Ohio Mother is Modern Day Rosa Parks
by Kyle OlsonPerhaps you’ve heard about Kelley Williams-Bolar, the Ohio mother who was recently tried and convicted for falsifying residency records so her daughters could attend a better school where they would receive a quality education.
The “better school” hired a private investigator to prove that Williams-Bolar’s children lived outside the district. As a result, she received a 10-day jail sentence, three years of probation, and a criminal record (two third-degree felonies) that will haunt her for the rest of her working life.
All this happened simply because Williams-Bolar wanted her children to receive a decent education.
Yes, she broke the law and was punished. On strict legal grounds, that was the correct course of action.
But in the broader sense of right and wrong, what happened to Williams-Bolar is an outrage – possibly of game-changing proportions—and should serve as a wakeup call for Americans about the need for bold, substantial school choice laws throughout the country.
When National Public Radio called for my reaction, I compared her to Rosa Parks, the African-American woman who refused to move to the back of the bus when a white passenger needed a seat.
Since Williams-Bolar is also African-American, some seized on this comparison and began making this a story about race. But let me be very clear: this is not about race, this is about injustice.
If this Ohio story becomes just about Williams-Bolar’s race, it would obscure the fact that children of all colors are trapped in crappy schools, simply because of their zip code. And condemning children to a lousy school solely because they have the wrong zip code is a great injustice.
There’s a deeper reason I compare this Ohio mother to the civil rights matriarch. After Rosa Parks was arrested and fined for refusing to move to the back of the bus, Martin Luther King organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott. For one year, African-Americans refused to use the busses, choosing to walk or share rides instead.
We tend to think that Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat and –bam!—people recognized the injustice and it was immediately corrected. In reality, Park’s stand was the first step in a lengthy and difficult process that eventually brought justice and a greater measure of equality. It took a lot of hard work and many uncomfortable moments.
Kelley Williams-Bolar, a single mother whose concern for her daughters’ future was so great that it led her to break the law, has put a human face on school choice cause. Now it is up to education reformers to share her story and bring the case for school choice to the country.
What makes the Williams-Bolar case even more powerful is that it occurred during the first annual National School Choice Week, a time in which parents, children, advocates and concerned citizens came together to highlight the need for school choice.
Many American families are trapped in desperate education situations, and they are hungry for school choice. The drastic action Williams-Bolar took to save her kids might be the tipping point in the cause, but only if reformers seize this moment.
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412 Comments
I'm sorry, but all of us who followed the law are more Rosa Parks than she and suffered much more. My son was attending a school with the finest ROTC unit in the Southeastern United States. When they redistricted, we won an appeal to keep him at his school because their computer program was not offered at the other. That was fine. The following year the newer school now offered all the same programs, but had the worst ROTC unit in the nation. We had to switch.
The ROTC officer of the good school encouraged me to lie. I was stunned and I called him on it: "What do you want me to teach a future leader, that it's okay to lie to get what you want?"
Yeah, his Senior year of school sucked. It was 14 miles further away. It cost us plenty. But I don't regret teaching him the value of being true to one's self.
Life's full of stupid inconvenience and hard choices. For everyone.
I feel bad for this woman. She knew that the best thing for her children was the best education, but under the law she had no other path to take (in her opinion). I doubt very much if she even knew it was a punishable offence, and although I know ignorance is no excuse, I think it could have been taken care of differently.
She has my sympathy.
You should have done more than call him on it. Situation ethics is very sticky and do we really want our military leaders going down that road. There are many instances in Iraq that this caused us to get in trouble.
Yes! Blacks need to pull their kids out of schools in protest! LOL!
It absolutely is about race. It is no coincidence that EVERY Black area is a ghetto and they destroy every school provided them. Stop pretending you don't see this pattern.
Parks was a communist agitator, btw. And later got attacked by a Black criminal.
Sorry, Donla.. but I gotta disagree with you.
"breaking a highly immoral law and taking the consequences (a la Rosa or Ghandi) is one thing"
In the present age, what do you think Ms. Bolar did? She saw a law that was preventing her child from having the best education possible, and she took the consequences for it.
You cannot cure wrong by doing wrong
by your own argument, Rosa should have given up her seat immediately on that bus? But Ms. Bolar does not deserve two third-degree felonies on her record… no way, no how.
