# sending your kids to a school where you don't live-consequenses for the parent? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 12, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sending-your-kids-to-a-school-where-you-dont-live-consequenses-for-the-parent/485451 "2009-02-12T00:14:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sending-your-kids-to-a-school-where-you-dont-live-consequenses-for-the-parent/485451/41 "2009-02-13T14:53:55Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > I think a good bit of what makes a poor-performing school is the parents. In general, I feel that poor (in the financial sense) parents have less participation in their children’s education, have less interest in the scholastic success of their children. The kids learn the attitude from the parents, ensuring the cycle of poverty continues. In general, absolutely. The variable which correlates most highly with student success, by every reasonable measure, is parental involvement. > [@](#): > > However, I feel that a parent that is active and vested in her child’s education can encourage that child to take AP English and Calculus no matter which school they attend. Well, assuming that the school offers it and offers it enough class periods that your kid can get into the class. ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sending-your-kids-to-a-school-where-you-dont-live-consequenses-for-the-parent/485451/42 "2009-02-13T16:03:25Z")
The problem as I see it is that there doesn’t seem to be a remedy for the situation. How do you correct for the inequalities? How many of those inequalities are matters of funding and how many are the result of something else? It is easy to say that the system sucks, and that **Annie Xmas** is cruel and unfeeling, but how do you propose to make it better? The problem with say allowing all of the kids to attend school in the school of their choosing is that you will either overwhelm the schools capacity to provide a good education, or you will need to provide some other mechanism to determine which kids get to go where. **even sven** , the problem with allowing the kids in Paterson to go to Alpine is that who is going to fund the school system’s increased costs to educate the kids? This includes the extra schools that would need to be built, the maintenance on those extra facilities, and increased teacher costs. In the short term, the increased class sizes might work to reduce any advantage that the students in Alpine enjoyed. ---
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sending-your-kids-to-a-school-where-you-dont-live-consequenses-for-the-parent/485451/43 "2009-02-13T16:57:18Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Well, assuming that the school offers it and offers it enough class periods that your kid can get into the class. Yeah, stuff like that is easy to say, but even if the kid is motivated, that doesn’t mean such a thing is an option for them. There’s honours programs, AP classes, and community colleges in some places, providing kids there with extra opportunities, but there’s also places with none of those, leaving other kids totally boned. Hell, until fairly recently, I didn’t know AP classes were a widespread thing and not just something Ontario used to do to keep kids in high school longer. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sending-your-kids-to-a-school-where-you-dont-live-consequenses-for-the-parent/485451/44 "2009-02-13T17:48:20Z")
**Jayn\_Newell** - How do A/P classes keep kids in school longer? StG ---
**Author:** ![skylyn12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@skylyn12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skylyn12)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sending-your-kids-to-a-school-where-you-dont-live-consequenses-for-the-parent/485451/45 "2009-02-13T18:15:07Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > **even sven** , until No Child Left Behind’s retarded funding scheme is modified or repealed to remove the financial penalties for underperforming schools, and until we figure out how to make urban districts more desirable for teachers, and until we figure out other ways to deliver necessary social and health services to these kids in a way they can actually use, these districts will never be as good as their richer counterparts. Oh, and equitable property-tax revenue would be good, too.Robin 1. Please show me the provision of NCLB that has financial penalties. 2. Please show me a school that has been penalized by NCLB and lost funds. Thanks. The penalties of NCLB are administrative in nature (i.e., administrative restructuring, state take over, etc.). Here are the penalties most schools face if they miss NCLB’s goals for 5 years: “After 2 years: Schools must allow parents to transfer their children to other public schools. They also must develop a school improvement plan and spend 10 percent of their Title I allocation on teacher professional development. After 3 years: Schools must provide eligible students with “supplemental services,” which generally means tutoring. After 4 years: Schools must take “corrective action,” such as replacing school staff, adopting new curriculum or extending the school day. After 5 years: Schools face takeover by the state or a contracted private education firm.” [http://www.stateline.org/live/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=136&languageId=1&contentId=41611](http://www.stateline.org/live/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=136&languageId=1&contentId=41611) Are there good and bad schools in states that don’t fund their schools via property taxes and also equitably share funds among schools? ---
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sending-your-kids-to-a-school-where-you-dont-live-consequenses-for-the-parent/485451/46 "2009-02-13T19:02:16Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > **Jayn\_Newell** - How do A/P classes keep kids in school longer? > > StG They don’t. But Ontario used to have a Grade 13 program, and up until a couple years ago that was the only context in which I’d ever heard the term used. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sending-your-kids-to-a-school-where-you-dont-live-consequenses-for-the-parent/485451/47 "2009-02-13T19:13:18Z")
While it’s not the case for everyone, I had all the credits I needed to graduate high school early, but I stayed on with the rest of my class and took some AP courses and fun electives because it was cheap college credit and I didn’t really know what I wanted out of life/college yet. So I guess you could say the attractiveness of $50 3 college credit classes did encourage me to stay in high school longer. ---
