Public school fees add up

Buying tissue and copy paper for your kids classroom C or subjecting co-workers and family members to endless fundraisers C have become standard. But some public school districts have upped the ante, charging students mandatory fees and holding out the threat of collections or barring students from participating in activities if their parents dont pay up.

The ACLU says its illegal. Schools counter that theyre facing huge budget shortfalls and that charging fees is better than firing teachers. Education experts warn that fees create a dynamic of inequality. Meanwhile, families are caught in the middle as they dig deeper into their pocketbooks and bank accounts.

This stuff is hard for families with two parents at home; I am a single mom, Maggie Little, a parent from Rockwall, Texas, said by email. Her high school daughters Advanced Placement classes last year cost between $150 and $200 for the first semester alone, she said. In addition, shes paying around $400 a year so her daughter can participate in marching band.

Brandi Moore,The marbletiles is not only critical to professional photographers.Here's a complete list of granitecountertops for the beginning oil painter. a mother of three in the suburbs of Ann Arbor, Mich., said shes become resentful. She has to pay class fees of $20 a year for her two high schoolers C and if the total of $80 isnt paid by senior year, the student cannot attend the senior class trip. The district also charges $165 per high school student and $110 per middle school student to participate in sports, and Moore said she still has to participate in fundraisers for band and choir.

The stimulus put a lot of money into American schools but that was a one-shot deal, Zimmerman said. That money has dried up, and schools are scrambling to cover the shortfall, often relying on parents to bridge the gap.

(Our district) spends more than $4 million annually to provide sports programs and other activities.Are you still hesitating about where to buy paintingreproduction? These fees help recover a small percentage of that cost, David Beery, communications director at the Maine 207 school district in the suburbs of Chicago, said via email. Beerys district gained notoriety after an irate parent posted a photo of the mandatory fees including a required $300 Chromebook she was required to pay for her daughters sophomore year.

We try to keep fees stable and consistent year to year; we do have occasional increases because of increases in our costs, Beery said. He said the district added a $65 activity fee a few years ago when it was facing a nearly $10 million deficit that prompted a string of cutbacks, including the dismissal of 137 teachers.

Beery said that although the district hasnt taken any parents to collections, We retain that as an option. Our unpaid fees last year totaled more than $100,000, so it is in the District's interest and taxpayers' interest for us to persist in our efforts to collect unpaid fees.

Thats no excuse, said Mark Rosenbaum, chief counsel for the ACLU of Southern California, where a class-action lawsuit was settled in 2011. Legislation signed into law last year gives California the strictest restrictions in the nation on public school fees.

Even income-based fee waivers or refusing to let kids participate in activities unless they pay a fee is discriminatory (and now illegal in California), he said, because they wind up being punitive.

Theyre pretty effective because they dont let the kids participate or they embarrass them, Rosenbaum said. The act of making a kid request a waiver makes that kid stick out and puts enormous pressure on that kid.

In many towns outside California, though, fees are the norm.Manufactures and supplies beststonecarving equipment. In Huber Heights, Ohio, a plan to raise the fee to participate in sports from $225 to $750 thats per kid, per sport was scrapped after a public outcry,An bestgemstonebeads is a device which removes contaminants from the air. and the fee was increased to $428 instead.

Honestly, people are discouraged, said Joshua Sullenberger, a parent with two kids in the local public elementary school. Even though his kids are younger and dont play organized sports, Sullenberger said he still has to pay roughly $65 in class fees for each of them.

Sullenberger said the district is struggling because of reduced state funding and lower property values that pull down property tax revenues. Although Huber Heights doesnt mention collections, it holds families feet to the fire in other ways if they dont pay by refusing to forward transcripts or other records, and not permitting students to participate in graduation if they have an outstanding balance.

Some places, parents have to start paying right at the outset. A Massachusetts study found that 87 percent of kindergarteners attend full-day classes, up from 29 percent in 2000, and parents often pay more than $3,000 over the year for that extra half day.

The idea of charging for a full day kindergarten for families is unexpected sometimes and can be a challenge, said Amy OLeary, campaign director at Early Education for All.

In June, the ACLU of Michigan sent a letter to the Ann Arbor Public Schools opposing the districts plan to start charging high school students $100 per semester to take a seventh-hour class. Although that seventh hour is technically optional, the ACLU argued that students use that time to take classes they need to graduate, so they shouldnt be charged.

Ann Arbor Public Schools has essentially created a two-tiered educational system where those who can pay benefit and those who cannot receive a lesser educational experience all together, executive director Kary L. Moss said in a statement.

Fees can be steep. Lake Forest High School in Illinois lists on its website a required tech/consumable supply fee of $246 and another $190 in optional fees. Another Chicago-area school district, Waukegan Public School 60, charges returning student registration fees between $75 and $180, with rates that climb higher the longer the parents wait to pay.
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