<p>poetgrl,
Read my posts more carefully. I never said that poor children have been protected from exploitation. I said that ALL children deserve protection, rich and poor alike. I have no delusions about how effectively that is done in this country and I need no reminder that the world is unfair and that the vast majority of those that go without…well, everything, including protection and quality education are the poorer children.</p>
<p>My point is, and has been throughout this thread, that (and yes, I understand that this particular woman may have a legitimate argument for putting her child in the school she did) WHEN fraud occurs in the guise of a child being placed in a school outside of his or her community, it taps the resources of that community in a way that is, in effect, stealing. Do I think that the child is doing the stealing or the child is to blame? Of course not. The parents who knowingly place there child in that school are. Do I understand the motivation that some of these parents are acting upon on behalf of their child? Of course! Do I think that all children should have equal opportunity to a quality education. Yes, I truly do. But I don’t think it’s okay to break the law and make your own child an accessory to that crime. I don’t think it’s okay to ask your child to go to school and support the lie that you have authored.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I know you don’t actually believe the children of the poor have EVER had protection from eploitation and theft in this country, ever. Nobody believes that. The children of the poor have been sytematically exploited in this country since its inception.[/unquote]</p>
<p>Again, where have I stated that I believe that?</p>
<p>But when a certain community has so many more resources and far better schools, why is it wrong for a poor parent to try to get their child in there? The students there are already so much better off thanks to the class divide.</p>
<p>“But I don’t think it’s okay to break the law and make your own child an accessory to that crime. I don’t think it’s okay to ask your child to go to school and support the lie that you have authored.”</p>
<p>The child was authorized to attend the school by virtue of the mother’s homeless status. (She just didn’t sign the register.)</p>
<p>Hm, this is a really weird case. Haha, around my area, a lot of people I know don’t live within the district or live near other schools, and they use a family member’s address. I’m not sure if that’s fraud, but this case seems really touchy (with the homeless aspect of the mother).</p>
<p>My mistake. I interpreted the above as meaning that the children of the poor were actually recieving protection the wealthy children were not. Sorry if I misread your post.</p>
<p>By law it is fraud because (right or wrong) the funds for that school system are provided in part from the property taxes of the people who live in that community. So when a family falsifies their address, they are benefiting from a tax base that they are not contributing to.(again, I am not saying that this is a good or fair system, just that this is the way it is)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, we know that this is a possible explanation for this particular story but the debate has become broader. If, in fact, the woman simply failed to sign the shelter form, then of course, the case is ridiculous. The fact remains, though that this kind of thing happens all the time.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That is a complex question. IMO, I don’t think it’s wrong for the parent to find a legal way to get there child in there. I guess, though, I’m thinking that if you don’t stop this kind of fraud, how many kids would come that school under false pretenses? How many can the school handle? Where do you draw the line and start turning some away? At what capacity will the school become an inferior education because the demand is being exceeded by the supply (tax dollars). And then what? Move on to another school? And again, what impact does it have on that child who is being asked to live a lie?
I work in a school. School is the world to a child when they are not at home. The teachers, the administration, the other students all are important players in the life of each child. What must it be like to know that you have to tell everyone a false address when they ask you? What do you say when a new friend wants to come to your house to play? This kind of situation is extremely stressful to a child. So stressful, in fact, that it may impact the way that the child accesses this “superior” education. Stress can act like a learning disability, in and of itself. </p>
<p>I don’t know what the answer is. I wish i did</p>
<p>And Billy, I appreciated the message in the cartoon but didn’t get the reference to this thread.</p>
<p>Mini, the mother didn’t “just” fail to sign the register at the homeless shelter in Norwalk (and it’s apparently totally unclear at exactly what shelter in what town she ever stayed, since nothing she says is trustworthy). She affirmatively committed fraud by using a false address. Her kid didn’t live there, and she knew he didn’t. I’m really tired of hearing excuses for a drug dealer who never should have had custody of a child in the first place. If she hadn’t been caught, the son would still be in her care. Bravo to the police work here.</p>
<p>^^^
She also, from the most recent report falsely listed the babysitter as the child’s legal guardian. It does’nt appear to have been an oversight on her part but a calculated effort to misrepresent her residency.</p>
<p>I will say this, though. The school should not have further disrupted this child’s life by pulling him out of the school at this point in the year. I can’t imagine what they are thinking.</p>
I think if this keeps happening and the system stops working so well for the affluent, it might persuade government to actually do something to help the poor.</p>
<p>
In some cases, taking from rich children to give to poor children is justified.</p>
