School Choice or Just Another Koch Bros Scam?

National School Choice Week, a pet project of big corporations and conservative billionaires like the Koch brothers, kicked off Monday with celebratory forums throughout the country. Billing itself as a social justice movement committed to “ensuring effective education options for every child,” “school choice” has actually become a deeply divisive wedge issue for the right. But the folks at School Choice Week would prefer that you didn’t know that.

To read the rest, go to The ugly truth about “school choice” at Salon.com.

School Paid $6,000 to Private Eye to Spy on Black Mom

Today I received a reply to my post, “Black Mom Jailed for Sending Kids to White School,” arguing that Kelly Williams-Bolar was in jail for refusing to admit guilt. This is not entirely true. Three others were found guilty of a similar offense and were offered the chance to pay the “tuition” they “stole” from the Copley Township School District. They chose to pay and did not have to go to jail. Had Williams-Bolar paid the $30,000, she too might have been off the hook.

It was not so much an issue of admitting guilt as one of extortion. After all, the courts do not generally allow thieves to steal and then apologize and return the stolen property in exchange for their freedom. Ms. Williams-Bolar did not actually steal anything and there wasn’t any actual property that she could return. To her credit, she was reported as saying from jail, “If I had to do it all over again, would I have done it?. . .I would have done it again. . . but I would have been more detailed.”

Of course, if she had $30,000 to give to the school district, she probably wouldn’t have been living in a housing project in the first place, and very likely would have had a better neighborhood school for her daughters to go to, thus negating the desire to get them into the Copley School District.

Property is Theft

Like most legal proceedings, this was about property rights, not morality or right and wrong. Copley Township schools were fighting to keep their schools white and middle class, and to maintain their children’s social advantage. Williams-Bolar was punished in order to send a message to others to keep off their property. This message was so important to the Copely School District that they spent $6,000 on a private investigator to spy on her and try to dig up proof she didn’t live in Copely.

One hundred parents were initially charged with falsifying records to get their children into the Copely School District. However, 96 were able to “prove” that they were entitled to be there and were let off the hook, according the ABC news. ABC did not mention how they were able to prove their legitimacy, nor did they investigate the validity of these claims, which may or may not have been true. Williams-Bolar also provided evidence she lived in the district and even produced several documents, including a W-2 form, to support these claims. Perhaps she just wasn’t able to afford as good an attorney as the others and perhaps the others had not been subjected to $6,000 worth of surveillance.

A Glimmer of Hope

Williams-Bolar was visited in jail by State Representative Zack Milovich, who says he will fight to help her realize her dream of becoming a school teacher. This may require changing some laws or giving her a pardon, as she was convicted of a felony and the state Department of Education bans felons from teaching in Ohio.

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

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?

Angus Johnston, of Student Activism, wrote, “I live in New York City, where school placement is a bit of an obsession. This kind of gaming of the system is rampant among well-off white families here, and I’ve never heard of anyone being jailed for it—much less convicted of a felony.”

The situation in California is similar. Competition is fierce, especially in cities like San Francisco, and a variety of scams are common to ensure that privileged kids get into the better schools. Rarely do any middle class parents get busted, let alone have serious consequences. The result is a virtual Apartheid system, where the schools west of Twin Peaks tend to have much affluent students and higher test scores than those that are east of Twin Peaks.

Real Choice For the Really Rich & Connected

After posting  Authentic School Choice for Virtually No One,  I received a comment from Rachel Levy, who wrote a relevant and scathing piece for Truth Out: Mr. President, We Want Your Children's Education, Too. Levy is a graduate of DCPS and a former teacher there. She also writes several blogs, including All Things Education, which I suggest you check out.