Is it Stealing?

[Beth76]

if Mom and Dad live and pay taxes in a district w/the the A-#1 school in the area and you decide you want to send your kids to that school, then why would that be considered "stealing"? After all, they're paying taxes fin their district and you're paying taxes in your district.

If the grandparents are guardians of the children, sure that's fine. But if you're just using the grandparents address--nope.

They don't pay it directly. They pay rent to the person who owns the building and the property owner pays the Property Tax.

So the school taxes are being paid, just in an indirect manner.

When I rented I paid directly for the school district. We paid Personal Property Tax on our cars and the school district was included on on that. I wonder if perhaps rental properties are taxes differently. Because otherwise it seems rental properties are taxed double--from the landlord and from the tenant.

 

[JVL1018]

How do you know?

Where I come from nobody pays taxes directly to any school district, do you?


Schools get funding from state and counties depending on how many kids show up to school everyday, hence that school got funding for that child even if that child is not a resident of school boundaries.

YES! And quite a lot, I may add! Each town here is a seperate school district--usually a handful of grammar schools, one middle school and one high school per town.
About 65% of our property taxes go to the schools, our schools in town, no where else.

 

[Anewman]

I actually drive both kids to a high school 10 miles away, even though we have a high school 2 blocks away.

It was done via an open enrollment lottery and both schools are in the same district, no lying was involved. But I do own 2 properties in that schools boundaries, which I would have considered using if I had to.

Did it for sports reasons.

 

[Anewman]

YES! And quite a lot, I may add! Each town here is a seperate school district--usually a handful of grammar schools, one middle school and one high school per town.
About 65% of our property taxes go to the schools, our schools in town, no where else.

Yes I get it now, after some research I found that CA and Michigan are the odd states that fund mostly through STATE funds rather than local funds. But from what I can tell they all still use "some" state funds too.

 

[ilovejack02]

WHERE do you people live that have seen people be arrested for this?

Here if a child goes to a daycare facility in the area of a school they go to that school whether they live in that district or not. Here people can and do get waivers to go to different schools.

Either way the State pays for the child to go to school, I am not sure it matters where. Don't schools receive funding per student, not per student who lives in the area?

My DH's ex wife moved into another parish (county to all of you lol) and since there was only 6 weeks of school left she was going to leave my stepson at his old school. Well someone ratted on him and she got a letter saying that if she didnt take him out and re enroll him at the new school, she would be charged with truency ( sp ??? LOL)

 

[punkin]

I went to a magnet high school for which I was zoned (it was city-wide). In the middle of 11th grade, my parents moved out of NYC into a very good school district in the suburbs (but not as good as my "inner city" magnet school with entrance exam). I commuted 2 hours each way to finish at my high school. Never told anyone I moved and no one ever asked. If someone would have made a stink, I was ready to move in with my grandmother (who still lived in NYC) in order to be "legal." There was no way I was going to swich high schools in the middle of the college app process. I guess I am a thief.

 

[daisyduck123]

Here people can and do get waivers to go to different schools.

In my county, there are waivers people can apply for, but, after they fill one out, they must give it to the principal (of the school they wish to attend) for approval. It's totally up to our principal. My principal usually does not approve them due to overcrowding at my school (we already have 2 portables). She also does not want extra students that might drive down our test scores (some of the best scores in the county!!).

BTW, these waivers are only for use by students who already reside in the county.

Out-of-county students are welcome to go to any public school in our county, but they must pay "tuition".....last I heard it was about $3500.00 per year.

 

[Beth76]

There was no way I was going to swich high schools in the middle of the college app process. I guess I am a thief.

Well you can rationalize any way you want but it still doesn't make it right. I'm sure there are legal ways for a student to be able to stay at the same school in order to finish out the year.

