Building a better life is hardly cause for retribution

Since when did working to obtain a safe and adequate education become a crime?  We have quickly adopted an educational system that is separate and unequal, as illustrated by three recent outrageous school-related news stories. Forget about fulfilling the promise of Brown v. Board of Education, which set the legal precedent for school desegregation; these stories show that we are not even fulfilling the promise of separate but equal set with the earlier landmark case, Plessy v. Ferguson.

In the first story, Kelley Williams-Bolar, a single mother and would-be teacher, sent her children to her father’s high-performing school district rather than to her local schools. For this transgression of school district boundaries, she was convicted of a felony for falsifying documents.  She has been convicted of trying to steal a good education for her daughter.  Who does she think she is, a citizen?  On May 6, the Ohio Parole Board agreed to hold a full hearing of her case, which could possibly lead to a pardon by the Ohio governor or to a reduction of her felony convictions to misdemeanors. If not, her conviction jeopardizes her chance of becoming a school teacher, even as she stands only a few credits short of earning her teaching degree.

Another story finds homeless Connecticut mother Tanya McDowell facing felony larceny charges for enrolling her six-year-old son in a Norwalk elementary school instead of a Bridgeport school. The charges carry a maximum 20-year sentence. Somewhat ironically, McDowell was arrested at a homeless shelter, casting doubt on any notion of her “correct” address.

In a third story, teen mothers who are students at Catherine Ferguson Academy in Detroit, a high-performing school for pregnant teens, staged a peaceful sit-in, along with their children and their teachers, to protest plans to close their school. At least 12 protesters were arrested, including two student-mothers accompanied by small children.

Is it a surprise that 97 percent of the students at Catherine Ferguson Academy are black?  And is it just a coincidence that so are Kelley Williams-Bolar and Tanya McDowell?

Particularly significant is the question of how the first two transgressors were “caught” in their move to the “wrong” school district. Could it be that detectives are spending time tracking children riding school buses from their neighborhoods – rather than dealing with more serious issues?  Or could it be that these students’ race posed a contrast to the mostly-white student bodies they joined – activating “racial profiling”?

It is troubling that even in the 21^st century, despite the leadership of an African-American president and the growing importance of our knowledge economy, we are simultaneously cutting back on funding for education and challenging some individuals of color who pursue educational opportunity, even as we are aggressively re-segregating schools. While we may not want to talk about race in our society, we don’t mind making sure our institutions are working overtime to bring back Jim Crow.

The people punished in these stories no doubt know inherently what academic research makes clear:  Education is  a gateway to other opportunities in life. As today’s troubled economic markets pose especially cruel setbacks to many of our most-vulnerable citizens, it is not surprising that some of them turn to education as a solution.  For doing so, they now face stringent penalties, adding another daunting layer of setbacks to already-discouraging challenges.

For decades we have known that the way we fund schools is not fair, and in Ohio not constitutional. Yet no legislator has gone to jail for failing to fix this problem. Our educational system is deeply broken, corrupt, immoral and possibly even illegal. And much of this is organized around race. We are not winning the future.  We are not even accepting blacks and others as part of this “We”.  We are still fighting the Civil War, and the Confederates seem to be winning.

If such trends continue, it is not just blacks who will lose; the whole country will lose.  Will we ever acknowledge that blacks and other non-whites are indeed part of not just our history, but our future?  If so, we will recognize that it is those who would consign children to status as second-class citizens in second-class schools who are the villains in this story –  not the parents and students who protest this inequitable system, as best they can and should.

Tea, anyone?