Unfortunately, here is where the difference in the two comparisons will be:
After Rosa Parks was arrested and fined for refusing to move to the back of the bus, Martin Luther King organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott. For one year, African-Americans refused to use the busses, choosing to walk or share rides instead.
Does anyone believe that the black community will speak up and perform some similar boycott in this case? IMO, the majority of the black community where Ms. Bolar lives won't give a damn… and she's going to get thrown to the wolves in this case.
I think there's more to this story and we shouldn't rush to proclaim her a hero. Apparently she was using her father's address to enroll her kids in a better school, then was using a different address to qualify for a housing voucher. If she really wanted her kids in the better school, why not just move in with her father? Why try to game the system – qualify for a housing voucher in one jurisdiction, enroll her kids in another jurisdiction? Also, I understand the school system tried to work with her, but she refused to work with them.
Obama had an opportunity early in his administration to take a stand on school choice in Washington, D.C., but he opted instead to go along with his base, among whom are the teachers' unions. Until we all wake up to the fact that the liberals are limiting our kids' futures, there will be no school choice.
BTW, I found the headline on Drudge ironic: "Black Eyed Peas plead: Obama let's get these kids educated/create jobs so the country stay stimulated."
Yep. She's went against The Narrative of the all-powerful government that knows better than she. She was punished for being smart enough to see what was happening and do something about it. In that, despite my comment below, I sympathize. Injustice and stupidity should be pointed out, loudly.
But that would cost time and money and effort and legal wranglings and appearances before a pitiless school board, and setbacks and more effort. It's easier just to lie. To this level has our search for a voice fallen?
I live near where this is taking place. I empathize with her for not wanting her kids to have to suffer through the prison of the Akron City School system and I am all for school choice, vouchers, and any other possible alternative to assisting people from getting them out of poor schools. With that said, this woman broke the law, was confronted, lied, and continued to knowingly break the law. This is not a race issue so please do not make it one. Approximately 50 families at this same school were found to be lying about their residences and when approached they paid their fines and complied with the request of the schools but this woman chose to lie and sidestep the law. It had nothing to do with her being black. Consider this; a school system that is already struggling with budget issues has an influx of non-resident, non-taxpaying students onto its student enrollment. How, or who is supposed to pay for those students? Are the law abiding citizens of the community supposed to pick up the burden for those who unlawfully attend? How many others can that school system take in before that school is harmed?
Regardless of whether you view this woman as a hero or not, her children are the victims in this case. She tried to game the system and got caught, and the law is clear and that's the end of that. Her children however are still stuck in a crappy school and trapped by a system that does not care and will not do anything about it. More unintended consequences of the liberal love of "helping" the poor and minorities – keeping them poor and uneducated.
Who will seize this moment. You entirely miss the point. This only works if it is about a right to a good education for ALL children…it is NOT. It is about TEACHER'S RIGHTS and maintaining the huge bureaucracy that has replaced our education system.
exactly
I'm guessing Rosa paid her bus fare before she took a better seat.
Great article. The system is really broken when someone trying to get their kids into a better public school is being thrown into jail.
"Obama had an opportunity early in his administration to take a stand on school choice in Washington, D.C."
He did take a stand. School choice and voucher programs have the potential to lower costs and improve kid's education. And he stands against both.
Anybody that's willing to take such risk for the benefit of their kids is a hero in my book. She paid her taxes and she provided the transportation for her kids. This is yet again another example of why the public schools need to be shut down tight, their buildings and assets sold to the highest bidders and the entire system privatized. Its ridiculous that the government has any say in where her kids go to school. Lets privatize, kick the government and the unions out of the schools and invite God back in.
In Ohio's capital, the Columbus City School District is another shining example of the union's priorities trumping all: http://thathero.com/2011/01/19/union-first-studen...
I would like to know who the defense attorney was in this case and why he couldn't have those charges reduced to misdemeanors rather than her being convicted as a felon. This is completely horrible and grossly unfair to have such harsh punishment melted out for the mere fact it involved children and a labor-union controlled public school system, but more importantly she simply sought to provide her children a brighter future at a better school system. People should be outraged and giving this lady more support in her community.
Is there such a paucity of Good that we sink to this level? We lionize an unfortunate liar because it serves our own need for a Narrative about crappy schools?
Every high school graduate that can't read or write gives mute testimony to the truth.
