Education activists are rallying around a homeless woman who may face jail time for enrolling her son in kindergarten under a friend's address. Supporters say the woman's story is yet another dismaying example of inequality in the U.S. education system.

Tanya McDowell, a homeless single mother from Bridgeport, http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Press-conference-scheduled-in-support-of-Tanya-1351132.php#ixzz1KZKsithw">is charged with first-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny for signing up her 5-year-old son to attend nearby Norwalk schools under the address of a friend. (Her son went to the school for four months. Her friend has been evicted from public housing for letting McDowell use her address.) McDowell may face up to 20 years in prison and a $15,000 fine if convicted.

Gwen Samuel, a Connecticut education activist, is organizing a press conference to try to get the charges dropped and raise awareness about parents who are criminally prosecuted, rather than dealt with individually by the school district, for using false addresses.

She says she expects a few hundred people to show up at Norwalk superior court at 9 a.m. Wednesday, including Kelley Williams-Bolar (pictured), the Akron, Ohio-based mom who made national news in January, when she was jailed for using her father's address to send her kids to a better-performing school. Bolar's http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110203/us_yblog_thelookout/ohio-jailed-mom-im-not-the-rosa-parks-of-education">story ignited a debate about inequalities in the public education system, where poorer parents often must send their kids to poorer schools because much of the funding is on the local level.

"This will continue to happen--this will set a precedent and districts will be like, 'OK I found a new way to get my money back, let's go after them,'" Samuel tells The Lookout.

Boyce Watkins, a Syracuse university professor and activist, tells The Lookout that Williams-Bolar heard about McDowell's case and wanted to support her. "Kelley called me and said, 'I can't believe they're doing this to her, how can I help?'" She's now on her way to Connecticut, and her trip is paid for by Samuel's newly founded non-profit Connecticut Parents Union.

"First it happens to Kelley, then it happens to Tanya--they both happen to be poor black mothers trying to find a way to provide a better life for their children," Watkins said.

Samuel says McDowell "absolutely" sent her son to the Norwalk kindergarten because she knew it was better than the schools in nearby Bridgeport. "If you could see ... where he is now compared to Brookside, you'd see why I chose Norwalk," McDowell http://www.thedailynorwalk.com/news/mother-defends-enrolling-son-norwalk-school">told the Daily Norwalk of her son's new school, Thomas Hooker Elementary School in Bridgeport.

"There has to be a penalty for stealing our services," school board president Jack Chiaramonte countered in The Daily Norwalk. (The school district did not press charges against McDowell, however. She is charged by the city.)

McDowell, who used to work in food services, http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/policereports/article/Bridgeport-woman-arrested-for-registering-son-in-1340009.php">told the Stamford Advocate she occasionally stayed in a Norwalk homeless shelter--but she didn't register there, which would have made her son eligible to attend the school. "I had no idea whatsoever that if you enroll your child in another school district, it becomes a crime," the 33-year-old told the paper.

Parents are rarely criminally prosecuted for using false addresses.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110425/us_yblog_thelookout/rally-for-prosecuted-homeless-mom-who-sent-son-to-a-better-school-district

20 years for trying to help your child get an education? She would've gotten less had she raped her son.

Yeah.  They educate homeless people.

You have to put down the adress of your homeless shelter though.

Because we have government funded education you have to send your kids to the school nearest to where you live so nobody is inconvienced... rather then allowing parents to send their children to the best school they can find and can get their kids into.

Yep.

In Ohio, we've seen people jailed for sending their kids to better schools that weren't in their district. That is why I am for school vouchers. That way, anyone can choose the school of their choice without fear of jail.

Also, i'd imagine the penalty is so high because if it wasn't everyone would do it.

Would you leave your kid in a school with a 47% graduation rate when there is a school with an 89% graduation rate 1 hour away?

It's ridiculious... however it's the nature of public schools.

Instead of schooling either being doen for need or for merit, it's done for .... location?

Shit, I had a pretty good school when I was young.... waaay better then neighboring cleveland.  My parents moved actually because they didn't want me going to shitty cleveland schools.

Do you know how many people there were in my schools that were there because they were forced to be?  Dozens.  They'd sleep in class, get suspeneded when they could, a lot were drug dealers just waiting until they could get out of school because in their minds they already had a lucrative career.

All the while, tons of smart kids who want to learn were getting screwed over in Cleveland public schools.  All because they lived, like... 20 minutes away?

You don't think a number of parents would be lining up to drive their kids 20 minutes to school to replace he people who have repeated 9th grade twice over and are just waiting for their birthday?

if you notice by the article, she never stated at one homeless shelter or friends house. She moves between them with her son, meaning there is no defined place she lives.

Which is irrelevent, considering you need to register with your nearest homeless shelter.  Which is logical afterall.

She wasn't aloud to stay with her friend via the public housing law, which can be noted by the fact that the friend lost her public housing.

Just another case of government screwing shit up.

Lord, I hope not! If that kid gets an education, he might one day earn enough money to buy a home. Then we wouldn't be able to tell who's homeless and who's not, and anyone who has seen the Night of the Living Homeless episode of South Park knows how that turns out.

Not always true.  In Minnesota, we have something called Open Enrollment that lets you go to whatever school you want given that the school participates in the program.

http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/Academic_Excellence/School_Choice/Public_School_Choice/Open_Enrollment/index.html

I'm not sure if anything like this exists in other states.

Not bad, though it does seem like there would be issues in the fact hat there are limited numbers, and local kids would always come first whether they want the education or not.

thats terrible hopefully some laws are changed there. 

1. The friend shouldn't of been evicted: thats now another homeless person who was most likely letting that women and her son stay at. 

2. That fine and jail sentence is rediclous for the situation: sure if she put the wrong address for an insurance application or an government file or something like that, but an kindergarden please.