Dive Summary:
- Challenged by shrinking budgets, schools across the country are charging for programs and items that have in the past been free —sometimes even collecting basic registration fees.
- Some parents are fighting back: When the Ann Arbor Public Schools district in Michigan said high-school students would have to pay $100 to take a seventh class, two parents sued and the district eventually backed down.
- School boards usually stipulate that mandatory fees can be waived for students showing financial need, but some parents say this is problematic and misses the point of a public education being free.
From the article:
... Julie Fain says she pays $65 a year per for each of her two children, ages 10 and 6, to attend A.N. Pritzker Elementary in Chicago. Ms. Fain says that while these mandatory fees aren't high enough to impose a hardship on many families in her district, they are problematic "on principle." ...
