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.
How is it a felony to send your kids to another school district? What did the individual “Steal” if the education is supposedly free?
I won’t even get into all the other issues surrounding this, I just don’t understand how a law like that could be in place. Is education only free in your district?
without even reading the article or commenting on the theft, i’ll go ahead and declare it interesting that she’s described as “an african-american mother of 2.” would she otherwise be described as “a white mother of 2?”
The article is pretty clearly biased in it’s point it is trying to make. Sadly I’m not sure any such bias was necessary considering the topic of discussion.
A parent attempts to enroll their kid in a better public school in a different district because their local schools suck…they go to jail?
We now have “Tasks forces” searching for all these “Felons”?
The MIL worked in a school district for one of the better suburbs of Chicago, high property taxes to pay for the schools and the teachers ect…
At the beginning of every term they had kids coming from the west side of Chicago and tried to do the same thing. The parents would rent a PO box in the suburbs and try to use it as a home address. This is also a separate county, fwiw. I don’t think this particular school district did anything than send them packing. I’m not defending the actions or either party as I can see why a parent would try this if they could and I could see how people who live in a high priced tax district for the purpose of the schools get upset by subsidizing inner city kids.
I could see how people who live in a high priced tax district for the purpose of the schools get upset by subsidizing inner city kids.
You see I DON’T get this part. If a parent is going to go thru the trouble of getting a PO box, driving their kid to this school or paying for transportation it SCREAMS that this parent actually gives a shit. Furthermore if the kid DOES screw up you can THEN just kick them out. A parent that cares is going to FAR more for a kids education than anything a teacher can do.
Are these “Rich districts” the same people asking for their taxes to be raised? Sure “Raise our taxes but keep your dam kids out of our district”?
Good lord I say throw the dam doors open. If a parent is willing to put in the effort to arrange transportation, go to meetings that far away, get a local PO box the school should be welcoming them with open arms. If money becomes an issue pull the money paid in by that individual out of their existing district to help defray the cost.
absolutely, you are finding a situation in the current system where an absurdity occurs. a problem.
the current system funds schools through property taxes and thus laws dictate you can’t go to a school where you aren’t paying the taxes (though some areas allow this if you get permissions first)
she chose to cheat and judges chose to interpret that as theft and send her to jail, which I agree is absurd. She should have at most just been told not to do it again.
anyway, you are posting this because it is an example of your favorite meme not working perfectly. the meme of any government existing at all always making things worse.
of course it doesn’t work perfectly
neither does anarchy of capitalism of privatization or anything.
america chose to shove education down the throats of its citizens. that is probably a good thing, we should not be so confident that it is not without actually testing the alternatives.
in MJuric world, I assume all education would be privatised right? and no government should force children to go to school at all?
Yes, can make the connection for me as how your question relates to this article?
Clearly the woman in the story gives a crap, she was studying to be a teacher and I agree with you. But “public” schools aren’t free and I think you know that. In the case of Chicago and it’s suburbs and the collar counties, people move to the 'burbs and out of the city so they can pay more in taxes but also to keep their kids out of CPS and not have to pay for CPS and pay for private schools. So instead of paying 9k a year in property taxes for a school system you can’t use then pay another 15 - 50K a year depending on where you send your kid to school per year. They choose to move to a suburb where they may pay 15k a year in taxes and get a school system for they can use plus a whole lot more for their money.
Sounds like what you’re getting at is vouchers, which you may also know has been introduced by the Rev. Meeks more than once in Springfield but has been constantly blocked by the teachers unions.
My guess, without reading the laws at issue but knowing the law around where I live its not technocally “theft” but a crime none the less. You sign a document stating that you live in the district when you register your kid for school. If that is not true,you have just made a false statement to obtain a government benefit (here education) and just about everywhere, that is a felony.
I avoid all this by sending my kids to private school. All they want is for the check to clear. As long as that happens, you’re in, no matter where you live or what you look like.
Sounds like what you’re getting at is vouchers, which you may also know has been introduced by the Rev. Meeks more than once in Springfield but has been constantly blocked by the teachers unions.
No actually what I’m trying to get at is WTF is wrong with people? We offer a “Free”, yes I fully realize who pays for it, education for the sole reason of “Benefit to society”. Yet when someone goes out of their way to actually maximize the benefit in a positive manner we throw them in jail? Seriously how is this a crime? How do we not applaud this behavior?
