http://www.politicususa.com/en/rich-poor-schoolsAmericans are fortunate to live in a country where every child is guaranteed a good education through the twelfth grade regardless of socio-economic status. It is sad though, that all children do not receive an equivalent educational experience regardless that the federal government and states provide schools and educators with equal funding, curriculum, and standards that dictate equal opportunities for every child. In nearly every part of the country, minority and poor students are not afforded the same environment for learning as their wealthier counterparts and it has engendered disparate opportunities for academic success. Parents desperate for their children to attend schools in wealthier neighborhoods are restricted from moving their children because schools limit attendance to students living within a district’s boundaries. Some parents have resorted to enrolling their children in better school districts by using a friend or relative’s address even though the children live outside the preferred school’s boundaries.
The poor economy and home foreclosures has made the problem worse because many families who are now homeless have no permanent address and if they do manage to find shelter, they usually end up in extremely poor neighborhoods where substandard schools are the norm. In Connecticut recently, there are reports of parents facing serious prison time for using a friend’s or relative’s address to enroll their children in richer schools. There are several factors at play that force parents to seek out a better education for their children, but it is unconscionable that parents face prison time for simply wanting their children to have a better education, but that is exactly what is happening.
In a typical case, a homeless mother in Connecticut faces 20 years in prison because she sent her son to the wrong school. The mother is charged with felony first-degree larceny for using a false address to register her son in kindergarten, and it resulted in the child being expelled and the woman being jailed awaiting trial. The mother cannot be faulted for trying to provide her son with a better educational opportunity that is lacking in a poorer neighborhood, but with cuts to public education and budget deficits, the problem is growing. The outrage is that wealthier school districts are going to extremes to catch improper registration by offering bounties for tips about illegal enrollment, using private investigators, and conducting stakeouts to identify legal residency requirement violations.
Some districts have begun using private residency verification services that offer residence audits and surveillance stakeouts using “the latest in covert video technology and digital photographic equipment to photograph, videotape, and document subject activity when logistically possible.” After being alerted by concerned citizens or verification services, a district follows up with visits by attendance officers to verify students live at the suspect address. Once the alleged boundary-hoppers are identified, charges are filed and one judge brazenly said she was handing down harsh sentences to make an example out of parents “so that others who think they might defraud the school system perhaps will think twice.”
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