I was wondering should i have to pay these for my child to get an education i saw somewhere where it said it should be free because every child deserves a free education or something like that. I know for my special needs child i get a whole $3 off well i did last year anyways lol = ) ...just wondering Thanks

By Yjja123 on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 11:18 am:

Public school is free. What exactly are you refering to? Is is a public school, charter school or something else? What are the fees and what are they supposed to cover?

By Kaye on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 11:21 am:

We had fees in ohio too, i thought they kind of sucked! But it was explained to me that yes every child is guaranteed a free education, they type and quality doesn't have to be the same, so in high school you pay your fees for more specific classes. I think we paid 25 a kid. We don't do this in texas, although they request ALOT of school supplies (i think my pack was 45 for each elem kid).

By Brandy on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 11:26 am:

I think they are for books but still they are quite abit of money i think anyways i think i paid $70 some for nick last year and about $60 some for alex...then we have to purchase the school supplies also and lunch is $1.65 and breakfast is $1.00 per day it just all adds up to so much lol = )

By Tink on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 11:35 am:

Wow! Here, in California, the only fee is for the children to eat the school-provided lunch. We don't have any kind of fees for books, supplies, etc. Of course, we provide school supplies and the teacher sends out a wish list of items for the classroom but nothing is mandatory. Even field trip fees aren't required anymore, although almost all parents pay their child's fee. There is such a difference between states and school districts.

By Imamommyx4 on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 11:49 am:

When my boys were little, we got a list of supplies to buy like crayons, rulers, pencil boxes, etc. Then some classes would have a fee like $5 for art or $3 for English workbook.
But about 3 years ago, the schools, at least elem, changed. Now you give them $25 to cover supplies, which they buy in bulk, and the individual class fees.I used to spend about $40 a kid for each supply list plus the class fees. So it's not a bad deal.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 12:02 pm:

We have lots of fees! LOL! I thought I could find them on the school district website, but no such luck. We also get to pay for school pictures, right away, when we register, since that is when they shoot the pictures!

My Junior in high school, wants a new sweatshirt, so that will add onto it, too! LOL!

Oh, I also found out that school starts before Labor Day, on September 1st. Surprise surprise! We started after Labor Day, the last couple years. I didn't realize that this year was different!

By Yjja123 on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 12:20 pm:

School pictures, lunches, sweatshirts, etc---these are all options, meaning you could choose not to have them. I think there is a legality issue if a public school is charging a "fee" and it is not optional. Public school is paid via taxes and as such should be free.
As far as school supplies, when my children attended public school we had 3 page lists of "required" supplies. I paid over $70 for supplies only to have the teacher give some of our supplies away to kids who brought nothing!
Brandy--I would want to know exactly what you are paying for.
Just my opinion...
PS--Dawn our schools here are starting 2 weeks early and will start even earlier next year. A teacher told me that they are extending the school year to give more time to prepare for FCAT.

By Mrsheidi on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 12:31 pm:

Being a teacher, we had to be mindful of what we "required" as supplies. For my class, it was a 3 ring binder, notebook paper, 5 dividers, colored pencils, and 2 pens.
Now, if you took a chemistry class, there was a $10 lab fee to help pay for lab experiments. You'd be surprised how much we DON'T get for the classroom. In every state that I have taught, we were very limited with chemical supplies that were supposed to be paid by the state.

I also emphasized that donations are tax deductible. (They helped toward dissection of pigs and cats, etc. for my anatomy class.)
I wonder if these fees are tax deductible as well?

By Karen~moderator on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 12:48 pm:

When mine were in public school here, we had TONS of fees at the beginning of every semester, IN ADDITION TO the required supply list we were given at the beginning of every semester also.

Certain classes, such as art, computer lab, chemistry, wordworking, etc. had fees from $10 to $75 per semester. Several teachers required extra supplies which were not included in the *basic* supply list, the most expensive ones were the art supplies. I remember spending a fortune several years when Jeff was in the gifted art program - we had to buy specific sketch pads, craypas, various colored pencils and paints - all available at that time, only at an art supply store.

Lunch and/or breakfast were extra. Then there was always the push for you to buy the various T shirts, sweatshirts, etc. I made an enemy of one of Jeff's teachers in junior high because she was giving extra credit to the kids for buying the spirit shirts! I was furious. I wrote a long letter explaining that, though my son was an honors student, I was a single mom and couldn't afford to purchase every different shirt they decided to sell, and that it was very unfair to give extra grade points to kids just because they spent money on those things. She then told me that *all of the teachers did it*. I told her that their grade points should be earned on GRADES, not how much money they spent.

And particularly in the younger grades, there was always a wish list of sorts, *suggested donations* to the classroom, such as paper towels, kleenex, wipes, etc.

Public schools are anything but free - basic supplies alone add up to quite the sum of money, especially if you have several kids in school. Add the backpacks/bookbags, PE uniforms, gym bags, PE shoes, school uniforms to it - I wonder, with the cost of public schools, how parents can afford to pay for private schools?

I didn't necessarily have a problem with all the extra costs, but you expect your child to get a good, quality, FAIR education, and in the course of raising 4 kids in the public school system in Louisiana, I've found that is not the case. A whole other rant, sorry for getting off topic here!

By Reds9298 on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 12:52 pm:

Here in IN you pay "textbook rental fees", and in kindergarten it's for consumable classroom materials. (That's what I taught) It is expensive though...in the $80's for first grade, but they don't necessarily go up with each grade. Like 4th gr. is less than 3rd, etc.

As far as extra supplies go, it's unfortunate that parents have to pay for things but otherwise it's up to the teacher to buy for the whole class out of his/her pocket. There's just not enough funding all the way around.

