The Grosse Pointe Public School System will impose penalties of up to $13,000 for parents who violate the district's residency requirements.
Prospective students will have to verify home ownership or provide monthly proof of rental, as well as parental or guardianship verification and other documentation.
The tighter requirements came after a group called "Residents for Residency" presented two petitions to the Grosse Pointe Public Schools board of education.
Gary Miron is a professor at Western Michigan University. He also co-authored a new book about schools of choice. He says the tougher enforcement is likely based on racism in an effort to prevent children from neighboring Detroit from entering their affluent school district.
"Here these people are complaining that these kids from Detroit or other districts might be benefiting from their great school system. Well, their great school system is largely funded from the state sales tax," Miron says.
Miron says Grosse Pointe gets about $300 dollars more per pupil than Detroit schools.
Grosse Pointe is one of 11 districts in Metro Detroit that excludes students from outside its borders under the state's voluntary schools of choice program.
District officials did not return requests for comment.