School districting and the politics that underpin it may need a human face, but this liar is not it. Now, the real human face on this is precisely the fact that everyone is encouraged to lie about their address to get around it. That would be a nice little hidden camera outing for the New Reporters.
She did wrong for the right reason.
You look stunning in that uniform.
This is not an issue of School choice, it is an issue of a rapidly growing disparity in income and accessibility to quality services. Allowing school choice does not change that we have "3rd world country" type conditions in our urban cores.
Not to mention, it's pretty amazing that you'd compare a woman that was the symbol for fighting SOCIETAL conditions that made an entire race "sub-human" versus a political issue that impacts a select few individuals.
This happens all the time in California. White peeps who buy houses in Lawndale, Hawthorne lie to get their kids in school in Redondo, Manhattan Beach and El Segundo. I don't understand why the law is just pertaining to this lady. This is a bunch of crap.
Schools tried to work with her how? Where is your link for that? My understanding is the school hired an private-eye. Is that how they worked with her?
Sadly, I'm going to have to agree with you on this one, it is about race. I don't see any white people going to jail for doing the same thing.
Rosa Parks stood up against the remnants of Jim Crow and,………
we as a nation responded.
Kelley Williams-Bolar is standing up against the NEW Jim Crow but,……
the problem is that it is not a simple bus company,…..
that she is standing up against,……..
it is the NEA.
It will take more than a march through Selma to rid us of this Jim Crow.
My question is are there any really good public schools at all?
Why is it fair for tax payers to foot the bill for people who do not live in the school district? The people that choose to live in the district have a vested interest in the success of the school, neighborhoods and children growing up there. No one has the right to move into someone else's house/school just because its better.
The school districts have an obligation to tax payers to make sure how the money is being spent.
This is not only about forgery and fraud; and this is about wanting more and more freebies and breaking laws to get them. Most of the people who wrote about her didn't mention she lives in freebie home and wanted to even more freebies no matter she wasn't untitled for them; actually she tried to steal from the other peoples.
One of the few really good articles I've read on the Big* sites over the last few days. Well done.
To call this a felony is criminal. To incarcerate anybody for this is criminal. Jail should house people who are truly dangerous to society, not well meaning parents and pot smokers and fathers who can't pay child support. Conservatives should really embrace this issue while it is hot and run on it.
I agree with Joan.
if she thought the school was bad, what's wrong with supplementing her kids' education HERSELF, even if it meant personal hardship? She could find organizations for them to join, young science clubs, math clubs, local charitable grants to pay for "outside of school enrichment" courses. She could have gotten, for next to nothing btw, used course materials for home schooling and supplemented their education at home. There ARE ways people can teach their children what our schools will not. It's all out there if you are willing to do the work.
By lying and cheating she taught her kids far worse things than they will learn in that school. And the court's heavy handed treatment of her taught them to HATE THE LAW.
Brilliant. Just bloody brilliant.
How DARE anyone compare her or this to Ms Rosa Parks?
Axion I opened a reply to see you said almost word for word what I would have said…To biancaeve I didn't td you but I don't understand why you would use a liberal tactic…….. apparently???? = everybody knows…same same.
To SigFan Sanity of thought…TY
However you look at it…VOUCHERS….long overdue! Give the voucher (money) to the parents and let them decide what is best for their kids! Not some old fart sitting in an easy chair around a big table.
You're right. I should have said he could have taken a stand in favor of school choice. Apparantly he's not "pro-choice" on this issue.
What was this Black Woman thinking? Who the H*LL does she think she is? She will sit down, and shut up, and do as she's told. Period.
When are these Black People gonna realize how GREAT they have it, on the DEMOCRAT PLANTATION?
For better than 60 YEARS, Blacks have chained themselves to their White Liberal Massa's barn door. They give'em their votes, and they can have any SCRAPS that fall from the table.
Joan some seem to miss the entire point of any conversation on OUR childrens education. The unions are co opting our children and keeping them on the plantation, by zip code.
