GLASTONBURY, Conn. – School officials in the Glastonbury school district don’t appreciate outsiders.

They believe the district’s schools should only be open to those who live in town, and pay local education taxes.

That’s why they employ former Glastonbury police officer Keith O’Brien to investigate new students, and collect the necessary evidence to kick them out if they don’t live within the district’s boundaries, the Hartford Currant reports.

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This year, O’Brien investigated 243 of the 677 newly enrolled students, and found 61 enrolled that shouldn’t be, he said.

“Sometimes it takes five to 10 days of sitting there to establish whether they are living there or not,” O’Brien said of his student stakeouts.

“Ten days is a pretty good standard. If I do 10 days and they are not there, it gives me a little more (ammunition) because they can always say, ‘Well, I wasn’t home for a couple of days.’ I can come back with, ‘Well, I’ve been here for 10 days.’ We can usually catch them not telling the truth,” O’Brien told the news site.

The students O’Brien busted this year – which ranged from kindergarteners to high school seniors – seem to be viewed by school officials as a financial transaction, and at about $13,000 per student each year to educate them, school board member Douglas C. Foyle is excited that O’Brien saved the district about $793,000 this year, the Currant reports.

“At the very least it is three classrooms, or $13,000 per student,” Foyle told the news site. “You can get up to $1 million real quickly. I always come at it from the perspective of someone who is working and sacrificing to live in Glastonbury and paying taxes. This honors their sacrifice by saying there’s not someone here taking part in the education and not paying taxes and living here.”

Superintendent Alan Bookman told the news site the only exception to the residency rule is for people who live in Glastonbury who move during their child’s senior year of high school, in which case the district is gracious enough to allow the student to graduate.

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And the district has been effective at weeding out those who don’t belong, he said.

In 2012-13, O’Brien nabbed 48 students who don’t deserve a Glastonbury education. The year prior it was 49 students, and in 2010-11 he busted 42 outsiders, according to the news site.

“I think it’s fair,” Bookman said. “We are following the rules of the state. We want to be fair to the students and fair to everybody.”

Which raises some very important questions: How is it fair that students whose families cannot afford to live in Glastonbury, or other affluent areas, are forced to attend dismal public schools?

How is it fair that less fortunate parents who want to pursue a better education for their children are treated like criminals?

Those questions and others were posted by commenters to the Currant story, most of which seemed to find the district’s undercover work appalling.

“If the numbers are correct, the month that these 61 kids spent in the Glastonbury school system cost the town/state about $1,300 each. Will the town/state go after the parents/guardians who lied when they registered the kids? What is the cost of the detective spending, according to the article, 10 days on each of the 61 investigations? That is almost 2 YEARS worth of detective manpower at an average of $70,000-$114,000 per year per detective, according to published salary reports. Who pays for that?” Al Parducci posted.

“Is this witch hunt cost effective for the taxpayers of Glastonbury and the state? Will Glastonbury have to sue each of the 61 families to recoup the stolen education costs, resultant investigation costs and eventual legal fees probably for both sides of the suit? … Was this really worth it? Was this thought out? This could cost the town and state over $14 MILLION!!! It will break families apart, resulting in more delinquent kids, more crime, more drag and expenditures on the state criminal justice system for years to come.”

“So let me get this straight: If a student is from another town, and even if the school in Glastonbury is closer in terms of distance, that student has no right to be at the Glastonbury school. But if you’re here illegally from another country, and you do live in town, then you have every right to be here? And this is ok with Glastonbury taxpayers,” Infowars wrote.

Others were quick to point out a much larger drain on the school budget that officials have mostly ignored.

“It is not the children that are draining the budget. It’s teachers and their salaries, pensions and collective bargaining B.S,” r.u.sh10.me posted. “You have to have a master’s to teach kindergarten? No. You need a master’s to collect 80 grand a year for 200 days work.”

Another commenter, nypact, seemed to loath school officials for blocking educational options for non-Glastonbury students.

“It just be so gratifying to have a job like Keith O’Brien has,” nypact posted. “You must be so darn proud of your ‘busts,’ Keith!!”