School choice, part two

As a resident of Henry County, I’m supposed to be outraged and angry at this woman. After all, she had the audacity to fake residency in order to get her teenage son into our county’s schools. So she stole my tax dollars, I guess. 

But when you consider she’s taking her kids out of Clayton County’s schools, maybe she deserves a medal. 

You remember Clayton County, right? With a school board that made the Keystone Kops look effective, it was the first district nationwide to lose its accreditation since 1969. Which means, besides being a laughingstock, the district’s students could lose out on scholarship opportunities, among other things. 

Wait, it gets even better. 

The AJC recently reported that Clayton county schools may have been inflating grades at an astonishing rate. More than 73% of Clayton’s students failed the state’s End of Course Test (EOCT) in Biology, 76% in Geometry. That’s pretty pathetic. Whats worse? more than 30% of students who got A’s in those classes failed the EOCT.

So what’s a caring parent to do? Well, if you’re AJC education columnist Maureen Downey (whom I could devote an entire blog to), you just stick it out with your school. Because, after all, some public schools are good, and some private schools are bad. So even though your school system happens to be a pathetic joke, you should still support it, since, after all, the Brookwoods and Lassiters of the state are good. 

So the woman I mentioned above was convicted. She now has a felony on her record, 5 years probation, 100 hours of community service to work and more than $2000 in fines to pay. 

All for the dastardly crime of caring about her child’s education. 

Perhaps the ones on trial should be those who forced her hand in the first place by mismanaging a school district and allowing bad teachers to inflate grades at a ridiculous rate.