NO FATHERS in the home. Life in a High Crime, Gang Infested, Crime Infested, Drug Infested, GHETTO. Seeing your kids fill up the jails. Commit 56% of all of the Violent Crimes. No Jobs. No Businesses in your "Community". Having HOMOCIDE be the #1 Cause of Death for your young men. And, of course: BROKEN, FAILED, USELESS SCHOOLS for your kids. Even your own guy – Barack Hussein Obama – the Great Black Hope – ripped the Private School Vouchers from the little hands of the POOR MINORITY CHILDREN in D.C. It seems he cares more for TEACHERS UNION MONEY, than he does for little Black and Brown Children. Unless, of course, they're HIS KIDS.
Yeah. This Black Broad should be LOCKED UP, as an example to the others.
Black People shall always be ON THEIR KNEES with THEIR HANDS OUT. So sayeth the Democrat Party.
I disagree. It is our DUTY as FREE Americans to break laws that are unjust. Breaking and then challenging these laws in court are a valid and moral method for getting them changed. This method is an integral part of our legal system, it is designed to work that way. Most people can't afford the money or time to lobby for changes to laws. Because YOU don't put the same level of subjective morality on her actions as you do Rosa Parks' or Ghandi's doesn't invalidate them. You also make a number of baseless assumptions about the lady that points DIRECTLY at your racism.
Who is most responsible for those conditions of which you speak of in your first paragraph? Is it the fault of the people or the fault of the Democrat/RINO social entitlement nanny state which has conditioned millions of people it's better to live off the public dole and welfare rather than being self-sufficient and productive? Until people come to realize there is no such thing as a utopia, the bonds of slavery over the people by the socialist government will continue unabated. MARGARET THATCHER once said: The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.
Your second comment is fitting.
Make sure to moderate that in your blog so your tiny audience can contrast and compare the other insights you made about the BG's. Savvy !!!
== "It is no coincidence that EVERY Black area is a ghetto and they destroy every school provided them. Stop pretending you don't see this pattern." ==
Thanks for admitting your Leftist racism dontlooknow. Racism and Leftism go hand in hand.
Yes. My daughter attends one. It has a waiting list of kids from other schools in the district who want in.
No one asked you. Go away.
I am so blessed to not even be able to relate to what it's like to be Kelley Williams Bolar. But I understand there are millions more just like her and I do not blame her one bit for challenging the government that confiscates wealth through school taxes and then uses it to do what? Create illiterate little commies? That is just shameful!
The thing I don't understand about this story is, from other accounts I've read, her father lives in the district where the good school is located. Why didn't she simply ask her father to house the children so they could attend the better school? Rather than breaking the law?
Don't get me wrong, I think what's happened to this woman is shameful and deserves to have a bright light shone on it so that everyone can see the ridiculous state of affairs of our public school system. But when there's a legal, albeit awkward, solution to a problem, why not take it? I've not heard any explanations to that effect.
Am I the only one who's shaking his head at the idea that a school had the money to hire a private detective to investigate this woman and her family? Is this how they spend the money they're always insisting they need for "the children"?
It's called the "Great Society" delivering a knock out blow to black communities all over the country in the name of "Charity". Another failed communist plan that leaves people with less than they had to start with; in this case families, fathers, property, and no deference to BarryO – hope.
"………the symbol for fighting SOCIETAL conditions that made an entire race "sub-human"……."
and the NEA / Public School systems have done what,…..?????
So your school will take kids from outside the district? I believe the school this mom tried to get her kids into had had open then went to closed.
Since a school is measured by WHAT a child learns,…..
the answer is NO.
Agreed. Rosa did not lie and cheat.This article says it is ok to break the rules to benefit your children. Maybe I should go steal my son an xbox, since other kids have them. If I do that will that make me a great parent like this woman?
I realize everybody likes to pile on the public schools, criticize the teachers unions, and blame poor student performance on incompetent teachers and administrators; and in many cases the criticism is justified. But the truth is, the biggest problem with these schools is not an overabundance of lousy teachers and administrators; it is that there is a large proportion of parents, and students, who simply do not value education and refuse to put forth the effort necessary to create a productive educational environment. I have spent a lot of time as a volunteer in many public schools in the Cincinnati area; I've witnessed many teachers and other faculty members giving it their all trying to educate, and better the lives of their students. But their efforts, in too many instances, are undermined by a lack of parental involvement in their children's education. These parents do not demand a high standard of achievement; they don't send their children to school prepared to learn; they don't show up for parent-teacher conferences; they don't respond to teachers' concerns about their children's poor performance and unacceptable behavior. It often seems as if they couldn't care less. Instead, they make excuses and throw tantrums when their kid gets in trouble or gets held back a grade level. These under-performing students end up creating a drag on the whole system. Again, I realize that there are bad, unqualified teachers and administrators out there. But the best teachers in the world are still going to fail if parents (and students) refuse to recognize, and act upon, their own responsibilities when it comes to their children's education.