 

[aprilgail2]

***The saying in our school office is.....if you want your child to go to this school.... then MOVE HERE!!

I agree!! We pay a lot of school tax here and why should some kid whos parents choose to live in a crappy town 2 towns away and that pay less school tax be able to send their kids to this school! If they want to go to the school so bad they can pony up the 500,000+ to buy a house here or keep living in their 200,000 house and lower taxes and send their kids to that school. Its their choice! I would not hesitate to turn a kid in that did not belong in the district!

 

[Maggi May]

Parents that try to pull this off usually have to instruct their kids to lie about their address and other information that would indicate their real living situation.

 

[punkin]

Well you can rationalize any way you want but it still doesn't make it right. I'm sure there are legal ways for a student to be able to stay at the same school in order to finish out the year.

No rationalization. Just stating facts. I was willing to lie, cheat and scheme to get that diploma (yes it was worth that much to me). I just did not come to that since no one asked where I lived after the initial admission.

There was no legal way to stay at that school, but had I moved in with my grandmother (which I was willing to do) there would have been no way for them to legally kick me out either.

 

[barkley]

Wrong yes, but not stealing.

Money comes from the state(in CA), School got the funding for that child even if that child was from out of the district... so who would they reimburse?

School that child was supposed to go to lost out on that funding, but they did not need the money since that child did not need their services.


Are taxes payed according to the District boundaries???
That is odd, here in CA we use county lines. Los Angeles County may have about 30 school districts(just an estimate).

but it goes beyond that in california. there are services that are not paid out of state funding for schools but directly from county funds and local (within a district) private homeowners as well. private homeowners in a particular area may be paying bonds or assessments for schools that home owners in the same city (different zoned neighborhood-same district) may not be paying for (at the home we previously owned there was a 15 year bond we payed for to support schools being created for the resident's children to attend-other residents of the city had sufficient schools in their neighborhoods and had successfully supported the expense of new schools for new homes to be carried by new homeowners).
while we did'nt encounter a problem because both of our kids attend private school-i had neighbors who were very irate to find that when their kids became school age, there was very limited open enrollment due to kids attending from outside the zoned area. it got to the point where the schools spent way too much money in order to confirm residency (cross checks of addresses with existing kids in the school, ensuring verifications via 'rental agreements' were valid...). it got REALY interesting when a home owner found out that their address was being used as a bogas residence (we had allot of retirees with no kids, people apparantly targeted these since the school cross check would'nt pick them up-so they listed the address but used a mail drop-like a p.o. box for mailing purposes. worked well until the school sent out mailers to the residential addresses with an indicator to the recipient that if the name on the front of the envelope did'nt match someone in residency to return it marked as such).

there are also government services provided to schools that are paid almost entirely of county only funds that do not travel with a student if they legaly or illegaly attend out of county (social services provides some services and administrative support to some districts at a lower cost than if the districts did them on their own-and it's not just the 'low income' kind of services/programs-it's things that are provided free of charge to all students and may be incorperated into the day to day services menu or curriculum).

 

[midge3426]

Parents that try to pull this off usually have to instruct their kids to lie about their address and other information that would indicate their real living situation.

And when you do this, you teach your children to lie. That is not a good thing. I think you hurt the child more forcing him or her to misrepresent themselves. Convenient lies are still wrong.

 

[dreamcometrue]

I work as a clerk in an elementary school. To enroll your child in school here, you have to have proof of residency (utility bill with the parent/guardian's name and address that is within the school's attendance area!)

 

[barkley]

Parents that try to pull this off usually have to instruct their kids to lie about their address and other information that would indicate their real living situation.

and what scares me about these arrangements is when the school, local law enforcement or social services has an emergent issue about the student that is not well handled by phone, and a representative is dispatched to try to make face to face contact with the parent. in an emergent 'high risk' situation it is imperitive to be able to locate a reported 'stay at home parent' (round here the parents have to list a work location or 'sah' status to be able to physicaly contact/retrieve in an emergency). i would hate to see a child in need fearfull to disclose their real home address by virtue of their parent coaching them not to (or in the absence of their ability to disclose the correct info. authorities being unable to asertain the home address).


