Kelley Williams-Bolar, mother of two from Akron, Ohio, was jailed last month for falsifying residency documents after successfully switching her children to the Copley-Fairlawn school district, which allowed them a chance to prosper in a wealthier and better academic school district than their own.
Williams-Bolar refused to accept an inherit inequality that was threatening to derail her children’s education. It is being called the “Rosa Parks moment” of education.
Last week, after serving nine days in prison, Williams-Bolar was released, winning many partisans to a righteous cause.
The Parks comparison just may fit the act. Parks, of course, sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 after refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. Little known, however, is that Parks’ refusal was a calculated act.
As secretary of the Montgomery Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Parks was in an ideal position to enact such change. In her autobiography, “My Story,” she wrote, “People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired… No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”
Williams-Bolar is similar in this aspect. With only a few classes remaining at the University of Akron before graduating with a teaching degree, she understands the profession all too well. Unfortunately, this “criminal” is now disallowed from receiving such a degree after being imprisoned for a felony.
The Copley-Fairlawn school district has gone after 47 other families who attempted similar actions, but only Williams-Bolar had the courage to stand up for what she believed in court.
Just as Parks could no longer accept unjust conditions, and was imprisoned for a moral cause, Williams-Bolar did the same for her children, telling ABC News, “’I did this for them, so there it is. I did this for them.’”
What is most important to take away from this moment is that the inequality in student achievement between poor and wealthy districts, which Williams-Bolar was keenly aware of, needs to be addressed and fixed.
The difference in median household income between Akron and Copley is over $50,000. More importantly, the latter is an “Excellent with Distinction” district, while the neighborhood of Akron that the Williams-Bolar family resided is engulfed in crime – the family has had their home broken into.
The American Psychological Association website reports that families from low-socioeconomic status communities “suffer from high levels of unemployment, migration of the best qualified teachers, and low educational achievement.”
As the APA points out, teacher experience and quality is vital in mitigating the challenges which are present in these communities, but since these teachers leave in such high numbers, it becomes a debilitating cycle.
Moreover, students in K-12 schooling in low-socioeconomic-status communities on average enter high school over three years behind in grade levels compared to higher-SES students.
Williams-Bolar did not seek out media attention or fame; she sought a better future for her children.
Millions of poor children grow up without the same opportunities as kids in affluent districts do. Clearly, vouchers, charter schools and our public schools have not solved this problem. What is left then is for society to come to grips with the fact that each child is not receiving an equal education — and for that we can thank Williams-Bolar.
Reach Zach at zachary.levin-epstein@asu.edu
