Yesterday, the BC courts ruled that school boards can not charge students extra fees for materials needed to complete the requirements for graduation. That might be wonderful thinking for parents right away, but some problems arise with this declaration:
School boards are not the ones charging the school fees- they are usually arrived at by the individual school to cover the costs for materials and courses and activities for the students they have. For example, some schools have a library fee, which helps the librarian buy new and needed books for the school library. Due to budget constraints, most librarians have minimal to no money to buy any new books, or to replace books that were damaged.
Other fees include school supply bundles [though parents may opt to buy the items themselves in most cases], musical instruments [recorders for elementary, band instruments for upper grades] and field trip money.
For the school supplies, all students are required to have the regular stuff- pencils, pens, rulers, erasers and now looseleaf paper and notebooks. As the rate of inflation increases, school supplies which used to be extremely cheap when I was in elementary school [for example 200 pg loose leaf for 19 cents for the first 6 per customer] are now not so cheap at $1.99 for the first 6 per customer. While parents bemoan having to pay for 2 dollars for a pack of paper, I hope that they remember that the school is paying that amount as well times the number of students and teachers it has.
With that to think about, don't forget the "extra" things... will schools continue to get their students [who voluntarily signed up for band class] to rent or buy their own instruments? or will the schools have to pay for them entirely? Here's where one of the loopholes in the ruling comes: Band and other courses like Math 12 [and it's graphing calculators] are technically not required for graduation. BC students are required to complete English 12, and a certain number of credits to get their Dogwood certificate. Math 12 is not a specific course needed to graduate, rather, it can be delegated as an elective. Ditto for Band, Art, Computer Science, Biology...
Obviously with schools collecting school fees for sports equipment, books, and the like, there is not enough money getting to schools to cover the costs. With schools and school boards not allowed to go over budget [instead they must cut], this school fee banning might cause even more program cutting and courses no longer given. While I doubt that class field trips will stop, special concerts with drama, musical and science groups coming to visit schools will plummet as schools have to use the gratuity money they would have paid to the artists, etc. for other things.
(I doubt that independent schools will be affected as many of them are designated specialty schools, so not everyone should be celebrating in getting their ### dollars back.)
As editorial letter writers and Province political columnist Michael Smyth wrote today- I expect that even though parents think that they have won right now, everyone will be seeing their taxes increase as the costs of education will have to be met. Parents are not going to take the cancellation of Band class lightly in most school districts, and they aren't going to be too happy with all the fundraising they will have to do.
I expect a lot more bingo/raffles and possibly gambling nights to cover the school costs- just now they won't be for replacement computers or football helmets- now it will be for erasers. White out, anyone??
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