Rulemaking on residency fraud: Comment now!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:sorry. meant 'in any of the other 49 states' not sites

I understood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought Maryland had better public schools? What's the motive to scam your children into DC schools? Is it to get into some premier charters or something?

It only works for PS-PK. After that, all things balance out. MD has magnet, immersion, and charter schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, this is a big deal. DC offers free PK and surrounding counties do not-- that is HUGE incentive to cheat. One of the people profiled in that daily caller is a friend of mine. She (a PG county resident) said honestly that's what everyone she knows in her circle does and they don't (or didn't) consider it to be a big deal. Generations of her family lived or still live in DC and using their addresses is just very common, she told me.

I had to delete a FB post after that MPD case because the back-and-forth became too much for me. People that I grew up with---who now live in Md didn't seem to care or think they were doing anything wrong. The law is simply an inconvenience circumvented by manipulating a few documents. The fraud might be greater over here in Ward 8 ( at least at the preschool level) simply due to proximity. I see too many charter school uniforms from people that I know for a fact live in Maryland and don't fit into that category of hypothetical "what-ifs". Craziest thing is one of my interns told me about how rampant it is at his college. Apparently he knows quite a few students who graduated from Md high schools and are in there using DC TAG.

I don't believe this. It sounds like something made up and contrived to bolster a point. The dollars do not add up to forego in-state tuition for a measly $10,000 stipend that is not automatic every year. DC TAG is first come-first serve until the money runs out. So a student is not guaranteed the money every year. Below are tuition figures for some of the universities in the MD system. The first number is in-state tuition and the second is non-resident tuition. In-state tuition wins even when compared to a potential $10,000 stipend.

UMCP $9,996 $31,144
St Mary's $13,895 $28,745
UMBC $11,006 $23,790
Towson $8,590 $20,268
Bowie $7,299 $17,875
Morgan $7,508 $17,182
UMES $7,625 $16,687
Salisbury $6,712 $15,058

Definitely not contrived, and he had no obvious reason to make it up, but I do understand your point---what's the benefit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought Maryland had better public schools? What's the motive to scam your children into DC schools? Is it to get into some premier charters or something?

It only works for PS-PK. After that, all things balance out. MD has magnet, immersion, and charter schools.

My coworker from Prince Georges sends her daughter to a school public magnet school there. She is a single mom who really struggles with the cost of after-care at her daughter's school.

DC schools, especially the DCPS ones, have more affordable before/after care and it's not particularly out of the way if you work in the District.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, this is a big deal. DC offers free PK and surrounding counties do not-- that is HUGE incentive to cheat. One of the people profiled in that daily caller is a friend of mine. She (a PG county resident) said honestly that's what everyone she knows in her circle does and they don't (or didn't) consider it to be a big deal. Generations of her family lived or still live in DC and using their addresses is just very common, she told me.

I had to delete a FB post after that MPD case because the back-and-forth became too much for me. People that I grew up with---who now live in Md didn't seem to care or think they were doing anything wrong. The law is simply an inconvenience circumvented by manipulating a few documents. The fraud might be greater over here in Ward 8 ( at least at the preschool level) simply due to proximity. I see too many charter school uniforms from people that I know for a fact live in Maryland and don't fit into that category of hypothetical "what-ifs".

They're doing it for pre-K and then bouncing back to the burbs for primary and high school or they stay in DC publics?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, this is a big deal. DC offers free PK and surrounding counties do not-- that is HUGE incentive to cheat. One of the people profiled in that daily caller is a friend of mine. She (a PG county resident) said honestly that's what everyone she knows in her circle does and they don't (or didn't) consider it to be a big deal. Generations of her family lived or still live in DC and using their addresses is just very common, she told me.

I had to delete a FB post after that MPD case because the back-and-forth became too much for me. People that I grew up with---who now live in Md didn't seem to care or think they were doing anything wrong. The law is simply an inconvenience circumvented by manipulating a few documents. The fraud might be greater over here in Ward 8 ( at least at the preschool level) simply due to proximity. I see too many charter school uniforms from people that I know for a fact live in Maryland and don't fit into that category of hypothetical "what-ifs". Craziest thing is one of my interns told me about how rampant it is at his college. Apparently he knows quite a few students who graduated from Md high schools and are in there using DC TAG.

