Posted on 01/28/2011 9:29:28 AM PST by Rhonda Robinson
After a $6,000 investigation paid for by the Copley-Fairlawn school district, Kelley Williams-Bolar has been brought to “justice” in Ohio for trying to get her children into a better school.
Williams-Bolar was tossed into jail for ten days after investigators learned that she had falsified records to indicate that her daughters lived in their grandfather’s district so that they could attend school in his district, action she took to protect her children from the failing schools in her high-crime neighborhood. Voices on the Left and the Right are responding with outrage, but what exactly do those on the Left think is to blame for this problem? Racism, of course.
It’s overwhelming. I’m exhausted,” she said. “I did this for them, so there it is. I did this for them. [ABC News]
As a mother of four myself who lives in a district where the public elementary school has for years been the worst in the county, I understand something about Kelley Williams-Bolar’s anguish in dealing with the reality that her daughters’ school environment was unacceptable.
In Williams-Bolar’s case, it appears that the situation was far worse than being merely “unacceptable.” It was to the point that she did not feel that her daughters could even be assured of safety in their local school. She did what any good mother might at least consider doing under the same circumstances.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsrealblog.com ...
Why didn’t the school district go looking for illegals?
When the bureaucrats are in charge, madness reigns.
Make sure Rahm Emanuel knows where to send his kids.
2 reasons
1. To do so, would be poltically incorrect
2. Illegals who reside in the district pay rent or mortgage. Thus, they are paying school taxes directly, or indirectly.
Aren’t there some lawyers in this country who would be able and willing to help parents sue the school boards? This is grand theft + malpractice + child abuse/neglect. Most parents unfortunately are clueless because they, too, are products of the same failed system. Rotten to the core on so many levels.
I read another article on this yesterday - it claimed that this mother putting her children in another school cost taxpayers over $32K...
Question - Would not the taxpayers be paying for those children to go to any public school? One might could stretch it and say that it cost one particular school some $ - as that money, theoretically went to another school... but even that is a stretch.
Personally - I think this is an awfully good argument for a voucher system...Let the schools compete for students.
I’m curious how she got caught. I wouldn’t think school officials are smart enough to do anything but engage in group-grope sessions and scream loudly when they hear the word “God”.
By allowing students who are non-residents of the district to attend their schools without paying tuition, this sets the precedent that the cities can use to ship their derelicts to the suburban schools.
I worked hard to be able to live in an area that has excellent schools and my taxes reflect the cost of the schools. This woman has my sympathy up to a point, and that point is when she broke the law and lied about the residency of her children. Simply put it is theft of services and theft of the taxpayers money of the district in which these children were enrolled. The proper school district got this woman’s tax money and didn’t have to provide any services.
I don’t care if the school that she was supposed to send her kids to was crap...then she needed to work to fix it, not steal from another group of taxpayers.
This woman intentionally lied on her residential papers - so she could take advantage of a system paid for, and maintained by someone else.
Would you allow me to run an extension cord from your home, to my home - so I can use your power for free? Your power grid may have less electrical noise than what I have on my grid - and am I not entitled to clean electrical power too? Let's ignore the fact that you pay more for electrical power than I do. I want the lower rate, and the higher quality - and I want YOU to pay for it.
Unless she now supports privatization, all I’ve got is the world’s smallest violin.
I agree with you.
However in this case, it’s important to understand that the school district that the child actually attended was where her natural father lived, who was paying taxes.
The district that mom wanted to escape was where mom lived.
However he did not have majority custody.
There is more to this story. I saw information yesterday that the new school district offered her to allow the children to continue attendance - if she paid the tuition costs. That $30K number was mentioned. It seems she didn’t want to pay the money, so they arrested her. Also, her father (whom she was using as a residency address) apparently has a whole passel of legal problems of his own, which didn’t help her case.
The new school district in principal is right. The real tragedy is that this woman could not take her tax dollars (if she paid any) from the old district to the new. A voucher program would certainly do that.
All schools are not created equal.
Some schools cost a phenominal amount of money - they have indoor pool(s), and hire teachers at exorbinate sums of money. The taxpayers (people who own homes, or rent) pay property tax to the school system. A school in Malibu, CA will have a larger tax base than Pierre, SD. Conversely, the building and cost per student in Pierre, SD will be lower than in Malibu, CA.
This woman opted to live in a lower rent district; then lied to send her kids to the high rent district. You are not entitled to a Harvard education - if you can afford it, and you are qualied, you can apply.
This woman was not qualified (she didn’t reside in the district) yet felt entitled to send her kids to a school that is financed by someone else. This is theft by fraud, as she lied on her paperwork that wanted to know address. She lied, and got caught defrauding the taxpayers - and now is crying foul.
You are correct, but her natural father does live in the desirable district (although does not have majority custody), so it’s not as fraudulent as it may appear on the surface.
I really empathize with desire to find a better school for her kids. Here’s what the problem with what she did is.
Citizens in Community A vote for a higher property tax to contribute to their education system and engage in the local school system to get a better education system.
Citizens in Community B vote for a lower property tax for their education system.
Now Citizen from Community B continues to live in Community B, but sends her kids to the schools funded by Community A.
If it’s not illegal, then why shouldn’t every citizen in Community B send their kids to Community A schools, and let Community A citizens pay the bill?
Now, we need to extend that across districts within a state, allowing parents to take their local school taxes (and any proportional state and federal school revenue contribution) to the school and/or district to which they school their kids.
The education establishment will yell and scream over the money “being taken from them”.
But logic says “the money” should follow the student, and not be seen as the property of any particular school. If they are going to “lose” 100 students, why should they NOT “lose” the money for those 100 students. That's 100 students they don't have to teach. Shouldn't their costs, and therefore their revenue needs be commensurately less? Of course they should. But that fact won't change the education establishments contention that the funds “belong” to their institutions - NOT THE STUDENTS.
Theft of "services" is a damn sight better than the actual theft of actual money that the county school board engages in every year.
They steal from me without remorse every year, so the faux outrage on the part of you public school enablers is laugh-out-loud hilarious!
What “madness”? The woman committed fraud and stole from the taxpayers of Copley-Fairlawn?
Suppose you owned a restaurant and a table of customers ran up a huge bill. When the waitress presented the bill, they inform her that they paid a different, much less expesnive, restaurant, in their neighborhood, for the meal.
Would you think that was fair?
How is this lying mother any different? She pays her (presumably much lower taxes) in her district. Her kids should go where she pays.
Also, what if this was done on a larger scale. Whole districts of freeloaders could send their kids to neighboring districts, and cut their own school taxes to near zero, while the taxpayers of the good district would face huge tax increases to pay for the freeloaders.
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