Dad Accused of 'Stealing Education' for Daughter Pleads to Lesser Charge

[Generic Other]

This headline just pissed me off. The charge is that the parents didn't pay property tax and fraudulently used the grandparents' address to attend the district depriving the district of money. Well what the hell kind of taxes did the grandparent pay for an educational system they can't use? Who was robbed here? Fuck this shit. Charter schools steal from public education every single day. They are the thieves. Arne Duncan is a thief who has siphoned millions in public monies into private coffers. Bill Gates is a thief willing to destroy public education so he can replace teachers with his expensive crappy software. They are the ones stealing children's educations from them. But you send your kid to a district where your family lives and you are a thief? Fuck you school administrators. You are the true thieves. I'm sorry. I need to cool down.

As for the kids of America. Go for it. Steal your education any way you can. It is not theft. You are entitled to take forcefully what they try to withhold from you.

A father pleaded guilty to lesser charges while all charges were dropped against a mother after the two were accused of “stealing education” for their 5-year-old daughter.

In August of 2012, Hamlet and Olesia Garcia were both arrested and charged with sending their daughter to Pine Hill Elementary school in Lower Moreland Township, Montgomery County while she lived in Philadelphia.

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Dad-Accused-of-Stealing-Education-for-Daughter-Pleads-to-Lesser-Charge-242475771.html?_osource=outbrain_recirc=obinsite

[Niceguy1]

1. that is pretty common

When you lie on an application and send your child to a school that she isnt eligible under false pretenses

[Generic Other]

3. Like I said the thieves are thick in public education

This parent is way at the back of a long line.

I have paid property taxes for years in a school district where I have no children attending. So I guess that is a form of theft too. Like I said, this child's grandparents pay taxes in that district. So I guess they are victims of theft as well. They pay for schools they are not allowed to send their grandchild to. How do you know the kid doesn't get after school care by her grandparents?

And yes I know this is common to take such actions. But to accuse the parents of "stealing education" is a farce. The real thieves do this every day to the tune of billions.

[snooper2]

2. I think Charter schools are trash but the dude messed up...

If you want to be in a different school district do what everyone else does...




move

[Generic Other]

5. Hypocrisy

Accuse parents of theft, take kids lunches and destroy them because they owe lunch money, put parents in jail for being homeless and enrolling their children in school.

But don't even say a word when the privateers come in and steal your public schools. This shit is why I will no longer vote to support a school levy in my town ever again.

[snooper2]

7. school lunches should be free for anybody at 200% of the poverty level

I think the charter school thing has been dying down, a lot have been closing down.. It's a failed model

Just what it feels like from over the years but I'm not knee deep in the topic---

[Generic Other]

9. Unfortunately my stupid state always signs on when everyone else is bailing

3 times voters defeated charters and then it passed. Now private corporations failing elsewhere are lobbying to take over one of the high schools in my town. If they do, I will work to defeat school levies. I am not alone in vowing to do this.

And as an educator myself, it hurts me to feel I must take such a stand against the real thieves in the public schools.

[Xyzse]

4. I dislike the charter school program and GWBush has created a nightmare

With his education policies.
I unfortunately can't credit Obama for improving it as his policies are similar.

I digress. The guy did mess up, but I don't mind him getting a lesser charge.
Consider it education being paid for by their grandparents.

[Generic Other]

6. Thank you

This family has paid taxes in that district and then been told to go fuck themselves. That in my opinion sucks.

[Xyzse]

8. During childhood, there were months where I lived with my grandparents

Granted, I was in a private parochial school which was paid for by the family(meaning it is combined by my parents and grandparents, which is the same for all of us in the family), I tend to consider something like that similar.

In addition, some parents do give guardianship rights to other family members on their children.
I don't see a problem with that.

[Generic Other]

10. Exactly. It is called an extended family

Many kids spend as much time with grandparents as parents in this day and age.

How dare they steal air, sunshine, sidewalks, libraries, parks, busses. Blah. What a bunch of small minded nasty people we have become.

[JNelson6563]

11. Amen! Well said!

[msanthrope]

12. You do realize it was one of the taxpaying grandparents that turned them in, right?

Look....he escaped two felonies and got a summary offense, fine, and restitution. Not a bad result.

[Generic Other]

13. I missed that in the article because it wasn't mentioned

What I saw was she lived there for 8 months. I think it is disruptive to pull kids out of school over a move. She was in kindergarten.

Anyway it was the headline that pissed me off. Stealing education! Piffle. Like the homeless woman who got 5 years for sending her child to school in a district where she didn't live. I think it is criminal to focus on the "theft" of an education and fail to focus on the real crimes in education. Districts who sell off the public resources to for-profits, states that balance their budgets by underpaying teachers, corporations that sell overpriced educational materials to districts, consultants who charge exorbitant rates for delivering nothing of value, expensive out-of-state travel opportunities for superintendents and school boards. These are the ones who are stealing. But let's pick on the parents who for whatever reasons "steal" educational resources for their children. I am a teacher. No one has to "steal" from me what I would share voluntarily for free.

[msanthrope]

14. She didn't 'live' there at all--that was what the father had originally claimed, and per his plea,

admitted was false. Basically, the father and mother, who seem to be decent people, wanted a better education for their daughter. So he registered her in the school district where his inlaws---the mother's father and stepmother lived, using their address.

The mother and child may have stayed at that address for a brief period during a family spat....but they did not 'live' there. Apparently, it was the stepgrandmother who called the district complaining that mail was being delivered to her home...and that tipped the district off.

I am glad he avoided the felony counts.


FYI--if this was the 'homeless woman' you are describing, well, she was selling crack out of a van....she served her larceny charge concurrently.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11395189#post1

[stevenleser]

16. But was the van down by the river?

[msanthrope]

18. "You aren't going to amount to jack squat!" You know, I know I seem unsympathetic

sometimes, but those pesky facts just keep coming into the narrative......

[1000words]

15. Schools allow H.S. sports stars to do it all the time

[aikoaiko]

17. Olesia puts the O in "Oh my".

Back on topic. I think a lot of parents think about doing this when they live in mediocre or bad school districts, but most do the legal thing.

[Hekate]

19. Due to our commuter situation, requests for exceptions were routine when my kids were young

Many people who work here commute over an hour from their (less expensive area) homes, and some of them try to get their kids into schools closer to work. Since at least we are talking about the same county, I think the money can get shuffled around without too much difficulty.

The biggest problem is how schools are funded -- schools lose money for every kid who isn't there at roll call....

My sympathies to Hamlet and Olesia. The system is screwed-up.

[Generic Other]

20. I don't recall any parent being penalized for wanting to send their kids to out-of-district school

around here, but then I do live in a town where all the special needs kids in the county come to school in town. There are advanced placement students from the next county as well. Athletes, artists. There are exceptions made all the time. I guess we would rather see more kids in school and less parents in jail.

[Holly_Hobby]

21. My SIL & BIL did this with both of their kids

They used the MIL's address to send the kids to a school in a different city.

My other SIL is a teacher who teaches at a school in the same city she lives in, but 12 miles away in another district. Somehow...she enrolled the kids at her school instead of where they live. I don't know how she gets away with it. I'd be worried about my job, it's definitely illegal here.