**Author:** ![Suse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Suse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suse)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sending-your-kids-to-a-school-where-you-dont-live-consequenses-for-the-parent/485451/48 "2009-02-14T00:10:13Z")
We have open enrollment in that students can enroll in districts that border their resident district for free. We’ve had kids leave our district because of sports (it’s a small school and generally not dominant in our league in any sport) but I think we have more come in because of academics - in our general area we are one of about three or four schools who have gotten an ‘excellent’ rating from the state over the last few consecutive years (and I think it’s been about 7 times out of 8 years overall). If I recall correctly, the lawsuit about Ohio’s school funding has not yet been settled, but I think we are allotted so much per enrolled student, with more being allowed for kids in special ed. We pay quite a bit in school district income tax in our district, and it sort of annoys me that the parents who open-enroll their kids here aren’t paying full-freight. It doesn’t bother me so much that I lose sleep over it, though. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Onimous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@Ann\_Onimous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Onimous)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sending-your-kids-to-a-school-where-you-dont-live-consequenses-for-the-parent/485451/49 "2009-02-14T04:11:00Z")
Our school website has a link where you can anonymously report out of district students. A law was just passed here where a parent can be taken to court if they bring their child(ren) into the district illegally. This stupid law makes it hard on some of us. Our situation: we live with hubby’s mom, cause he helps care for her. Everything here is in her name. We have to go through an affidavit process every year to prove we live here. This involves showing ID and car title with current address on it, a current utility bill, copy of my paystub with current address on it, and a signed, notarized statement that we live in the district. This is every year: people who have a lease or a mortgage don’t have to do this every year. All they have to do is show up with a current utility bill to prove their residence. Residents who own or rent are automatically assigned teachers every year: those of us on affidavit have to get assigned teachers on the first day of registration. People who come in on an affidavit are automatically suspected of not living in the district. They sent us a letter which was returned to the school. Everyone in this household shares the same last name. When we moved out of here the first time and into an apartment, their mail also followed us. It literally took us two years to get the mail straight, but anything addressed to us that came here to the house ended up being returned. Now that we’ve moved back, we have a post office box so this does not happen again. A second letter that the school sent here was actually delivered to us, but we are still suspected of not living in the district. Fine. Send your silly little investigator over. Anytime. We don’t mind. Our kids are in fourth grade and have been in this school system their entire school career. I would think, with all the problems we’ve had, that they’d know us by now. I hate that they’re so afraid of an invasion of kids from a neighboring city that it had to come to this. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sending-your-kids-to-a-school-where-you-dont-live-consequenses-for-the-parent/485451/50 "2009-02-14T04:27:02Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > So they can’t afford to live in a district where the rents are higher because the property taxes are higher because they pay for schools that are better. > > Too Bad. Life isn’t fair. Government services are supposed to be. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2009, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sending-your-kids-to-a-school-where-you-dont-live-consequenses-for-the-parent/485451/51 "2009-02-14T04:45:39Z")
In most CA districts, you MUST live within the district boundaries in order to attend district schools. Period. Some districts will also insist that you go to the school assigned to your street/neighborhood, but others (Irvine USD, for example) will let you choose your high school (some emphasize sports, or drama, or academics, etc). Having said that, you should know that local property taxes in CA do NOT fund local schools. After passage of Proposition 13 about 30 years ago, all the property tax dollars go straight up to Sacramento, where lots of folks get to run their fingers over them, and of course some go missing in the process. Then, the funds are redistributed to the districts, in a supposedly equal manner. But it’s not equal. A number of districts in CA took one look at the effect Prop 13 was going to have and said “Oh hell no” and got themselves some lobbyists. Those lobbyists got certain districts named as “Basic Aid Districts,” which sounds better than what everyone else calls them, which is The Nifty Fifty. They get more $ per student than other districts. Why? Because they were sneaky bastards. That is our system. Flawed and no one is willing to fix it. Enjoy. If the only issue was “butts in seats,” then I would have no problem with seating all eligible kids who live in the district, then starting a wait list for out of district transfers. Simple. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sending-your-kids-to-a-school-where-you-dont-live-consequenses-for-the-parent/485451/52 "2009-02-15T19:39:43Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > We have open enrollment in Minnesota. But it really isn’t all its cracked up to be. The school has to have room after taking all the kids who go there. And the parent is responsible for transportation - not easy if you are a working parent. In truth, it mainly blurs district and school lines so that if your kid plays with the kids across the street and there is a school border there, people on the edges of the school (walking distance to the bus stop for the other school) get to pick. Its nice for some of my kid’s friends - who sit on the border between “disappointing” St. Paul public schools and better performing (and safer) 'burb schools. > > The reality is that so much of a schools character is created by the students that attend the school - you can provide great teachers in a nice facility with plenty of money - and if you have a bunch of hoodlums going to the school who have parents who treat it like daycare, it won’t be a good school. It’s better than nothing, though. An open enrollment program like Minnesota’s would have given this woman a chance to send her children to their desired school legally. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sending-your-kids-to-a-school-where-you-dont-live-consequenses-for-the-parent/485451.md?page=2)