In January, the story of Ohio mom, Kelley Williams-Bolar.Bolar was arrested for “records falsification,” tried, convicted, andsentenced to nine days in prison for sending her two daughters to schoolin a more affluent district outside of Akron where she resided. InJuly, in a move that defies reason, a parole board denied her requestfor clemency. Their decision amounted to an especial form of cruel andunusual punishment because prior to her conviction, Ms. Williams-Bolarhad returned to college to complete required coursework to become ateacher for special needs children. With a felony conviction on herrecord, funding for college and a teaching job would be impossible toobtain. Ohio Governor John Kasich disagreed with the parole board and granted Williams-Bolar clemency earlier this week.The result is that her felony convictions have been reduced tomisdemeanors, and she will be able to pursue her education and herdreams of becoming an educator. The violence, humiliation, an unduehardship that she has had to endure at the hands of our mostly flawedcriminal justice system is not lost on us. Indeed these narratives ofbad Black mothering coupled with a belief in Black criminality continueto endanger the life chances of Black people, particularly women andchildren. We need a new conversation about public education in thiscountry, one that pivots upon a fundamental restructuring of the waysschools are funded. Property ownership has long been used todisfranchise Black folk, and now property taxes have become another wayto structurally discriminate against the poor, who aredisproportionately Black and Brown. This must change. For while Ms.Williams-Bolar has now been given “a second chance,” according to Kasich<and he gets the serious side eye for the condescending andsanctimonious language>, her daughters have been forced to return tosubpar Akron schools. Williams-Bolar’s reprieve, then, is a smallvictory and certainly worthy of celebration, but the battle for equaleducation and opportunity is far from won.