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There's cheating in every area of life where public money is spent. Our culture does not approve of money spent on policing it, i.e., we'd rather cut funds to the IRS than support a budget that goes after tax cheats.
You may say that it's different at the local level, but let's see what happens if you move a million or two from schools and put them into the column for DCPS central to pay for residency fraud. I can't imagine that the amount lost to residency cheats equals what it would cost to have someone going after them full time. And there are enough grandparents/uncles/aunts/family friends throughout DC who are de facto caretakers of parent-less kids that DC is not all that interested in forcing said kids into a social system that can in no way handle them all. You have absolutely no idea what's going on in the lives of others. I can understand outrage in the face of neglect or abuse, but that's when we're more likely to look the other way, isn't it? For all you know, sending a kid back to their assigned school is putting them in danger, but who cares? If your dander just won't settle down, then report the suspected family, kwitcherbitchin, and be done with it. |
who cares. we live in DC and my DH has been working in Bethesda for years, my kids takes classes at Imagination Stages on Saturday and Sunday, we go to Bethesda often brunch and for shopping, to Barn and Nobles and just to walk around sometimes. can we send our kids to a Bethesda elementary school? it would work really great for us (with DH dropping off and picking up on his way to and from work), and we are there so often it is almost a second home for us. |
| This is the PP who said I was going to start checking. Kids at Stuart Hobson getting picked up right now (aftercare maybe)? 11 cars waiting to pickup. 7 Maryland tags. Absurd. |
Pick an address off a map of Bethesda, enroll your kid in that school, and see if they check. If you do get called on the carpet, defend yourself with the arguments that have been put forward in defense of residency cheaters in this thread. No one can know your personal circumstances. Your family is just as entitled to a good education as the people paying property taxes in Bethesda. Etc. |
Yes, you can tell them about the special, historical ties between Bethesda/Chevy Chase and DC, how people move back and forth, live in one place and work in the other and that man DC residents view Bethesda as "their" community, too!
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And you can tell it to the judge and to your cellmates too. |
| I would be surprised if anyone living in Bethesda proper (not "North Bethesda" or "Greater Bethesda") would send their kid to a DCPS. Not hating on DCPS or anything, but one is clearly better than the other. Now, if we're talking PG County - yeah, if I can weasel my way into a DC school, and I know D.C. isn't going to do anything about it, sure. |
Yup. That would happen because Montgomery County enforces residency requirements. In DC, nothing much happens to you. In fact, some of your co-workers in your DC government office are probably doing the same thing. |
Free preschool -- not to mention that of a very high quality -- is a pretty compelling reason. |
Okay, how about North Bethesda or Rockville. If you can't see that, well you might be a little blind. A kid was not allowed back the next year in my kid's immersion charter. The school found out the family lived in, wait for it, the North Bethesda Rockville area of Maryland. |
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Hmmmm...let's do this instead: take your highly paid wrath and organize the highly paid parents around you to subsidize some apartments that are actually affordable in the Janney boundary for those making less than $48,000 per year.
Here's the deal: DC has a real affordable housing problem. We have children living in shelters because their parents can't pay the rent even though 80% of them work. So then poor people move to the suburbs but still want to use city services. Clearly you have some free time on your hands. Use this time to work on the real problem: poor folks who can't afford day care also can't afford to live in DC, while those of us who can afford day care are getting free day care while living in our expensive homes. Shift the problem on its head: support fair wages and mixed income housing to welcome back some who were pushed out to undesirable suburbs over the past 15 years. Then you will see the Maryland plates turn back into DC plates. |
| Nice try, but there is nothing you can do that will make me feel guilty for pointing out residency cheaters. They are the same as tax cheaters to me, and your post seems like a longer version of the idiotic "check your privilige." |
And add to that, before and aftercare costs are nearly double in the cheaper suburbs than they are in many DC schools. The cycle continues . . . |
Why not use the services where they live? There are some high earners in these suburbs. Why not let their taxes foot this bill? Are you also in favor of DC's implicit policy of importing all the homeless people in the greater area? The suburbs should shoulder their share of the costs. Anyway, you are assuming that all the residency cheaters are extremely poor. My bet is that many of these families have a combined HHI within striking range of 6 figures. The very poor wouldn't have the logistics capability to make it work. Transport, for example. |
But this thread is not about residency cheats associated with low income. It is about people who can pay rent and are stealing. The parents with Maryland plates who do kiss and drop at Thomson Elementary have their child their b/c it is close to their work. The same at the Capital Hill Schools. The children at Friednship are there because it is the best school in the area to get visibility for football. |