Kelly Williams-Bolar knows firsthand the false promise that public schools are open to all. In 2011, she was prosecuted and jailed by the State of Ohio for using her father’s address to get her daughters into a better public high school. That’s a terrible consequence for a parent simply seeking a quality education for her children.
Public education in the United States was premised on the idea that all children should have access to taxpayer-funded schools that educate them to a high standard. Yet far too many families continue to be shut out of those high-quality schools…based on where they live, the language they speak or how much they make.
Without question, today’s public school system does not work well for all children. I believe we can agree that jailing parents for trying to obtain a quality K-12 education for their children is unconscionable.
At ExcelinEd’s 2021 National Summit, we featured a panel discussion related to this topic. Author Tim DeRoche, education leader Derrell Bradford and Kelly Williams-Bolar herself talked about widespread inequities in public school attendance zones. Specifically, they discussed the odious practice of redlining.
Redlining is the historical practice of offering favorable homeowner loans to “desirable” applicants (living in mostly white neighborhoods) while denying those same loans to “risky” applicants (living mostly in Black neighborhoods). Over time, those favorable loans helped create wealthier neighborhoods with better funded, more desirable schools. Strict school zones kept students from other neighborhoods out.
Thankfully, Williams-Bolar and others who’ve experienced the unfairness of the public school system are highlighting the education challenges today’s families face. And they’re fighting to overcome those hurdles.
Williams-Bolar now serves as the parent liaison for Available to All, a nonpartisan public school watchdog organization that highlights stories where the promise of public education does not live up to its reality. Available to All advocates for students and families by sharing stories of public school exclusion, fighting for policy change and suing schools and districts that discriminate against students.
ExcelinEd is partnering with Available to All, and we created a series of four model policies that eliminate the barriers states have erected around public school access. These four policies can empower public school parents to access the educational services their children need:
Make no mistake: The inequities that exist in today’s public education system are no accident. They are the result of decades of intentional efforts to preserve a system of “haves” and “have-nots” based on where families live, not what children need. This needs to end, and it surely can. Here at ExcelinEd, we believe that policy changes lives. The four policies listed above provide a pathway forward.
