Black Mom Jailed for Sending Kids to White School—Grandpa Guilty of Stealing White Kids’ Education

[Modern School]

Kelly Williams-Bolar of Ohio was sentenced to 10 days in jail and placed on three year’s probation for sending her kids to a school district in which they did not live. She was convicted before a jury of felony tampering with court records after registering her two girls as living with her father, who lives in a more affluent neighborhood, when they actually lived with her, in a housing project in Akron. Her father, Edward L. Williams, was charged with fourth-degree felony grand theft for stealing two years of educational services for their girls. The court determined that sending their girls to the wrong school was worth $30,500.

The courts neglected to subtract out the value of the education the girls would have received at their assigned school, which was likely much less than $30,000. Even so, this case clearly reveals the role of education as a mechanism for reproducing and maintaining existing social relations, contrary to the myth that it is the “great equalizer.” Better schools are worth more precisely because they exist in communities where families make more money, (even if they pay lower property tax rates there), and consequently pump out higher numbers of successful graduates. They have more resources, more active parent organizations and more effective fund-raising. These are the schools that produce the future bosses and CEOs. Lower income children are not wanted at these schools, not only out of fear that they would bring down test scores and take away resources and privileges from the well off kids, but because the system must regenerate low level and unskilled laborers, as well as future bosses and CEOs.

Ironically, Williams-Bolar had been in school studying to become a teacher herself, so she could provide a better life for her kids. Under Ohio law, she is now forbidden from receiving her teaching credential, as Ohio bans convicts from teaching. We certainly wouldn’t want someone like her corrupting our youth, now, would we?

To read the complete article, please go to http://modeducation.blogspot.com/2011/01/black-mom-jailed-for-sending-kids-to.html

[freshwest]

1. Gotta keep the barriers to success high, you know?

:puke:


Great, just great.

[elleng]

2. It WOULD BE the great equalizer, if schools were funded properly

and school boundaries were drawn properly and families were able to choose their schools. Otherwise, NOT.

[d_r]

3. there are two things here I don't understand her attorney letting go

1. If the value of the school was more than where her daughters would have attended, how is that access to fair and equal education? Right there, the court is admitting that the schools do not meet the requirements of the supreme court ruling in Brown v board of education - right?

2. The no child left behind act states that children can't be removed from a school if the parents are homeless - if they lose their home for economic reasons. Since she a.) used to live with her father, and b.) was living in publicly subsidized housing, couldn't this apply?

Ok, well, another one

3. With the many variations in living arrangements and family structure - many children with live with grandparents, though predominantly grandmothers, who is to say that the children did not live with the grandparent and instead lived with the single mother? Who can determine that? How often do they have to sleep over at grandpa's? There is no requirement for amount of physical space a child takes to be considered for a school.

[Hannah Bell]

4. that's an awful story. i hope they challenge the judgment.

[mimitabby]

5. there's a petition you can sign

http://criminaljustice.change.org/petitions/view/calling_for_reduction_on_appeal_of_ms_kelly_williams-bolar_unfair_sentencing_for_fraud_and_theft

[d_r]

6. so wait

she's in jail right now. So if the kids go to stay with their grandfather while their mom is in jail, does that mean that they can go to this school?