"In case you needed further proof of the American education system's failings, especially in poor and minority communities, consider the latest crime to spread across the country: Educational theft," says Michael Flaherty in The Wall Street Journal. Flaherty, who produced the polarizing education documentary Waiting for 'Superman,' laments that parents who try to sneak their kids into better school districts are facing criminal punishment. For instance, earlier this year, Ohio single mom Kelley Williams-Bolar was convicted on two felony counts for using her father's address to get her kids into a better district. She's not alone. In recent months, parents in Kentucky, Connecticut, and Missouri have all been arrested for similar "crimes." Here, an excerpt:
From California to Massachusetts, districts are hiring special investigators to follow children from school to their homes to determine their true residences and decide if they "belong" at high-achieving public schools. School districts in Florida, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey all boasted recently about new address-verification programs designed to pull up their drawbridges and keep "illegal students" from entering their gates.
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