Desperate for their students to be accepted into prestigious colleges, parents are taking extreme measures to uproot their families to move into districts noted for top high schools.

Today, $1 million will barely suffi ce to purchase a home to fi t four comfortably in Palo Alto, a price too high for many. With the price of homes rising ridiculously in Silicon Valley, families have chosen to rent apartments within the limits of the Palo Alto School District (PAUSD). Instead, these apartments are usually left vacant for use as a local address to enroll. This radical move taken by many is hurting the students attending Gunn legitimately.

To enroll in PAUSD, parents and students must produce a proof of residency of their Palo Alto address, a property tax bill or the rental contract. According to Principal Noreen Likins, the PAUSD defi nition of “residency” is “the place where the student sleeps.” Those who do not reside in their registered addresses are cheating the system.

As a basic aid district, PAUSD does not receive funding based on the head count of students attending. Instead, Palo Alto’s property tax is directly distributed to Palo Alto schools. Those who rent need not pay property tax, and only a portion of their rent is given to PAUSD. Thus, those registered under alias addresses are cheating the entire student population of their education by reducing the total expenditure per student.

Students caught trying to outsmart the district are being removed and transferred at the end of each grading period, making room for those who can support the district and pay for their education via property taxes. Still, PAUSD must take further action to purge the district to make room for incoming students and therefore increasing the amount spent per student.

With more enrollment, PAUSD must increase the staff to accommodate additional students, which our budget does not allow—especially when concerning students attending school without actually residing in the district.

Other school districts such as the Fremont Union High School District (FUHSD) have made great strides in eliminating non-resident students. FUHSD, consisting of top rival high schools such as Monta Vista, Homestead and Lynbrook, has removed over 250 false residencies through random searches and the creation of its Anonymous Tip Line. By doing so, it has reduced expenses by $2 million.

PAUSD, as well as any other school district, has an obligation to its residents to ensure that the taxes being paid to the district fund and optimize only the education of its actual residents.