Monday, February 27, 2012

Mother who stole son's education gets 12 years in prison

As we continue our discussion on college enrollment and the effects of the earlier school years on enrollment, it would be great to see what you all think about parents enrolling their child in another school district that has greater resources than the school the child is zoned for.

A Bridgeport, Connecticut woman has pleaded guilty for sending her son to a Norwalk school. She is accused of stealing her son's education and has been ordered to pay back some of the money that the district say it took to teach her child.

Rather than ask the question of how to better struggling schools so that children in low-resource schools are not left behind, officials would rather arrest the individual. However, this is not an individual problem.

The story can be found here:
http://www.wfsb.com/story/16988714/tonya-mcdowell-to-plead-guilty

4 comments:

  1. I agree, this is not an individual problem. It is unfortunate that the court system would send a mother to prison for trying to provide her child with a decent education.

    Parents should be able to provide their child with the best education possible, wherever that may be. However, I think the message this case conveys to society is; if you are poor or homeless your child only has a right to attend a school commensurate to the status of a poor and homeless individual, otherwise do not send them to school.

    I understand space, funding, and staff limitations and with the way the education system is currently set-up, it would be impractical for every parent to send their child to the same school. However, the system is broken and as you stated, we must continue to advocate for ways to improve struggling schools if low-income children are to gain an equitable education.

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  2. I believe that there should not be a restriction on the school a child attends because of the district they live in. If a parent believes that their child would be provided with a better education in a school outside of their community, then they should have that right of sending their child to that school. If there weren't these restrictions on what school a child attends then we wouldn't have these problems.

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