Malkin,

This is a stretch, and you know it.  She also admitted to selling drugs - the sentencing includes the drug charge.  She was also homeless - any place she enrolled her son could be considered fraud.  School boards in Ontario are not that strict.  The Bluewater board allows for students to go to schools outside their catchment area providing the parents deal with transportation issues.

You’re right! I didn’t notice that the drug infraction was included in her sentence. Thanks for catching this. I guess it makes it a bit less outrageous….

There is more to the story - But the link provided is an European link, and the European media do love to report on American and Canadian news stories, that sees rather unfair to them, unjust and not very equal.

Huffington Post -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/23/conn-mom-pleads-guilty-in_n_1296406.html

Earlier stories before the drug charges, but after the school charges
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-chaltain/is-a-free-education-a-fun_b_862600.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-boyce-watkins/tonya-mcdowell-arrest_b_852014.html

The drug charges -
http://norwalk.patch.com/articles/tonya-mcdowell-arrested-for-drug-sales

What is behind it all, is the rights of homeless people and the laws making homelessness a crime problem. Criminalizing homelessness. is just as prevalent in Canada, but it is hidden from the public. It just does not get reported, and our public education system is unlikely to take action on families living in their automobiles, but very likely to find them living accommodations.

However, a public education system, and the school acts, a school board can take legal action against families who supplies an address other than the real residence address. Most don’t, but it can happen here as easily as in the United States, to make examples of, so others will think twice of breaking education laws.

The McDowell woman was sentenced to 5 years for the first degree theft charge of school services, and must repay back a little over $6000 to the school board. The remaining 7 years, are for the drug charges.

A previous case that is mentioned, ” Ohio mother of two Kelley Williams-Bolar was released from jail on Wednesday after serving nine days for falsifying records so that her two daughters could attend a better school.

Williams-Bolar was convicted by a jury of using her father’s address to claim residency status that would allow her children to attend a higher-performing suburban school.

While her sentence was light in terms of jail time, Williams-Bolar was put on probation for two years and ordered to complete 80 hours of community service.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/27/kelley-williams-bolar-schools_n_814857.html

What is common between the two cases - low-income and when school budgets get really tight.

Another article - a few of the cases that do make it to court.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/25/schools-boost-efforts-to-_n_828275.html

wouldn’t a homeless person have the luxury of choosing any school?  Do they decide that a homeless person should sent their child to the closest school to the street where the homeless person sets up their evening shelter, or just the nearest shelter where they take refuge?  I don’t get it…

In Canada as well as in the U.S., a homeless person and families need an address in order to applied for government benefits and as well as schools, and hospitals. In theory, schools can turn away kids who do not have an address, just like a hospital turning away patients who are homeless.

Sure a homeless family can choose the school of their choice, but if it happens to be a school in the high rent district, they end up paying for it, compare to the low-income school, where there would be no consequences.

More about being low-income and access to government services and benefits. That said, some communities are better for the low-income than other communities. But no one ever wants to talk about the systemic discrimination taking place in the public education system models, as one goes down the income ladder.

Why low-income people were the first group to take advantage of charter schools, vouchers and other choices that removes their children from the low-quality schools in their neighbourhoods.

In Canada, schools are bit more equal, but school boards will use the full weight of the law to prevent parents to opt for schools beyond the neighbourhood schools.

As Wayne pointed out, school boards usually allows kids to go to a school outside the catchment area, providing parents are paying for the transportation costs. But it is with conditions, that the school has extra seating available. Another area of contention in the legal arena is transportation, and who pays for it, even when the school board revises the catchment areas and where students are moved to other schools that are no longer within walking distance. .

Slightly off-topic here’s a little something from the folks who are bringing you the B.C. teachers’ strike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjlOpmQQgK8&feature=share

“In Canada, schools are bit more equal, but school boards will use the full weight of the law to prevent parents to opt for schools beyond the neighbourhood schools.”

not in Ontario Nancy. Parents can and do choose schools freely outside of their catchment areas. The only caveat may be that is a school is full the parent and student is SOL but parents in Ontario cross-border all the time.
Sometimes boards also make arrangements for shared transportation so parents don’t end up having to transport their kids.

All depends Chuck. The Ottawa board is putting the kabosh on school choice, to where final approval rests at the board level, and otherwise, the students must go to the local school assigned. Hence, very few approvals, and parents are now buying into the neighbourhood, and the parents who cannot afford to buy in, are stuck with the local school.

Within school board districts lots of stories of parents jumping through the hoops and over the brick walls of the school board of restrictions, and the other side of the coin, the parents who uses good old grandma’s address or the favourite aunt’s address, until they are caught. Good thing, the school board doesn’t have access to income tax records, otherwise school boards will make examples of parents who bypass the approval processes of the board.

