School fees: Would you rather...

[WhatATreat]

Count me as another one who wasn't sure how to answer the poll. Where I live we pay close to $4000 in property taxes for our townhome and pay school registration fees. This year it cost me $793.00 in fees for my HS sophomore (includes $350 for Driver's Ed.).

 

[gina2000]

It takes a village to educate children.

If you want to break out education from property taxes, do you now have to break out senior citizens' services, garbage removal, road repair, library services, community health services, etc., etc.?

We are a community. People need to stop thinking in terms of themselves and their own needs and start thinking about the community's needs.

We've become too insular and selfish in our demands. We need to think like a society intent on helping each other.

 

[disneychrista]

i don't get the whole "book rental" fee deal-is there some kind of shelf life on a text book and the fees over that shelf life will cover the next newer edition?

Around here it seems that new curiculum is introduced about every 3 -5 years. This means new books. I think it is crazy how much our school district spends on replacing books every 3 - 5 years, not because the books are worn, but because they changed their mind on what to teach.

 

[MrsPete]

i don't get the whole "book rental" fee deal-is there some kind of shelf life on a text book and the fees over that shelf life will cover the next newer edition?

Yes, books DO have a shelf life. Sort of.

In my county, we have a rotating system: English gets new books this year, science the next year, math the next year, etc. Everyone gets new books every five years.

It's a good system because -- without fail -- in that last year, the books look really, really ratty. It's not vandalism (we charge the students for purposefully destroyed books); rather, it's the wear and tear of being shoved into bookbags and lockers for five years. In that last year, covers start to come off the worst-treated books. The corners of all the books are squished in. The books just look a mess after five years (10 semesters, assigned to 10 different students) of use.

You could squeeze out another year from all the books . . . two years out of the ones that've been fortunate enough to be treated well by the more careful students . . . but textbooks just aren't treated the same way as your own personal read-once-and-put-on-the-shelf fiction novel.

 

[ilovejack02]

x

 

[pooh4evr]

I also hadn't heard of any type of fees associated with public schools until I heard them on the DIS- we don't have any fees here (other then a parking pass fee at the HS level) at least not yet , of course our state funding was cut and dthe district is looking at an at least $6million short fall so we'll see what happens next.