Yes–AFTER kids within the district.
As a parent, if I felt my child needed something and,………..
the only way I could get it is by "stealing"
I would steal from the Pope.
..and it would ultimately take power from the Federal Big Daddy.
Whatta ya think Rush and Savage would say about this,…. there sucks.com,….?????
Actually – its the leftist teacher's unions who loathe vouchers because it will educate and thus free the blacks from their leftist liberal plantation. If there is one certainty in life it is that the left has no intention of ever allowing the blacks to become educated and middle class (until enough illegals come over the border) Speaking of not being educated -why do teachers support a union that is for killing (abortion) off their future clients? They fail the common sense (and decency ) tests in my book.
Situational ethics is a slippery slope. Better to do right for the right reasons. But that takes more time and effort.
WHAT? This woman does not believe that Obama's No School Choice to WTF policy is a good one? Why is no one calling her a racist? Because race is ridiculous in these matters. The author says very well that this woman wants a good education for her children and was willing to take great risks to get them one. Where are all the Progressives on this issue? Why should a mother have to lay her reputation on the line because the Unions won't allow districts to hire and fire? Why are there no vouchers yet? It is 2011. There is no excuse for our country to still be trapped by 1930's Unions.
So what exactly was wrong with the previous school? Ever hear of "hope and change"? Decades ago, as it became clear that inner city schools were deteriorating and many were leaving, it was postulated that the city schools would become worse. So it has happened. If you cannot figure out how to improve your kids' chances without lying to authorities and committing felonies, maybe your parenting skills aren't up to snuff. If this were just about a better education for her children, there were many other avenues that could have been tried. I guess the mother is getting her education now. And rightfully so.
This is as absurd as jailing parents for their children missing too many non-excused days of school. Where do we live again? Ridiculous.
But it wasn't the only way. That's the lie that's being put forth, but I don't buy it.
Any dead fish can go with the flow.
This mother's name should be displayed in lights as ! not as a convicted felon. She's fighting for her daughters' best interest, and future. She should be be heralded as a heroine, not a lawbreaker! One should only hope that ALL mothers out there will see her as a inspiration becoming the perfect mom!! she can be my mom anytime!!!!! I don't think we've heard the last of her, and the more exposure that she receives, the better we will all become.
"a political issue that impacts a select few individuals. "
Every child in America that lives in a sub-standard district is greatly impacted by this. Their futures are stunted by Unions that refuse to allow districts to run their own schools.
It really is a sad state of affairs when the parent of the child, whose responsibility it is to see that the child is best prepared for adult life, is punished for doing what is needful to shoulder that responsibility. If she was to notice that the produce and meats at a store in the next town over were superior in quality to those more locally available, would she be prevented from travelling the extra distance to obtain the superior food so that she could feed her family a more healthy diet?
I see no difference.
Exactly. D.C. is full of well-educated people who never learned the important lessons of truth and honor. There's our trouble. Not bad education so much as an amoral one.
Every grave evil in the world has been done in the name of good. We only are justified in breaking/protesting laws that in themselves are patently evil (like sitting in the back of the bus) In the spirit of Ghandi and MLK we need to accept the consequences of doing such.
Example: there is no greater good than saving an innocent life – but, that doesn't allow a father (who legally has no say) to kill the abortionist about to abort/murder his newborn son? Got the picture?
We do the same here. Our district schools are run by extraordinary people. Teachers and students alike are on a waiting list.
Fine satire, GG – running with sticky, smoking runnels of sarcasm…
"………heavy handed treatment of her taught them to HATE THE LAW……"
you didn't leave much wiggle room on this one there Texas.
Hence, I think you are dead wrong on this, all or nothing at all, take on Kelly's actions.
Like Rosa Parks,..it is highlighting the fact that,….
THE LAW is sometimes an ass.
"………She could have gotten, for next to nothing,……"
I think you are assuming that this lady's intellect is equal to yours.
I like that swastika that's tatooed on the top of his pointy skin head….