Some boards simply have no restrictions Nancy. You can’t generalize your comments that way. Some might restrict parents others may not.

In TDSB - Toronto District School Board one can theoretically go to other schools IF they have space in that grade.

Good schools DO NOT have space for enrollment of students that leave outside the cachement area.

For example for the French immersion in my area every year there is more demand then places. Admission is by lottery.

High schools considered very good in Toronto DO NOT have places or have very few that go in order of priority established by TDSB policy to students in feeder schools and that have siblings already attending the school.

For example - Earl Haig = “special restrictions” have been put in place.

http://www.earlhaig.ca/information/HaigRegistration.pdf

Yes, the current system instead of being based on merit is based on money.

When I went to high school I was able to attend one of the best high schools - some say the best - in my city. Why? Simply because I was a very good student.
Over 500 candidates for 108 places; I got in.
Because teachers in elementary schools in the cities were generally good or very good and the curriculum was very strictly the same and followed to a T in all elementary schools, all a student had to do was study. A student did not need tutoring outside the school.
As a consequence of this merit-based admission system to high school my classmates were all willing and able to learn; there were never any major behavior or discipline problems in my high school.

I find the system here inequitable and biased against good students.

“Good schools DO NOT have space for enrollment of students that live outside the cachement area.”

What qualifies as a “good” school for you and/or the TDSB, and other parents may not be the same. Whose “good school” criteria are you using?

The TDSB, is not the centre of the educational universe and as Wayne & I have written no two boards in the province are alike in how rigid or lax they are in allowing parents to choose outside of their catchment.

O/T re: Fraser Institute’s release of their school rankings.
Will you be doing a post on it here? I have an observation re: how when a school closes in a community, merges with another and the effect on EQAO scores.

One of the selling points to local school communities in my region for merging children from two schools to one, is the promise that scores would improve. It’s often explained to parents that the learning standard of the “closed” school would be raised.

Locally, and if the EQAO scores are any indication that’s just not happening, in fact it would appear that standards (and scores) fell badly.

Would be interesting to see if this is the same elsewhere in the province and maybe put that “raising the bar” myth to rest?

SQE was quoted pretty extensively in the SUN newspapers around the province and I did some radio on it as well. 

For all of our media coverage click on /index.php/in-the-media/

or: http://www.torontosun.com/2012/03/02/fraser-report-education-minister-promises-continuing-improvement-in-scores

and: http://www.torontosun.com/2012/03/02/fraser-report-more-funding-doesnt-improve-results

I did a search randomly choosing school boards across Canada, and Ontario and BC appears to leave it in the hands of the school boards to allow students to cross school zones. However, in other provinces, it appears that crossing school zones, is actually written up in the school acts, where the school board has the final say.

Either way, the school board processes are the same across Canada, providing there is space. A bit easier in Ontario and BC, but not in the other provinces, especially the provinces that has school choice connected to the school acts, and leaving the school boards to work out the details.

Not really school choice, when students must meet the criteria terms, deadline times, and in a lot of cases, the approval of some pencil pusher at the board level.

I saw all of your coverage. I was asking a specific question actually. None of your links answers that.

Well I guess that’s for Malkin to answer then Chuck.  Sorry ‘bout that.

Nancy, opportunities for education certainly do vary accross the country as you rightly point out.  SQE did a brief summary here. /parents/canada-choices.html

Generally, parents are open to choosing their neighborhood public school. However,  I do know of cases in Toronto that even if you live across the street, if it’s full, you’re child will be bussed to the next closest available school.

Chuck I did not imply in any shape or form that TDSB is the centre of the education universe.

TDSB is simply what I’m familiar with and I only speak about things I’m familiar with. Since Toronto has a significant percentage of Ontario’s population most likely TDSB has a significant percentage of the student population.

Good school? Good question. In the absence of high school exit exams good school may be very subjective indeed.
For me, since I have a child who is interested and capable of learning in all areas but who is mostly interested in science for me a good high school is a high school with as good an academic reputation as possible, a reputation of being tough, and that has some results in math and science high school competitions.
In addition I would prefer a high school with a high percentage of immigrant students because they tend to have strong basic skills, stronger work ethic and higher expectations for themselves. 

Ideally the school would be non-semestered.

A good rule of thumb for discovering which schools are considered “good” schools in Toronto is to see if the school is mentioned in real estate adds.
There are places in Toronto where the price of a house or a condo or the rent is 10-25% higher from one street to the next because it is in a different cachement area.

Notice that I’m not saying that they are indeed necessarily “good” schools, I’m saying that for better of for worse even in the absence of objective statistics there is a consensus about what are considered “good” schools.