School zones?

[brendan]

Do you attend a state school outside your "zone" or "catchment"? These "zones" shouldn't even be there in the first place, imo.

[Eriny]

My school was slightly out of the technical "zone" (although the school did put information evening notices in my Primary School Newsletter). I agree that they shouldn't exist, there's many factors that come into play when choosing a school, location is only one of them and in many cases the zones are pretty arbitrary.

[sheepz]

It is a bit hard to determine how secondary schools are going to choose their students if there is a very high demand though.

That being said, I agree the zoning doesn't help much as people will just rent a house in the zone for a year just for their children to get into the school and move to somewhere else.

[brendan]

It is a bit hard to determine how secondary schools are going to choose their students if there is a very high demand though.

That being said, I agree the zoning doesn't help much as people will just rent a house in the zone for a year just for their children to get into the school and move to somewhere else.

there is only one just way to select students where demand exceeds supply => selection according to academic merit.

[sheepz]

It is a bit hard to determine how secondary schools are going to choose their students if there is a very high demand though.

That being said, I agree the zoning doesn't help much as people will just rent a house in the zone for a year just for their children to get into the school and move to somewhere else.

there is only one just way to select students where demand exceeds supply => selection according to academic merit.

i think its a little hard to select students from just primary school results though...

[brendan]

It is a bit hard to determine how secondary schools are going to choose their students if there is a very high demand though.

That being said, I agree the zoning doesn't help much as people will just rent a house in the zone for a year just for their children to get into the school and move to somewhere else.

there is only one just way to select students where demand exceeds supply => selection according to academic merit.

i think its a little hard to select students from just primary school results though...

well they would need to sit a test or something. but i can see no other way of fairly selecting students other than on academic ability. all the other ways of selection that i have seen are at best inaccurate and at worst ethically compromised.

[brendan]

"How Much Do Public Schools Really Cost? Estimating the Relationship Between House Prices and School Quality"
Ian Davidoff & Andrew Leigh
http://econrsss.anu.edu.au/~aleigh/pdf/SchoolQualityHousePrices.pdf

"Since houses in better school zones are more expensive high-quality public education is not costless. The price of buying into a good school zone may prevent poor families from accessing the public schools of their choice. Given that education can transform the social and economic opportunities of the underprivileged, such social exclusion may perpetuate cycles of disadvantage if left unaddressed."

[costargh]

My brother was refused access to Mazenod College in year 7 on two grounds:
1. We lived in Keysborough
2. We were not Catholic (hinted many times but never actually stated)

My parents complained about this and saw a Catholic priest about the situation (a different one to the primary school one from memory).

On the day my brother picked up his books for SJRC we got a call saying he had been accepted. So the whole crap of not living in Keysborough cost my brother and myself a place @ Mazenod. Retrospectively I would have looked forward to going there but then again I wouldn't know some of the best people in my life if it wasn't for zoning. =P

Oh yeh I don't like it

[Collin Li]

The advent of transportation helped to create a competitive atmosphere in the industry of education, since the reduction in costs of travel were insignificant compared to the benefits of better education. It forced schools to compete with each other. The introduction of school zoning only serves to remove the competition, and is certainly another strategy supported by the AEU to protect their bludgy jobs.

[said in a rant-like way ]

[brendan]

My brother was refused access to Mazenod College in year 7 on two grounds:
1. We lived in Keysborough
2. We were not Catholic (hinted many times but never actually stated)

My parents complained about this and saw a Catholic priest about the situation (a different one to the primary school one from memory).

On the day my brother picked up his books for SJRC we got a call saying he had been accepted. So the whole crap of not living in Keysborough cost my brother and myself a place @ Mazenod. Retrospectively I would have looked forward to going there but then again I wouldn't know some of the best people in my life if it wasn't for zoning. =P

Oh yeh I don't like it

is mazenod a public school?

[costargh]

No Mazenod is a Catholic school with median study score of 34. (Hence pretty good school).
I'm pretty sure other independant schools such as Mazenond have zoning implementation.
I remember that we were on the wrong side of the main road to be considered. Literally 25 metres on the wrong side of the road.

[brendan]

No Mazenod is a Catholic school with median study score of 34. (Hence pretty good school).
I'm pretty sure other independant schools such as Mazenond have zoning implementation.
I remember that we were on the wrong side of the main road to be considered. Literally 25 metres on the wrong side of the road.

im talking abt zoning rules for public schools. these are imposed on all state schools by the Vic Department of Education. Catholic and independent schools don't have the same regulation imposed on them. they can select students according to location if they wish but they don't have to like public schools.

[costargh]

Do you mean you're not talking about Catholic schools?

[brendan]

Do you mean you're not talking about Catholic schools?

yup i don't believe they are required by the DET to select according to location. so they must have done it out of their own choice.

[brendan]

I can see why a catholic school might care if their students are catholic, but i can't see why they would care where you live, seems absolutely irrelevant to me.