And she exacerbated the victim mindset that she was already passing onto her children by crying, "victim!" yet again.
Life's hard for everyone. Cry me a river.
Do Whites lie about their residence to go to a Black school?
Well, isn't government stupid!
Are you kidding me?? What has she taught her children? That breaking the law is OK if it's justified? I was a single Mom for over 19 years. I made sure my children's homework was done on time and if they acted up in school, they were punished at home. Parents today do not want to take responsibility for giving their children values. They expect the schools and teachers to do so. She wasn't wrong for wanting a better education for her children…BUT she was wrong in how she went about it.
BTW…I think there is more to the story than meets the eye. The press oftentimes spins stories to 1) bolster readership 2) to make names for themselves and 3) to advance their own opinions. The news has deteriorated to such an extent I have to read a half dozen articles on the same story to get any insight into what REALLY happened. What ever happened to reporting the news with the five questions: Who, What, When, How and Where and letting the READER decide what their take is on it? It appears the "story tellers" of this day and age don't believe that we are intelligent enough to have an opinion so they give us theirs.
This is America,…..
the question that this article raises is,……
why was there a perceived need for this person to act this way.
Why did Rosa Parks NOT sit in the back of the bus,……….??????
I have to agree with you. Parents play an incredibly huge role in the lives of their children throughout their school life. If we, as parents, are too busy with our own lives and/or careers to notice there's an issue…it's often too late to do anything. Having been a single mom, I will never regret the years I spent focusing on my children's school years. If a parent(s) takes the time when children are young…they won't have to worry about the decisions they make later on in life.
Really.
It appears she could have made it so her children could attend legally. Perhaps she didn't want to live within the rules of her father's household. If that's the case, it's no wonder she broke the law.
Because school taxes are paid to the STATE and meted out to various districts, based on their enrollment and attendance. She wasn't "stealing" from that school district. They got HER taxes which were paid to the State of Ohio–not to the crappy school district where she actually lived.
It isn't so much about race as it is about a lack of money (aka poverty). Poor whites are just as much the victims of bad schools as poor blacks. When schools are assigned based on where you live rather than allowing the parent to choose, this is what happens. A poor black can get assigned to a poor school, but no more than a few blocks over, an equally poor black could get assigned to a decent school due to districting. That's where the injustice lies.
The best way to get people out of inner city urban conditions is to educate them. With an education, they can have the chance to make good choices so that they don't have to live there. But, the way the system stands now, they're forced into schools that are often poor where they learn nothing.
Perspective check… could be she will be able to correct for any misconceptions on the part of her children: should they ask her why she did what she did, she can explain to them that the system, which denied them a better education based solely on political criteria, was wrong to do so – and that she was seeking to do what she could (with the limited period of childhood given to children) to see that her children did not suffer from that failure of the system.
I do not condone such dishonesty for satisfaction of personal greed, and I do not suggest that she not receive some reminder of her transgression of the law; however, I cannot understand how the mother can be so looked down upon for seeking to do well by her children – responsibility placed on her by God and not by men. When the will of God and the will of men fall afoul of each other, God must always prevail; to reject the will of God is both rebellion and folly – leading invariably to ruin.
By all means, correct her for her transgression, but do not taint her name publicly for a deed based on obedience to God and love of children – and misguided only by a momentary lapse of faith.
And if schools have the money to prove that a few kids don't live in their district, why don't they spend that money to ferret out the ones who don't even belong in this country, let alone their district?
Generally, I agree. When good students who wish to learn are pilloried by their contemporaries as trying to "act white," something has gone horribly wrong. When "heros" to these kids are the rappers and basketball players and other sports figures instead of the brilliant, black, brain surgeon who saves lives every day, or Dr. Condoleeza Rice, or Justice Thomas, something has gone horribly wrong.
You say Rosa Parks suffered more, how ? Rosa Parks got a ten dollar fine with a four dollar court cost. Rosa Parks did not get any jail time or any probation and no criminal record. Rosa Parks did not get two third-degree felonies on her record for life.
I think you are missing the point Joan, I look at Kelley Williams-Bolar actions as civil disobedience for a law that should not be. Rosa Parks broke the law too, she didn't give up her seat. She was right to do so, her civil disobedience led to the repeal of those unjust laws. Why won't you give the same benefit of the doubt to Williams-Bolar?