I don't believe this. It sounds like something made up and contrived to bolster a point. The dollars do not add up to forego in-state tuition for a measly $10,000 stipend that is not automatic every year. DC TAG is first come-first serve until the money runs out. So a student is not guaranteed the money every year. Below are tuition figures for some of the universities in the MD system. The first number is in-state tuition and the second is non-resident tuition. In-state tuition wins even when compared to a potential $10,000 stipend.

UMCP $9,996 $31,144
St Mary's $13,895 $28,745
UMBC $11,006 $23,790
Towson $8,590 $20,268
Bowie $7,299 $17,875
Morgan $7,508 $17,182
UMES $7,625 $16,687
Salisbury $6,712 $15,058

Definitely not contrived, and he had no obvious reason to make it up, but I do understand your point---what's the benefit?

But if you want your child to go to a top state university in another state -- DC TAG totally wins. Think UVA, U of M, Chapel Hill, UCLA, etc.

[Anonymous]

DC TAG requires DC residency for one year prior to applying. A DC tax form is required to prove residency.

Not sure whether you could have a parent who is resident in both MD and DC and somehow qualify.

http://osse.dc.gov/dctag/eligibility-criteria

[Anonymous]

If the DC TQG program is run by the DC government, I have little doubt that people are fradulantly receiving funds and cheating the system. No political will to deal with corruption, especially if the majority of govt. Workers reside in maryland.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, why would cheaters stop at high school when they can get free money for college? I'm sure folks have found a way to falsify documents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure how the proof of residency can be reasonably tweaked. Pay stubs and utility bills + a DC license are on the list of acceptable documentation.

But you can do it with only a utility bill alone. That's the issue.

Sorry...I meant pay stub!

Paystub verifies DC State Taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure how the proof of residency can be reasonably tweaked. Pay stubs and utility bills + a DC license are on the list of acceptable documentation.

But you can do it with only a utility bill alone. That's the issue.

Sorry...I meant pay stub!

Paystub verifies DC State Taxes.

Paystub verifies DC State Taxes + the address. If your pay stub doesn't show the address you need to use a different form of ID.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the DC TQG program is run by the DC government, I have little doubt that people are fradulantly receiving funds and cheating the system. No political will to deal with corruption, especially if the majority of govt. Workers reside in maryland.

If you guys think so little of your government and their workers, why don't you stop bitching and do something about it. If you think you can do a better job, apply for an opening and become a part of the solution DCUM is full of whiners and critics

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, why would cheaters stop at high school when they can get free money for college? I'm sure folks have found a way to falsify documents.

Go work for DC Tag, and do a better job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure how the proof of residency can be reasonably tweaked. Pay stubs and utility bills + a DC license are on the list of acceptable documentation.

But you can do it with only a utility bill alone. That's the issue.

Sorry...I meant pay stub!

Paystub verifies DC State Taxes.

Paystub verifies DC State Taxes + the address. If your pay stub doesn't show the address you need to use a different form of ID.

We had to deal with so much annoyance verifying the exact same address for a school my children have attended for 8 years. Seriously, I'd rather pass on it altogether and schedule a home visit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, I read through their attachment and it doesn't seem to improve anything.

1) There doesn't seem to be any added incentive for schools to catch cheaters - and no punitive measures taken if they don't.

2) The proof of residency verification is still WAY too light. There should be a requirement of a utility bill and a pay stub and, frankly, a DC license.

Okay, can agree with the utility bill and even other requirements. You are not getting an address on a pay stub from a federal government worker and many private companies. I drive and have a license, but do you have any idea how many people in this city refuse or do not know how to drive, and thus do not own a DL? And with Uber and the red bicycles everywhere, yuck, that number is only growing.

We've lived in DC for 4 years and I still have a Massachusetts license (because our car is registered to my husband so he had to get a DC one but I didn't). So I agree that requiring a DC license doesn't necessarily cover everyone because you can legitimately live in DC and not have one.

That said, I am ok with whatever hoops they put in, because I actually live in DC and can easily prove it, so "over-require away!"