Is it Stealing?

[freckles and boo]

So, you could wreck a kid's life, and sleep at night? Wow.

Oh, yes. I am heartless. I guess to sleep at night one must defraud a school district and ask children to perpetuate a lie. Where we live there are many, many options available to parents. As I said, my community is not necessarily wealthy, but it has chosen through many referendums to invest in the kids. That investment is diluted child by child when people who aren't contributing lie so they can send their kids to a suburban school while maintaining their Chicago residency. The housing prices in my community are the same or lower than the surrounding city neighborhoods. The schools are simply better. You can't have it both ways. I am not the one "wrecking" any lives.

 

[mytwotinks]

That's a last ditch resort. My point was, to all the posters who said, "Just move" like it was easy. It's not.

I don't remember anybody promising me that life would always be easy? Honestly, I understand what you are saying, but whining about how hard it is to do the right thing is pretty childish.

I don't mean that as an attack on you. I understand that you are just proving your point, but my opinion is that right is right and wrong is wrong. If you have to lie to make something happen, that should be a pretty big clue as to whether it is right or wrong. Life is hard and making something of yourself is going to recquire hard work.

 

[jodifla]

Oh, yes. I am heartless. I guess to sleep at night one must defraud a school district and ask children to perpetuate a lie. Where we live there are many, many options available to parents. As I said, my community is not necessarily wealthy, but it has chosen through many referendums to invest in the kids. That investment is diluted child by child when people who aren't contributing lie so they can send their kids to a suburban school while maintaining their Chicago residency. The housing prices in my community are the same or lower than the surrounding city neighborhoods. The schools are simply better. You can't have it both ways. I am not the one "wrecking" any lives.

I hear what you're saying, but the effect of your actions would be to kick a little kid out of school, and possibly send them to a much less good situation.

I just couldn't do it.

But as you said, there are a lot of options in your community. For me, in my community, I couldn't tell if it meant they had to go to one of the really bad school districts I'm familiar with.

It would be like throwing a life away.

 

[jodifla]

I don't remember anybody promising me that life would always be easy? Honestly, I understand what you are saying, but whining about how hard it is to do the right thing is pretty childish.

I don't mean that as an attack on you. I understand that you are just proving your point, but my opinion is that right is right and wrong is wrong. If you have to lie to make something happen, that should be a pretty big clue as to whether it is right or wrong. Life is hard and making something of yourself is going to recquire hard work.

I think there's a lot of shades of gray in the world.

I have means to send my kid to a good school.

But if I didn't, I do WHATEVER it took to NOT send him to a bad school situation.

 

[bookgirl]

What about the person paying school taxes who has no children attending school and never will? Why should they have to pay for someone else's kids to go to school?

Just like taxes, social security, fica whatever taxes that you pay for schools are considered part of your civic liability. Part of being a member of a democracy is your financial duty. I pay a load of social security but according to a lot of analysts I won't get any when I get to be retirment age, why should I pay for an older person to have social security when I won't get any benefit....because it's part of my civic responsibility. It sucks but I guess it's better than living in a dictatorship. Oh wait I do......sorry had to throw in a Bush joke. But really as individuals we really do pay very little towards the schools and it's those kids who'll be running the country when were gumming our prunes so I'd like them to have a decent education.

 

[gemmie214]

So, homeless kids don't get to go to school? What about families living with other families who don't have any utility bills?

In Boston, there are Homeless initiatives and landlord waiver forms for these type of situations

 

[Aisling]

When I was a kid, we lived in a high crime, low income neighborhood. My father was an immigrant working two jobs while my mother saved every penny so that we could move to a better area.

Well, there was NO WAY my parents would send us kids to our neighborhood school. It was a terrible place to be. So they lied and to the Board of Ed., and used the address of a friend in a better neighborhood so that we could go to a safe and decent school. It was the BEST thing they ever did for us. They lied, they "stole" the placement, but it saved us.

After a few years, my parents were able to afford to move the family to a better neighborhood. Three of us kids have college degrees, one is a Tech Sgt. in the USAF, and the other one went to vocational school and is a hair stylist.

If someone wanted to turn in my parents, oh well. They did what they felt they had to do, and I would do the same thing if I had to.

I would never turn someone in for lying about their address to get their kids out of a rotten school and into a decent one.

 

[charlie,nj]

I swear I remember this happening in the next city over from me.
(I will see if I can find the story/link)

Someone from Jersey City got caught sending their kids to a public school in the next town over … Bayonne, NJ. It was a big deal and the city of Bayonne went after them in court to get back thousands of dollars. They used the Bayonne money per_pupil rate or something.

So in the eyes of the city of Bayonne it is somewhat of a crime.



.

 

[lajones81]

Our school district regularly checks out addresses as students are enrolled in our schools. We took one family to court a few years ago over the issue, as well, since they claimed they were living within boundaries. They, obviously, were not and our school district wanted the money back. The courts backed us up and we got a refund from the family who was stealing from our schools.