Another unintended consequence of foreclosures
This just in: The Wall Street Journal is reporting another consequence of the foreclosure crisis, which is parents giving fake addresses to school districts to keep their kids in better schools. Is that fair? What do you think?
The dominoes fall like this: When the house gets repossessed, the family has to move -- often to a cheaper house in a cheaper area. Losing the house is traumatic enough, so parents try to keep their kids in the same school when they move.
The problems arise when that school is in a chi-chi district with higher property taxes than the surrounding areas. The residents of the district are so adamant that only district residents be allowed to attend classes that the schools are using detectives and anonymous hotlines to bust cheaters using fake addresses.
This "fake address" business has been going on for years in the Valley. I saw this firsthand in our own neighborhood, which is in the Bullard district. One family had used a friend's address to get a child into Clovis West, and another family wanted to do the same with their kids. When the district refused the second family, the parents ratted out the first family. So, you see how it gets complicated.
Comments
In California schools are mostly funded by the State, rather than local property taxes. The California Supreme Court decided long ago that having "chi-chi" schools in wealthier districts, while kids in poor neighborhoods went to inferior schools was unconstitutional (Serrano v. Priest). It's taken a long time for that inequality to be corrected, though, and we still have a long ways to go.
So, in short, while the parents may be "cheating the system," the system is cheating their kids, too.
Posted by: Mike D. | May 22, 2008 11:52 AM
Oh, good point, Mike. I should have said school bond payments, which are assessed according to property values.
Posted by: Gail Marshall | May 22, 2008 12:26 PM
You need to control school boundaries to control school populations. And, yes, if I work hard to get into a neighborhood with a better school, there should be room for my kid.
This may sound classist, but that's the way it is.
How do you improve schools? The easy answer is more money but that has to go along with better teachers. However, they won't come unless there's a community that actively supports education.
CUSD receives much less ADA than FUSD but more than makes up for it with community support.
It actually is a chicken and the egg situation - commmunity won't support the schools until they improve and they can't improve without the coummnity. Until something gves, nothing will change.
Posted by: Fran B | May 22, 2008 1:02 PM
Even there it's not entirely unfair for the parents to "cheat" that way, Gail. They paid bond assessments while they owned the house, and they paid the school impact fees when they bought the house. So they probably contributed more to the school facilities than someone who comes in and buys their house at bargain-basement prices at the foreclosure sale.
Posted by: Mike D. | May 22, 2008 2:41 PM
In San Diego it's a problem with kids from south of the border flooding neighborhoods in the South Bay. The local TV stations have footage of kids crossing the border and then hopping on school buses. Oh well.
Posted by: Brian Murray | May 22, 2008 6:02 PM
Every school should have the same education and people wouldn't feel the need to cheat. The Clovis East boundaries are ridiculous. Kids living one block away have to go to Clovis High and Clark when they have those schools right down the street. I pay property taxes and am told I can't enroll an exchange student because of overcrowding which ticks me off cause if it was my own kid they would have to let them in.
Posted by: Jackie Krage | May 22, 2008 8:22 PM