>Doesn't always work. In Brighton (my home) all hands started to settle around the most sought-after secondary (high) school. The area got dubbed "The Golden Halo" and the house prices shot up, so that now only the richer people could afford to live in it. Thus the school took on an almost private aspect. BUT, just this year, as many areas in Brighton don't fall into a school "catchment" area (ours included) pressure from parents forced the council into rethinking the policy. So now I'm not sure of the mechanism, but decision reached national TV news and now the golden halo residents have no advantage and their kids may even have to go to the less sought-after schools. The new policy is advantageous to us now, who had no real choice before.

I think school attendance areas work a little differently over here. Schools are a state function, but the states have delegated them. In some states, they're run at the county level, but in many (I suspect most), they're run at the local level.

So, for example, I live in a township of about 35,000 people that runs its own school district, comprising 7 schools and about 5,000 students.

The next school district over is run by a small borough, with two schools and about 600 students.

Two sides of my township border on the city of Philadelphia, which runs the largest school district in the state.

Tamar