Seems to me that by arresting people we are saying “Hey screw you. We really don’t care about your education or your childs education we just want to feel good about ourselves when we say we live in a society that offers everyone an equal education. In fact we will purposefully thwart your efforts to get your child a better education because we really don’t want to pay for your education if it impacts our own kids education in anyway”
the current system funds schools through property taxes and thus laws dictate you can’t go to a school where you aren’t paying the taxes (though some areas allow this if you get permissions first)
Schools are not entirely funded thru property taxes.
anyway, you are posting this because it is an example of your favorite meme not working perfectly. the meme of any government existing at all always making things worse.
No actually, I’m posting this because we have a constant cry of “It’s for the children”, yet when a parent actually acts on behalf of what is best for their children we put a boot on their throats because they are “Taking” what we espouse to “Want” to give to them in the first place.
Yes in my world this would never happen because you’d pay for where your kid went school. Again however that has nothing to do with my reason for posting this which is much deeper.
If we REALLY wanted to educate kids, this would never happen. If what we really cared about was the education of these kids there would have been an absolute outcry from the parents in the “Rich district” claiming “Hell no not on my watch.”
Rather than that, no they were pissed off because someone “Stole from them”.
of course it doesn’t work perfectly
Working perfectly is a far cry from working at all.
neither does anarchy of capitalism of privatization or anything.
Nothing works perfectly. However I would hope a society that continuously is faced with the choice of whether to help others or not would make far better choices in this situationthan was made here which is basically the result of never having to make those decisions and the resulting believe of “Hey I’ve already done everything I was supposed to, you’re not getting any more from me”
I avoid all this by sending my kids to private school. All they want is for the check to clear. As long as that happens, you’re in, no matter where you live or what you look like.
I send my to private school as well, that doesn’t get me out of paying for the public one though. It would piss me off if this happened in my district…which it probably never will because people in my district are trying to get out most likely
In other words I’M PAYING to educate kids, period. If someone wants to put the effort forth to get into my district because they think their kid will be better educated I WANT my money to go to that student even if that means less money spent on the other kids.
Why you might ask? Because 1 student + 1 involved parent is greater than 1 student - involved parents - some money.
In the end the district ends up being a better district because I doubt there’s a district out there that has 100% involved parents.
absolutely, you are finding a situation in the current system where an absurdity occurs. a problem.
the current system funds schools through property taxes and thus laws dictate you can’t go to a school where you aren’t paying the taxes (though some areas allow this if you get permissions first)
she chose to cheat and judges chose to interpret that as theft and send her to jail, which I agree is absurd. She should have at most just been told not to do it again.
anyway, you are posting this because it is an example of your favorite meme not working perfectly. the meme of any government existing at all always making things worse.
of course it doesn’t work perfectly
neither does anarchy of capitalism of privatization or anything.
america chose to shove education down the throats of its citizens. that is probably a good thing, we should not be so confident that it is not without actually testing the alternatives.
in MJuric world, I assume all education would be privatised right? and no government should force children to go to school at all?
Yes, can make the connection for me as how your question relates to this article?
~Matt
Jack…
public schools up here are funded by property taxes too, the difference is that the education portion of the tax is sent to the Education Ministry and shared equally among all school boards… novel idea isn’t it.
That happens where I live too; apparently the shopping center down the block from me is the residence for a lot of families. Or at least it was until the school system found out a while back. Around here a lot of people get riled up because we are a part of the city so it ends up that our property taxes subsidize the inner city schools. I think the number is that our ZIP code is less than 10% of the population but pays ~55% of the city’s property taxes. So every couple of years, they bring up how our money could be better spent on the schools here instead of subsidizing schools and roads downtown so we need to secede and form our own city.
Personally, I’d prefer to see someone like this lady at least try to get her kids into a decent school than the usual apathy from many parents, especially the inner city ones. At least she’s trying. Maybe she didn’t go about it the right way, but she was trying to do what she thought was right for her kids.
The MIL worked in a school district for one of the better suburbs of Chicago, high property taxes to pay for the schools and the teachers ect…
At the beginning of every term they had kids coming from the west side of Chicago and tried to do the same thing. The parents would rent a PO box in the suburbs and try to use it as a home address. This is also a separate county, fwiw. I don’t think this particular school district did anything than send them packing. I’m not defending the actions or either party as I can see why a parent would try this if they could and I could see how people who live in a high priced tax district for the purpose of the schools get upset by subsidizing inner city kids.
What did the individual “Steal” if the education is supposedly free?
Money.
I totally agree with your point, but don’t pretend you don’t know what it’s about. Money. When the parent pulled the switch, one district got more money, and the other got less.
Since when did the word public become a synonym for free.
What happens when all the kids who’s parents care for a “free” education in a better school district start sending all their kids to the same “good” free school. It’s only free because the people who aren’t paying the taxes to send their kid to that school district are trying to make it free for themselves. The people that live in that community have to pay for it even though it’s still.
