No, it isn't messed up...it's just plain necessary. I worked for an urban school district that had a lot of folks lying about residency, mainly in order to take advantage of our special ed programs. Unfortunately, each special ed student - depending on individual needs, of course - can easily cost the district $100,000 per school year. Thus, everybody thinks "it's just my kid" or "it's a city, they can afford it" but if you do it and the next person and yet another, the district is broke. The school district only has so much budgeted to it each year, and it's often difficult to afford everything needed in 21st century education as it is without covering huge costs of students from outside districts. This is, of course, not to say that every student shouldn't be able to get the best possible education for their individual needs - of course they should. But then, we need to come up with a different system instead of individual town districts, because as I mentioned above, right now each district is allotted only a certain amount each year. They just plain can't cover the cost of other students, particularly ones who require the largest costs to educate.