Reply to Buying Condo for desirable school WOTP (DC)

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm going to ruffle even more feathers by offering this too....

Even if you never actually lived in the condo, it's not cheating to use the inbound school.

If you read the regs and the forms, they all only talk about "residence".  The term isn't defined.  There's no reference to "primary residence" or similar -- which is the term you see in most laws where the government wants to clarify you can have only one residence.  When you see the term "residence" in the law, it almost certainly will be read to permit someone to have two residences.  People say it was loosely used so that a kid could go to the IB school of their less than  majority custodial parent in a divorce, etc.  And there seems to be a lot of anecdotal evidence that a kid who sleeps twice a week at dad's house is allowed to go to the IB school at dad's house.  Following that logic, and with no definition to suggest otherwise, there's a decent argument to be made that your residence includes any houses you own and that are available to you, even if you don't actually sleep there.  Have a room set up for your son with some toys? That sounds like a residence.  Not a primary residence -- but again, that's not the requirement.  Have the condo set up so grandma and granddad can use it when they visit for 2 weeks every quarter, and your son spends a few nights with them for each visit?  Same.

It's probably not what DC intended by the use of the word, but if you found yourself in litigation with the city over the issue, the term is vague enough and city litigation is Podunk enough, that the city will lose.  the fact that, as another poster noted, they don't even fight these out of bound condo owners suggests they know it's a losing battle.

All that said, we debated this and it didn't sit well with us because we knew there'd be enough parents who didn't like the idea, that we'd have to keep quiet about it and be encouraging our 5 year old to keep quiet too.  As said, we'd win the litigation -- but I didn't want to send our kid to school where people were calling the cheaters hotline every day.

[b]PS the person above who says it's the same as flying a private jet on taxpayers dime appears to not understand logic.  [/quote][/b]

As I've explained above, the point of comparison here is only that you are doing something that is against community interest (costing the taxpayer money in the one case, contributing to neighborhood school overcrowding without being a member of the neighborhood community in the other) [b]just because your position of power (being a cabinet member, or in the case at hand someone's financial ability to move IB for a short period of time or obtain a secondary residence while maintaining their primary home elsewhere) allows them to do it. [/b]If a cabinet member flies to Philadelphia for a work meeting instead of taking the train, he's also probably not doing anything illegal, but abusing his rights to choose the most expedient way of transportation. In the same vein, the parent who abuses a rule that has been created to give homeless kids who have to move OOB more stability is also abusing the rules. That's why I find this behavior *morally* comparable, without saying it is the same type of offense.[/quote]

Not really a valid example.  Technically anyone purchasing a home in a good school district is doing so because of their "position of power."   And because of their money, they may be contributing to school crowding.

Keep in mind that someone purchasing a condo to be in bounds for a school will be paying property taxes for two properties.  They have every right to legally send their child to the school zoned for the condo.  You seem hung up on the fact this person has "power" and money to purchase a condo solely for school.  Why aren't you angry at the other property owners who had the power and money to purchase their primary residence in a top school district?

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