Thursday, March 14, 2019

More of the story



When I wrote that last post, two local events crossed my mind. Perhaps they should have been part of that post.

I live in NE Ohio, in Boston Township. The township is divided by the Cuyahoga River valley; some township is north, some is south.

I live south of the river, as does most of the population. The largest number of inhabitants south of the river live where I do, in a mobile home park. It’s not about the amenities of housing south of the river, it’s about availability (almost 300 homes in the park), and the school district.

Three school districts serve the entire township. Mine is Hudson. I’ve mentioned Hudson schools in many contexts over the years, including its exclusiveness, its cost to taxpayers, and the quality of education ranked among the highest in Ohio. Although Hudson has declined recently in a realignment of Ohio scores, it remains a top tier high school, and exclusive.

Hudson is not an open enrollment school. As that implies, you must live in the district to attend Hudson schools. When we moved here, thirty years ago, Roger next door had a live-in girlfriend with two very undisciplined boys.

My sister and I became friends with a couple of women with shared interests. They were knitters and we were spinners. Rosemary also was Student Records Administrator for Hudson Schools. On one visit to the shop, Rosemary mentioned the lack of motorbike racing noise from next door.

“Oh, yes, Roger’s girlfriend and the boys moved to Akron.” “When?” “Over the summer.”  “Interesting; the boys still come to Hudson,” said Rosemary. “Oh, yes,” we volunteered. “Their mother drops them for the school bus every morning.” And that was the end of the boys attending Hudson.

Truth be told, I felt little sympathy for those boys, who had ruined more than one family picnic by raising all hell, dirt and noise with their racing bikes on the track Roger carved out for them behind his house. But ten or so years ago, I had to rethink! A woman in the southern part of our county enrolled her daughters in another out of district school. She lived in Akron in a dangerous neighborhood with substandard schools.

When caught she took her case to court, and lost. Then she had a thirty thousand dollar invoice for unpaid tuition. Her eventual sentence was probation and community service. I suppose the tuition was resolved in some fashion.

I checked Google to see if anyone is in prison for hopping school districts, and found cases of probations and fines for falsifying addresses. I was not successful with Snopes, so I sent a request to investigate.

Why is this in a story about rich people falsifying records to advance school admission? Because it’s a story about poor, poor people doing the same. And I think it’s something we need to think about.



28 comments:

  1. Indeed it is food for thought.
    When I was going to school you had to live in the catchment area for that school. The system was changed by the time my children started to school; any child could be registered anywhere. The only stipulation is that your child could only travel on the bus to another school if the bus had empty seats, so you might easily end up having to drive your child every day if you want them to go to a school outside your area. Yet another barrier for poorer people. Our regional school board's slogan is "success for all children". I should say it used to be that; I just checked and now it's one of those fluffy statements about lifelong learning. Success for all children must have been too hard.

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    1. No Child Left Behind was the national rallying cry here. I think it started the ruination of schools. It certainly shredded curriculum.

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  2. I don't recall anyone going to school in a different district when I was growing up, but when my daughter was in elementary school in Maryland, I knew a woman who lived near the downtown area who drove her daughter to the elementary school for our area. I don't know if she had permission.

    Love,
    Janie

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  3. when we sold the city property, we as in us and daughter and her family, she wanted her kids to stay in the school they had been attending, so with the help of a friend a little fudging occured as to their address. the last child is a senior in her last semester. and yeah mother has had to take the kids to school and pick them up every day. I don't think this is a comparable situation to rich parents bribing college officials or paying to have other students take exams or have the proctor change their answers because their child didn't have the academics or bribing for a sports admission when the kid doesn't play sports. No Child Left Behind ruined Texas schools and then did the same nationwide. the solution is to make sure all public schools have the same resources.

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  4. I saw something on twitter today about a woman who had been sent to prison for using her work address to get her child into a better school system. Apparently the twitter fairies removed it because I can't find it anymore.
    CNN ran this story in 2011 about another woman arrested. Both were poor, both were African American.
    http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/26/mom-jailed-for-enrolling-kids-in-wrong-school-district/
    I would really like to see all of the people involved in this cheating scandal do serious jail time. People in the schools should go to jail, too. It's just a disgusting look at where the culture has gone, and the trash heap it landed on.

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    1. The person you reference is the one I know of; she lived perhaps ten miles from me, in Akron. She served five days. I don't know the outcome of her case. I also saw a CT woman sentenced to five years, in 2011, and apparently served it.
      The CT boy was given a home in a decent school district, and excelled in school, according to his mother. I found nothing more about the OH case.
      So much for equal opportunity education.