And Williams-Bolar didn't have a choice to simply pay a little more to get her kids into a better school.
i was about to type the same thing you did Axion…
Oh…..I see……..
She wanted to choose a pricier school over the rat den public school because…………
she …doesn't…… make …..enough ……money……?
Oh!…hey, got it….yeah…uhhhh…..yeah…..
*facepalm* (with optional nose pinch and slow port/starboard head shake)
So, we can figure out who's sending their kids to a school from outside the district, but we can't figure out who's sending their kids to this school illegally from outside the country? If what this woman did is wrong and her kids can't receive an education at that school, then why do we continue to make excuses for the children of illegals?
Fraud deserves punishment and so does breaking immigration laws.
How is she wanting a "freebie" when she placed her children in a public school? She was not seeking to defraud a private school, so I cannot see how you reach the conclusion of "freebies". All she wanted was to see her children attending a school with better ratings than the one that was within her residential district.
How is that so terrible?
A more fundamental way:
Create a business friendly environment that provides the permanent, worthwhile jobs climate and raised income that permits freedom to choose where you live, how you live and how you wish to educate. Strong inner city private job structure = less poverty + vibrant, sustained growth
I'm not an Ohio resident so I don't know their tax structure. Do they have school districts, district budgets, school boards elected by the community the schools serve? Should someone who lives in a different neighborhood be able to move into your home because they deem it a better home than the one they live in? (you both pay state taxes)
Is it also a coincidence that those same ghettos are represented by…wait for it…democrats!?
Yeah, I think I was the third human being to hit his blog,
if you can call it that.
He needs to change the name to "Sarah Palin is dumb, but I can't tell you why unless Chris Matthews and Jon Stewart tell me the reasons."
The government has this women HANDCUFFED!
We are being RULED, and not governed.
so let me see if i get this right…
Approximately 50 families at this same school were found to be lying about their residences and when approached they paid their fines and complied with the request of the schools but this woman chose to lie and sidestep the law.
so 50 families wanted to get away from a failing school system, but the city govt wouldn't let them, instead of apparently fixing the problem with the failing school, they go after the parent(s) who realize something is wrong?
I'll give St. Louis credit.. they've been working on a "school choice" option for students.. the catch is the schools that are where parents want their students to go can be highly selective in regards to who they want in…
"No one has the right…" Too true, which is why this has been classified as a crime.
However, as I have stated elsewhere, when one must choose between obeying God and obeying man, God must prevail. In this case, the children are a responsibility from God, while the school districting is a responsibility from men.
I do not say she should not be corrected, but I see no good purpose being served by demonizing her and laying some kind of taint on her record; that could only send the wrong message to those who feel that there is an injustice that needs putting to rights – and take it upon themselves to start the process.
I listen to Con-serv-a-tive…..
woa-OH……… Ray-de-oh!
I dial in, the Lib-er-al station,
Sarah Palin, across the nation,
I understood, just a little
To all four listeners, It's just a riddle.
That's why I ….. listen to Con-serv-a-tive,
woa-OH……… Ray-de-oh!
How does a child not hate the people who put their mother in handcuffs, hauled her to jail, and the court who said they were right to do so? No, it's not logical in the grand scheme of life the universe and everything, but children are after all children. They will see the bigger picture one day, that the law is imperfect and when wielded like a bludgeon can be downright evil, IF GOOD MEN DO NOTHING. But until they are old enough to understand such nuissance, what they saw was their mother in handcuffs taken to jail. What child would not hate them?
And I will ALWAYS assume people act, not by intellect, but their moral compass. That she shows little evidence of having exhausted every avenue at her disposal before lying and falsifying documents to get what she WANTED without putting forth any personal effort….says a great deal. What good is a parent as a teacher and example if they teach bad lessons and exercise poor choices?
Joan, up this thread, was faced with the same injustice and as a mother set an excellent example for her children. Do your best, fight hard, and DON'T CHEAT. I have every confidence her children, having gone through this, will be morally stronger, smarter, and more aware of the fact that choices have consequences so be careful where you choose even your place to live, and how to fight for things that are important to you.
Ralph….I don't see you doing what this woman did. I don't see you teaching your kids by example to cheat or lie to get what you want. And like it or not, you are my benchmark. So if you tell me you would do what she did….I'll retract my post.
I know….shameless I am.
))
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