The one with the American child getting fatter and screaming about a video game and the Ethiopian child starving and dying? It’s what appears when I click it.</p>
<p>I think taking from the first child to give to the second would be perfectly justifiable.</p>
<p>Okay, I was seeing it as someone playing a video game while their child died from neglect. Now that I look at again, I “see” it. And, yes, of course, I do believe that resources should be shared wherever needed. Some kids need a bigger chunk of the resources because they have greater needs. Those children should have whatever they need. It is the bigger picture that needs to change. And it is a complex problem with many layers and facets. I have been teaching for about 20 years and each year brings new challenges and a lot of the same old ones that never seem to get solved. I don’t have the answers and i know that the system needs a lot of work. In my estimation the first step would be to get the politicians into the schools. Not for a half hour to read a book to a kindergarten class but for a week or so. Have them do the job of a teacher trying to meet the needs of real people with real personalities and real needs. Kids come to school with all kinds of baggage and history. They don’t leave it at the school door. It’s a tough job to educate them. If some of the people in decision making positions walked in the shoes of a public school teacher, they might be able to see some of the reform that is really needed and stop placing abstract demands on the schools that are unfunded and unrelated to the realities that these kids live with.</p>
<p>Politicians don’t understand how things are for the less fortunate.</p>
<p>Health care? They have it. Jobs? They have one. Education? Statistically, they have had the best. Housing? Senators have nice houses, president gets his own. Poverty? Every senator is a millionaire. War? They’re disconnected from the horrors of war for the low-ranked soldiers on the ground. Prison reform? They only go to prison AFTER being politicians.</p>
<p>The problem is that once we even get to this question, the system is so broken that it is game over for many, many kids. How did a country this wealthy, this creative, this determined ever get to the point that parents have to lie and cheat to get their kids out of the hell holes some call schools to get them to a place that is just a safe environment? We should all be so embarrassed and appalled by this fact that we don’t stop until something is changed. Instead, we close ranks and make sure we keep what we’ve got and arrest those who try to get it. We convince ourselves that we deserve it and that they don’t, forgetting the fact that in most cases, it was accident of birth that gave us ours. I know there are people here who walked barefoot to school in the snow and still found bootstraps, and when I hear those stories, I know how clueless the people telling those stories truly are. I have often said half jokingly that the only way, at this point, to give all kids equal opportunity to the same quality education is to outlaw private schools and bus kids to perfectly mingle rich kids with poor kids. The rich kids’ parents would ensure a good education for their kids and the poor kids would benefit from it. Seemingly we are that far gone if the best we can come up with is “No Child Left Behind” “Race to the Top” and the fraud that is “Waiting for Superman.”</p>
<p>“if you don’t stop this kind of fraud, how many kids would come that school under false pretenses? How many can the school handle?”</p>
<p>In 2014, all failing schools (82% of the total) will be REQUIRED to allow students to leave their schools and re-enroll in the schools that are not failing. It won’t be false pretenses. It is the law.</p>
<p>Mini and Billymc,
This part of the No Child Left Behind is most ironic, IMO. The government keeps putting more and more responsibilities on the schools, raising the standards but doesn’t fund the resources that are necessary to implement any of it. It’s like holding someone’s head under water and punishing them because for not breathing. It WILL be interesting to watch as the families from failing schools rush to enroll their children in the higher performing districts. How does that work exactly? Has the government thought that through?</p>
<p>EPTR: the answer to your question in the last sentence of your post is…NOPE!!!</p>
<p>Clearly, NCLB was never really thought through (like a lot of federal legislation). The open secret is that not every child/parent is able to exercise their right to transfer without restriction from a failing school to a better one because THERE’S NOT ENOUGH SEATS AVAILABE AT SUPERIOR SCHOOLS, and not enough strong schools period. Don’t get me wrong, there are some mandates of NCLB that are beneficial, and the law goes a long way to stop the stronger districts’ bad habit of ignoring or hiding low-performing pupils. But like with anything, the Devil was in the details. In my opinion, NCLB was mostly about getting control of money. Just my two cents.</p>
<p>I think the interests behind NCLB HAVE thought it out. The criminal conspirators already control the school districts in Stamford, Danbury, Greenwich, etc. But there’s more money to be had in wresting control of the schools of the poor, leaving the neighborhoods rootless, without key community institutions. The real estate around many of these schools has long-term value, and weakening people’s commitments to neighborhoods makes it easier to wrest it away for other purposes, pushing poor people further to the margins. There are profits to be made in loaning money to charter schools, many of which won’t survive.</p>
<p>“The open secret is that not every child/parent is able to exercise their right to transfer without restriction from a failing school to a better one because THERE’S NOT ENOUGH SEATS AVAILABE AT SUPERIOR SCHOOLS, and not enough strong schools period.”</p>
<p>Well there is another open secret. One another reason the schools are failing is that the PARENTS don’t give a hoot. Like businesses they think they have outsourced education and parenting.</p>
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