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  5. Our school district will accept out of district kids if they have room for them. They must maintain their grades and are treated the same as the other kids. One of my granddaughter's went to the school in our district by using my address. It was the school closest to our house and we often picked her up after school. Our schools are not considered "exclusive" but the district is more desirable than some of the others. Colleges seems to be a different ballgame because you have to pay to go. Everyone there should be treated equally.

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  6. You did bring up a good point! I know when we lived in New Mexico I wanted to keep the kids in the same school when we moved out of that school's boundaries and couldn't do it. They could finish out the school year as we moved mid year but after that they had to change schools. I didn't even consider using another address, though I know of some who have in other states and other school districts.

    I think parents want the best for their kids and that includes schooling, but I also think they need to go about it legally and ethically. Heck, my mom cleaned the secretary's house of the Catholic school we attended. She paid her for the work which my mom promptly used for tuition, but at least there was an exchange of goods for the money and the school was opened up to anyone who could afford to go to it (and how my mom could afford to send the three of us, I don't know, but I do know that the lady that she cleaned the house for paid her a reasonable rate to do so and not an exorbitant one.

    betty

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  7. Our school are good here in Utah if your child isn't liking their school or has problems with bullys etc you can change their school no matter the district. I can see both sides but the rich should not cheat to get their kids a better education. I think it is all about what everyone else thinks in their case. They are probably not even thinking of the kids.

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  8. I hadn't thought about poor people doing the same thing. Of course they'd want to see their children in a better school getting a better education, but isn't there some way of appealing to the school boards to get your child into a better school? Rather than do it by cheating.

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  9. Does it just sound hopelessly naive to think that all our schools should provide a good education?

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  10. We have school boundaries here, but there is not a great disparity in level of education between schools. Of course, upper middle class schools will tend to have somewhat better results than poorer class schools, but for the most part, it's not a functions of less funding or less commitment.

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  11. There has always been this myth about the U.S. being a classless society. That has never been my experience.

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  12. Money gives one the privilege to do all sorts of things, legal and illegal.

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  13. As one of my coworkers said yesterday that this has been happening for generations. LOL I was especially moved by the one daughter who said that she didn't know how much school she wanted to attend, but she was looking forward to the parties.

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  14. It seems to be common , to falsify addresses to get better education for children. If all schools had the same advantages as the ones with loads of support it would not be an issue at all. When we bought this house we made sure that it was in a good district- though our son never went to public school. We continued our support of the school district, however, and gave money to help with debate teams and scholastic achievement. All about the dollar, isn't it.

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  15. When we bought the house in Boston Township there were no school age children left in the family (at the time), and we knew we were in the most expensive school district in our county and probably in our state, and we bought it irregardless.

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    1. I have no problem with school taxes, generally. Especially when they counted in federal tax deductions.

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  16. I can imagine the desperation of some parent who is trying to keep their child out of a school that may damage them for life. The things we do for our kids.

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    1. Yes, youngsters bullied and harmed, as well as being subjected to substandard schools.

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  17. There is probably a lot more of the bribery by the wealthy than has come to light at this point. Disgusting!

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  18. You raise an excellent point. My children went to school in the Detroit Public School system. I did not have the funds to send them to private school and wanted them to get good educations. I worked with their schools while they were in grade school. When they were ready for what is now called middle school I learned a bout the open middle schools. They were not available for a monetary consideration. Good grades and good deportment were the requirements. I had to apply and they had to be accepted. In truth they were far above the rest of the schools. Unfortunately that is not sayiong much. I understand about wishing for a better educational experience for my children. It needs to be available to all children and in their own neighborhoods.

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    1. The schools in our cities have little to recommend them. Now, getting three grandchildren through middle and high school, I wonder about the education system pretty much all over this country.

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  19. School districts do make a difference. It was a big factor is locating where we did. The method of funding school districts, as flawed as it is, I assumed is the reason someone could be charged with a crime. Prison time for such an offense is a too harsh.

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  20. That's what I was commenting on before - parents moving to an area with superior schools so their kids qualify for admission. Which of course has the knock-on effect of pushing up property prices.

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  21. Just more examples of what parents will do for their kids to give them a chance at a better life. My mom sacrificed a lot to help me get where I am at today and I am not sure where I would have ended up without her.

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  22. Thinking about this school mess, and then thinking about New Zealand....The Ides of March were not good this year.

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  23. Schools here are improving. But many children still have to travel long distances for a school place....of any quality. Our daughter was lucky to get into 2 good schools, but we had to prove our address first. I've never heard of parents being prosecuted here, but children are asked to leave if any shenanigans are discovered.

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