The most insane educational inequity (again)

Public education is supposed to be free. It's not.

There was a box of candy canes on the counter when I ordered my Subway sandwich last night.

There was a handwritten sign about the candy that said "Free. Take one. Happy Holidays."

I'm fond of candy, so I took one.

The store manager saw this and called a nearby police officer, who quickly arrested me for theft.

I'm writing this from jail.

Ok, this didn't happen, but speaking of "residency fraud," the crime of using grandma's home address to get your kid into better "public" schools.

Let's talk about it (again).

The crime of stealing a free education

As a parent, I'm willing to do damn near whatever it takes to set my kids up for the best possible lives. Like other parents, I've agonized over whether I'm making the best decisions, especially with the most significant decision - how they will be educated.

Although nominally free, the access points to good schools are rationed in the American education system. District boundaries and the tie between school funding and local tax bases partition educational programs and offerings in a way that favors the rich and punishes the poor.

Knowing the gravity of a child's zip code and how place-based conditions can diminish a life, what parent wouldn't see the morally upright decision to bend school enrollment rules to get their kids into better schools?

Even as I call it "morally upright," states call it larceny. Though it rarely happens, you can go to jail for it and be marred by a criminal record.

Schools are increasingly hiring investigators, slapping fines that can run into thousands, and kids are getting kicked out of school.

I'm not telling you anything new. The unconscionable unfairness of how decision-makers draw school boundaries and the material differences for children they create is among the oldest problems in education.

And, since advantaged families of all political and ideological backgrounds benefit from education hoarding, there is a polite NIMBYist agreement to let it ride. Because the American dream is partially predicated on the assumption that hard work equals more income, which leads to better homes and schools, we assume access is a fairly earned reward.

Yet, the lines drawn to keep kids in and out of public schools are the radon of public education. Unseen and fatal.

An Example: Hazelwood School District's Rigorous Residency Investigations Raise Concerns

Imagine you're a parent in the Hazelwood School District, and one day, someone comes to your door or starts asking you or your landlord questions about where you live. Imagine school district employees demanding to see your child's bedroom and then rifling through their clothes to prove they live there.

Welcome to Missouri, where a recent NPR investigation revealed a story that plays out in school districts nationwide.

Hazelwood has significantly ramped up enforcement, with over 2,000 investigations in the 2022-23 school year, compared to 148 five years ago. On paper, these investigations aim to verify that students live within the district's boundaries. However, the district's heavy-handed methods, including home visits and surveillance, have been described as intrusive and have led to numerous appeals from families.

See:

Why the increase?

Hazelwood used to enroll primarily white students, but now it's mostly Black. Some people wonder if the residency verifications target certain students more than others.

I don't wonder. I know, and you do, too.

Critics of the investigations claim searching homes and grilling landlords unearths no problems in about half of the cases.

You might say, well, half the time, there is a problem - meaning people are using addresses other than their own to gain access to good public schools. That's a crime.

This is true. It is a crime. Stealing. But public education is free, right?

We must make public education truly free and open to all

Public school supporters constantly tell us how public education is a "common good" and should not be poisoned by market theology. And, yet, many of these same "common good" folks send their kids to well-resourced public schools with abundant learning opportunities that they secured solely through the home mortgage market. They bought a place in the VIP education section while others are confined to the nose-bleed seats, so far from opportunity they can barely see it.

I sympathize with parents who don’t feel particularly privileged by the the cost we’ve paid to access fairly decent public schools. At times it feels like the price is high for what we get, and our sacrifices to make it happen are taxing. We want to be good people, but empathy starts at home. Literally.

Yet, deep down, we know we’re holders of an unearned fast pass allowing us to jump over gates that lock out other equally striving and hardworking parents in a brutal form of classist social engineering.

Nothing I write here breaks new ground. This has all been said before. We know the education system is rigged to spoil some kids and starve others, even if we lock that fact in one of our mind's closets where we keep inconvenient things that disturb our consciousness.

We should be disturbed. Education should be free. Access should be equal. We must free the futures of all children living in politically manufactured education ghettos.