btw on the sports issue (i know the poster referencing it was legaly having their children attend another school but...)-i attended a high school that had huge state ranking in football-steller stuff that attracted major league scouts and top universities. we routinely had boys that bogused their addresses to attend during football season only. they saw it as their ticket to a better chance sports wise, never became a big issue in highschool. what did end up doing a handfull in was when they were'nt drafted by the 'big leauges' or the top universities, and ended up deciding to do some time at a college that again by virtue of not living in a particular geographical area they did'nt meet the residency standards for. the college found out, went back and calculated all of the 'non resident' fees and tuition they would have paid for their time there-and gave them the choice of paying in full or having the course work completed deemed invalid. the bulk opted not to pay and lost a year or 2 of college units. they were 'outraged' because they could'nt figure out what was 'wrong' with what they did-'afterall we did it every year for junior and senior high' they were taught it was o.k. by their parents to lie in order to achieve their goals, and saw no reason to discontinue the practice.

 

[mrsltg]

I don't consider it stealing or even remotely wrong. When the government gets its act together and either provides for functioning schools or lets parents choose to send their children to the best possible school, I'll worry about it. Until then, all bets are off.

 

[mjkacmom]

Of course it's stealing! My town has a better school district than surrounding towns, and I pay higher property taxes. Our district just spend a lot of time and money checking to make every student here lives here (we had to provide lots of documentation). Why should our classes be overcrowded, or new teachers need to be hired, to educate students who don't live here, or pay our property taxes? Our district will only allow out of district students if they pay for themselves.

 

[lulu71]

I don't consider it stealing or even remotely wrong. When the government gets its act together and either provides for functioning schools or lets parents choose to send their children to the best possible school, I'll worry about it. Until then, all bets are off.

That's a pretty wild argument. Vigilante use of government services could be applied to other areas as well. Don't like that the govt is not fixing streets with potholes? - fine, drive on the sidewalk. This could be fun.

 

[ktglads]

btw on the sports issue (i know the poster referencing it was legaly having their children attend another school but...)-i attended a high school that had huge state ranking in football-steller stuff that attracted major league scouts and top universities. we routinely had boys that bogused their addresses to attend during football season only. they saw it as their ticket to a better chance sports wise, never became a big issue in highschool. what did end up doing a handfull in was when they were'nt drafted by the 'big leauges' or the top universities, and ended up deciding to do some time at a college that again by virtue of not living in a particular geographical area they did'nt meet the residency standards for. the college found out, went back and calculated all of the 'non resident' fees and tuition they would have paid for their time there-and gave them the choice of paying in full or having the course work completed deemed invalid. the bulk opted not to pay and lost a year or 2 of college units. they were 'outraged' because they could'nt figure out what was 'wrong' with what they did-'afterall we did it every year for junior and senior high' they were taught it was o.k. by their parents to lie in order to achieve their goals, and saw no reason to discontinue the practice.

They are lucky that they didn't go back and hurt the team as well. My brother's senior year in high school, an illegal resident was found to be playing on his baseball team. Now this kid was a benchwarmer and got about 2 at bats and played 1 inning in the field. They found him the 4th game of the season and forced the team to forfeit the previous games that he played in. They took an undefeated season to one with now 4 losses and dropped them in the standings. If they would have found him later in the season, they still would have forfeited all the games, despite the fact that he was not influential in any of the games or the wins.

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

I almost did it. My town is backwards and doesn't have public kindergarten. I would have had to pay $185/week just to send my daughter to K, because the taxpayers keep voting out public K. I would have had to spend that much, because I would have to send her full-time, since I have to rely solely on my income and therefore must work full-time. I asked my sister if I could register my dd in her school district instead (she lives in a town that has public K), but she said she wouldn't agree to it since she didn't want to get caught. So my dd skipped K and will be starting first grade in September...assuming she passes the tests.

I wouldn't agree to it under normal circumstances though.