(From The Plain Dealer, February 7th, 2011)
By Miesha Headen, DFER’s Ohio State Director
In its editorial Wednesday titled “Good parent, bad citizen,” The Plain Dealer writes that Akron resident Kelley Williams-Bolar had “options” other than falsifying records to send her daughters to the “excellent” Copley-Fairlawn school district. We need to explore the real options available to the poor who aspire to better the lives of their children through high-quality education.
In the Buchtel cluster of the Akron City Schools, where Williams-Bolar lives and now must send her daughters, there are seven schools — all of which are given the low rating of academic watch, with the exception of Schumacher Elementary, which has a rating of continuous improvement. There are 14 free, open-enrollment, public charter schools in Akron — but 12 of those are rated academic watch, while only two are effective.