[gnicholas]

Great idea! I recently heard of a family that leased an expensive home (in Atherton) that was immediately adjacent to a public elementary school. They assumed it was zoned for the school that it abutted, but learned after trying to enroll their kids they discovered it was not. When you look at the district map, you can see that it extends quite a bit into Atherton, and there are many homes that are much farther away from the school that are zoned for it. Good thing they were just leasing, and hadn't bought!

[cwmma]

As somebody who's company has been involved in creating those maps and has been accused of "destroying property values and ruining lives" there are some really complex trade offs that go into these things.

[gnicholas]

I can imagine things get pretty high-stakes. In this particular situation, the school district they were zoned for was very similar, but it was just much less convenient to get the kids to school in the morning.

Curious about the downvotes — isn't this a relevant anecdote that shows the need for products like this one?

[BadCookie]

I assume it’s because many people don’t feel the least bit sorry for a family that is wealthy enough to live in Atherton …

But it’s not fair to take that out on you.

I have a more extreme example. Riverdale High School near Portland, Oregon sits entirely outside of its geographic attendance zone. Riverdale might be the wealthiest district in the state. Perhaps that’s no coincidence.