Unless you've been living under a rock, you're probably familiar with the case of Kelley Williams-Bolar -- an African-American mother who was jailed for using her father's address in an attempt to enroll her children in a better school district than the one in the housing project where she lives. The offense came with a felony charge for "stealing municipal services" that had the potential to derail this mother's ambition of becoming an educator herself. Luckily, according to a recent report, theft charges against Kelley and her father have been dismissed. I don't think there's any disputing the technical legality of Ms. Williams-Bolar's actions, but the sting of the incident resonated across the nation, particularly in under-resourced communities that have recently become the battlegrounds of the current education reform debate.
Ms. Williams-Bolar is really just another "Tiger Mother;" she is a woman using everything she knows to make sure her children have access to a quality education. And that reality is juxtaposed to the widely held assumption that at the heart of the American opportunity gap is a subculture that simply does not value education. There are many self-proclaimed education activists who, in advocating quality education for all, propose that low-income children should be educated in spite of their families of origin. The reality is that in 20 years of working tirelessly on behalf of New York City's children, I have never met a parent who didn't want the best for his or her child. Most parents, regardless of their resources, understand that education is the best chance for economic, social, and political equality that this country has to offer.
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