In the zone

Abstract

Australians are familiar with the idea of having a school zone. It is a culturally engrained idea in our education system and legislation enshrines the right of children to have a designated neighbourhood school. However, both the idea and the right are more contested than is often realised.

Real estate groups have tapped into the increasing collective concern about school zones in many ways for many decades, for example by developing customer friendly ways to ascertain the school zone. After all, a house can easily be sold when it is in a school’s zone, the ‘right school’s zone’, of course.