC News: Ohio Mom Kelley Williams-Bolar Jailed for Sending Kids to Better School District
Please, help us help ourselves.
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Where does it say that? How does 10 days in jail ruin her life?
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p>I think the whole idea of funding schools from property taxes, thus giving rich people better public schools, is absurd. Just like I think it’s absurd that Warren Buffet’s secretary pays a higher tax rate than Buffet does. But that doesn’t mean it’s ok for the secretary to cheat on his/her taxes. Likewise here.
in the video, the mother was convicted of a felony, and she was 12 credit hours away from her teachers license.
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p>I get that there are laws, and they serve a purpose. But it just amazes me how the letter of the law is followed so diligently for the less powerful. If she was, or her children were living with her father for 50% of the time I think they were within the law to attend the better school. I would imagine the father was paying taxes in that district.
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p>So now, the district spent a sum of money prosecuting this woman, threw her in jail for 10 days, placed a new convicted felon on the books, and disrupted the lives of those children, all for what good reason? Are they going to be able to lay off a few teachers now that all of those wayward children are no longer in the school? Close off a few rooms and save on heating costs? What are the externalities for this ridiculous prosecution. Will those children grow up to be productive citizens? Will they grow up at all? They are going back to a high crime area, after all. The whole system really stinks. It’s hard to believe we can’t do better than that.
You comment:
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p>Which begs the question, how are you measuring “better”?
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p>If you are measuring better as spending more per pupil than the wealthier suburbs then the data does not prove you out. The following per pupil expenditures are from DESE http://finance1.doe.mass.edu/s…
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p>Boston – $17,900
Cambridge – $26,337
Lowell – $13,111
Lawrence – $13,279
Lexington – $15, 368
Winchester – $11,373
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p>So are you arguing that Winchester should be funded at the same rate as Boston or Cambridge which would mean either an increase in funding to Winchester or a decrease in funding to Cambridge and Boston?
How the money is spent is another part. Results are certainly something to look at on things such as the MCAS, though even that variable you have to control for other factors. I would add physical condition of the buildings, availability of extracurriculars, teacher-student ratio, availability of special-needs services (including the need to be challenged), caliber of the teachers, newness of textbooks, and access to technology among the factors that could determine if one district is “better” than another. In a perfect world this parent would not need to try to get her daughter into a different district because ALL public school districts would be excellent and provide a world-class education.
…which is a third-degree felony in Ohio. The prosecution also tried her for grand theft; the jury deadlocked 11-1 for conviction.
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p>She was sentenced to five years in prison when the prosecutor refused the judge’s request to plea bargain for a lessor charge.
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p>The judge then suspended all but 10 days; but ordered two years probation and eighty hours community service.
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p>Nevertheless she is now a convicted felon, with all that entails for an aspiring teacher, absent a pardon from the Governor.
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p>If that doesn’t ruin her life, I don’t know what does.