[1]What made a low-income African American single mother risk jail time in Ohio? Akron resident Kelley Williams-Bolar recently served nine days in prison [2] after a felony conviction. She used her father’s home address to send her children to a neighboring school district. She says she feared for her kids’ safety in their neighborhood and wanted them to get a good education.
Overnight, Kelley Williams-Bolar became a symbol of the desperation of low-income and minority parents who believe their local public school districts are failing their children. The outrage spans the political spectrum. An online petition for her pardon [3] has 85,000 signatures. Governor John Kasich’s lawyers [4] are investigating the harshness of her sentence. Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. [5] asked the U.S. Attorney General to intervene on her behalf. Editorials for The Washington Post [6] and National Public Radio [7] have referred to this as a “Rosa Parks moment for education.”
One commentator explains the anger [7]: “The correlation between student achievement and zip code is 100 percent….The quality of education you receive is entirely predictable based on where you live.” This is why low-income and minority parents increasingly demand school choice.
Ironically, Kelley Williams-Bolar left prison during National School Choice Week [8]. Every child should have the chance to receive a decent education, and low-income parents shouldn’t have to break the law to protect and educate their children. For more information about how school choice can benefit all children, visit SchoolChoiceWeek.com [9] and Cascade Policy Institute [10].
Kathryn Hickok [11] is Director of the Children’s Scholarship Fund-Portland [12], which provides partial tuition scholarships [13] to Oregon elementary students from lower-income families.