Sharpton Points to Inequity in School Funding

Editor's Note: Kelley Williams-Bolar, of Akron, was sentenced to 10 days in Summit County Jail and received two years probation and community service for two counts of tampering with records.  The case was presented to the Summit County Prosecutor by Copley-Fairlawn Schools after an investigator hired by the district discovered that the children did not live with their grandparents, as the mother had claimed. The Rev. Al Sharpton and other civil rights leaders have used the Williams-Bolar case as a case study of the disparity in quality between urban and suburban schools.

The Rev. Al Sharpton addressed a packed house of about 500 Thursday night at the Mountain of the Lord Fellowship on Copley Road in Akron, pointing out similarities between the Williams-Bolar case and the civil rights movement.

 “In 1954, the modern civil rights movement began picking up steam because of education,” Sharpton said. “It was the Brown v. Board of Education case that began the modern pursuit of blacks not being treated as less than everyone else in citizenship of this country.

 “My point is we talk so much about the civil rights era that we forget that it started because some parents wanted their children to have an equal education,” Sharpton said to cheers. “It started because some conscientious black parents said, ‘I want my child to have the same access to information and education as any other child.’ ”

Sharpton then turned his attention to the prosecution of Williams-Bolar.

He ticked off a list of recent crimes in the headlines, including bank fraud. “What didn’t make sense to me is that they would take money and time to investigate and prosecute a woman who wants her children to safely go to school," he said. "Something don’t make sense here."

Williams-Bolar did not attend Thursday's speech, but Sharpton has met her and had her as a guest on his radio show. He told the crowd at the church that after meeting Williams-Bolar, “I still couldn’t get my brain around it. There’s something backward about our priorities. We ought to be saluting her for  wanting to get her kids educated."

Sharpton’s remarks were punctuated by a band’s piano, drum rolls and occasional shouts of  “amen” and “tell it” as he preached personal responsibility to the parents of schoolchildren.

He criticized elements of hip-hop culture and low expectations. “Some of that’s the system. Some of that’s us,” he said.

Sharpton also talked about the problem of low graduation rates in many urban schools. “The new racism is low expectations," he said. "We tell these children they can’t be nothing.”

 “When I was growing up, I didn’t even know I was underprivileged until I got to college,” Sharpton said. “I was expected to be somebody, no matter what.” 

Sharpton told parents they have to take action to change Ohio's unconstitutional school-funding system. He pointed to changes taking place in Tunisia, Egypt and other points in the Middle East, changes which have been fueled largely by nonviolent protest: “They learned from us!” 

In a short press conference following the speech, Sharpton said he believed the issue had grown beyond Williams-Bolar.

“I think it’s a two-pronged attack," he said. "Tonight was about mobilizing and challenging the community.”

Asked if he thought Williams-Bolar should be saluted for breaking the law, Sharpton said: “I think it is a thing of being saluted for trying to help your children. ... To make her a felon for the rest of her life, in my judgment, does not fit the crime.”

 Sharpton called on Ohio lawmakers and Gov. John Kasich “to follow the Constitution and the law, and there must be equal education based on equal funding. I think the governor and the Legislature should comply with federal law.”

 , Ph.D., a finance professor at Syracuse University and frequent civil rights commentator, spoke before Sharpton. “I wonder if they would have given the same punishment if her child’s name had been LeBron James,” he said. 

 “It’s kind of a shame that we live in a country where it’s easier to get a gun than an education,” Watkins added.

 Akron Public Schools board president Curtis Walker said 41 students from the Copley-Fairlawn School District enrolled in Akron schools via open enrollment, a program that allows students who live in one school district to enroll in another district. Copley-Fairlawn does not participate in open enrollment.

It would have cost Williams-Bolar $6,300 per year, per child in tuition to legally enroll her children in the Copley-Fairlawn district.

Walker said Williams-Bolar has been invited to return to her job in Akron Public Schools. Her daughters now attend Buchtel schools.

Outside the church, a few protesters carried signs that called for the removal of Summit County prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh, who pursued felony charges against Williams-Bolar.