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Comment by aidenn0 | Hacker News Reader

Yes the government-provided schooling tends to be hyper-local in the US, though there are exceptions.

This was (along with other things) used to avoid regulations banning racial segregation of schools (since neighborhoods were already segregated due to policies like redlining).

When people perceive one school to be better than another, they may use various forms of fraud to get their children into the school; using the grandparent's address is common (since grandparents may own a house in the suburbs while the parents are younger and live in an apartment in a poorer neighborhood).

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> When people perceive one school to be better than another

Often there's more to it than just perception. My parents moved to a smaller suburb so my brother and I could attend schools with higher standardized test scores, lower class sizes, less violent incidents, more extracurricular activities, and ultimately _a lot_ more funding. Both districts were public. They made this decision looking at publicly accessible data in the 80s/90s.

Looking back, it was objectively one of the best decisions they made for our future... if not the best.

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Sure - address fraud is very common in regards to getting your kid to a better education opportunity but when there are stark, vast differences between districts I have a hard time blaming people. Especially given my anecdotal experience.

> Often there's more to it than just perception

Yes, perception has a correlation with reality.

> Sure - address fraud is very common in regards to getting your kid to a better education opportunity but when there are stark, vast differences between districts I have a hard time blaming people. Especially given my anecdotal experience.

Indeed, a friend of mine in elementary school was one example; his grandparents lived down the street from me, and his parents were in a terrible school district.

> Yes, perception has a correlation with reality.

Ope.. getting hung up on the statement "perception has a correlation with reality." Reality is the way things are, and perception is quintessentially subjective. It is not guaranteed that perception correlates with reality - just spend 10 minutes with my family for this lesson.

I argue the difference between school districts in the US is not perception, as it is not subjective - it is fact. It is reality. This is something that has been so extensively studied I wish all of us could accept it as fact.

Sorry to get hung up on a word. I find that people making these decisions aren't typically doing it from a subjective place -- they're making data-driven decisions to maximize their child's opportunities.

Sorry to be pedantic... cheers!

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