By Crystal915 on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 01:14 pm:

This ought to FLOOR you guys. Kansas Supreme Court was preparing in the beginning of July to CANCEL public schools. The people in charge of the schools had not submitted a proper budget, and there were money issues, so the SC gave them until July 1st, or the schools would not open in August. They did finally work it out, but I was just amazed, who would think that could happen?
The thing is we all hear the "lower taxes" promise, but I'd gladly pay higher taxes if I KNEW it was going to important things like education. As for school supplies, my friend had to buy a TON of required supplies (even the brand was designated, like Crayola Crayons) and then the teacher dumped all of them into a box to be distributed amongst the class. That would tick me off, I pay good money for something my kid should be able to keep and reuse (like scissors), only to have it taken away? This is all getting out of hand. The more I hear and see, the more I think about homeschooling.

By Kernkate on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 01:18 pm:

My kids go to public schools and there is no fees.
I do buy school supplies at the beginning of the school year and then when needed . Pencils, Binders, Folders, backpack. We don't get a note home or anything saying what they have to have.

By Brandy on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 01:40 pm:

reds i am in indiana that's what i was talking about i think it is textbook fees..

By Luvn29 on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 01:43 pm:

We get a list of all school supplies needed. And then we have to pay a classroom fee supposedly for workbooks, etc. Ten dollars for my first grader. And a ten dollar "activity" fee for my fourth grader.

Last year we had to pay 13.00 for workbooks that the children did not TOUCH. Really. I work at the school and my daughter's teacher was so upset that the kids had to purchase these, although they wouldn't be used. They didn't go along with the format of the SOL, so the teachers used worksheets and such that were in that format to help with the actual tests.

By Colette on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 01:48 pm:

We have fees for the bus and extra-curricular activities. They do have a maximum cap of $500 per family (or something like that). The pto offers help to families who cannot afford the fees and if you qualify for free lunch all fees are waived.

Our fees just started about 2 yrs ago because the towns would not pass the school budget without cuts.

By Juli4 on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 01:53 pm:

My oldest is starting preschool and we are going private school. It is 125.00 a month plus a few supplies that amount to maybee 25.00 and no uniforms to buy. I think that it is reasonable. There will be less than 10 children in her class and I think that she will get a bettereducation not being lost in a big classroom. Oh and it is only half day. Whole day is I think 200.00 or 225.00. Each kid you add after that is a certain percent off. I am not sure exactly, but I graduated from a small private school and if you have good teachers then you can get a really good individualized education. just my two cents

By Debbie on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 02:10 pm:

Brandy, here in Illinois there is a text book fee. I had never heard of this. We didn't have it in Texas. I had to pay $80.00 for ds and he was in K. He didn't even have a text book!! To top it off, this was for 1/2 the year since we moved here in Dec. Then, I also had to buy school supplies from a list. Now, we are in private, so it is different. We do have to provide supplies, but it is a lot less then what I paid for the public school. We also have a text book fee(which is almost the same as the public schools) and then I pay monthly tuition.

In Texas, we had to buy supplies from a list that was provided. There were no other fees. Ds used his supplies and when we moved mid year he brought home what he didn't use. The teacher did have a wish list and she did ask for donations for extra supplies.

By Mommmie on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 04:06 pm:

When my son was in public, he had no general fee, but had a $40 supply set you could pay the school to provide or provide it yourself (which would cost more). Other than that it was the usual optional stuff like pictures, yearbook, spirit shirt. I distributed yearbooks a couple of years ago and less than half the school bought it and it was $11. Older kids pay to play sports, cheerleading, drill team, parking in high school, among a million other things.

My son's current private school provides all supplies, which is nice. Built into tuition, I guess. We went to the uniform store this morning and spent $220 on it plus $40 for shoes. Sounds like a lot but that's for the entire year. I do have to buy one more sweatshirt from the school store once school starts. We pay for pictures and yearbook ($52, but it goes through high school). But that's it.

The legislature in Texas is in special session right now trying to figure out how to fund the schools. I think the schools should get rid of all extras including sports and refocus on just academics. These other things can be picked up in the private sector and the govt can't afford it anymore.

By Tayjar on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 04:15 pm:

I am in Central Illinois. In a district close to mine, they are having so many budgets problems they had to implement a new fee schedule. I was floored. I don't know how the kids could even do anything or how the parents can afford to send kids to school.

For kids grades 1 - 6 $85 instructional materials and textbook fees.

It gets much worse in junior high and high school.
*Instructional/Material Fees - anywhere from $85 to $95
*Activity Fee - mandatory even if you don't play sports - $150 per student but you get in free to all sporting events. So what?
*If they play sports, $250 fee on top of the $150
*Graduation fee for 8th and 12th grade - $10
*Then they have a ton of lab fees for computer lab, art lab, etc.

I will quit complaing about my $65 per child fee now that I've learned about theirs.

By Reds9298 on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 04:56 pm:

Brandy, don't know if they do this where you are in IN, but here(Kokomo) Walmart, Target, Meijer all have a big bin of lists from the school corporations with the grade and the supplies that the parents need to buy for that school/grade. School supplies are so cheap now, but it's just more to buy in addition to the textbook fees and school clothes!

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 05:10 pm:

I understand that pictures and sweatshirts are optional, but we can afford them and choose to get them. If we pay $50 for an activity card, for my high school kid, she gets into games and plays for free and gets a yearbook. Again optional, but it seems to be a good deal.

Also there is the 10-11 dollar band-uniform cleaning fee! They get us for that at registration, too.


Category Sarah
Registration $84.00 (includes activity card and assignment notebook)
Band uniform fee$11.00
Pictures $25.50
Zipped Hoodie w/name $27.00
Moms sweatshirt $27.00
$174.50

That's how much I shelled out last year!

--------------

Emily

Registration $26
Pictures $26
School supplies $48.50
Total $96.25