School District Charging Fee For Kindergarten

EUDORA, Kan. – While you pay an admission fee to get into an amusement park, one school district is charging a fee to get into kindergarten.

The Eudora School Board voted to start charging a $100 fee per child to enroll in full or half-day kindergarten.

The move is expected to generate thousands of dollars. That money is expected to help reduce the district’s $400,000 budget shortfall.

Board members also voted to shorten the 2010-2011 school year by ten days to help reduce costs.

As a result, school days will be extended anywhere from 15 to 22 minutes per day.

http://www.nbcactionnews.com/news/local/story/School-District-Charging-Fee-For-Kindergarten/PD3JnlImuEy5JrrVwIwkxg.cspx

This is wrong on so many levels.

Kindergarten in our school district includes a pretty intense reading curriculum.

too many think kindergarten is just babysitting. It isn't and kids who don't have it fall far behind their peers very quickly. I think it's one of the most important years in school and I applaude kindergarten teachers -- all elementary teachers. They do the heavy lifting.

:)

Pretty damn sad isn't it?

I am talking about public school.

The book rental fees, the lab fees, the cost of gym clothes and school supplies for three kids at the beginning of the year was overwhelming. One year, I asked a school secretary about what happens to families that had much less than mine. She said that many families never paid their school fees. We were told that our kids could not register for school unless all the fees were paid. She said that was an empty threat. She said it wasn't just poor families who never bothered to pay. Non-payment raised the costs for everyone else.

Our district has a fund for those who can't pay - but there's a form of some kind. I usually make a general comment at the start of the year about this and tell kids to talk to their guidance counselor. I also assure them that this is kept confidential and that I will never know. I don't know how many follow through on this because it is confidential.

I would call the principal every year and tell him that because my child is entitled to a FREE public education, I wasn't going to pay the fees. When my kid was a senior in high school, the principal said I should make sure and pay for a yearbook if he wanted one. And I did.

I never felt bad about not paying because the fees were always for extra curricular stuff my kid didn't do. Why should he pay a sports fee when he didn't play a sport or even go to any games? He took private music and art lessons so there was no need for him to pay an arts fee either.

I have taught in a school district for 30 years that has never charged fees. So I know they don't absolutely have to charge them. It's a freakin scam.

to pay for consumables - chemicals that get used up and glassware that gets broken.

And the state needs to give enough money to the district so they can fund your program.

It may all be moot anyway. If class sizes increases as predicted, I won't do labs due to liability. I cannot safely supervise that many kids and insure they have a beneficial learning experience. I'll have to do demos. The admins are mulling over my idea of having parental supervision, at least to be sure the kids keep their goggles on. (They wanted to pass it by the lawyers.) But... no supplies, no labs. I won't buy them out of my pocket because the legislature thought it was more important to give businesses and the wealthy a tax cut.

...in elementary, middle, and high schools. The same schools we pay taxes to maintain.

Property taxes and such are SUPPOSED to pick up the slack.

I don't want my tax dollars going to private schools, especially religious schools. It's that whole separation of church and state thing. Why should my tax dollars go to an institution that teaches that it's okay to keep women subservient? Or that pedophilia is a violation of celibacy, not child abuse?