Posted on 08/22/2009 11:25:17 AM PDT by Enterprise
"The suit says the district violates the constitution in a variety of ways, including requiring students or their parents to pay fees in order to take part in curricular or extra-curricular activities in such areas as sports, cheerleading, band and choir."
(Excerpt) Read more at kmj580.com ...
Well, my information comes from an ages old conversation with my mom who was involved with the school. Someone put forth the idea of asking for a minimal fee and they were quickly informed that it was illegal.
Here, we not only have school supply lists, we ALSO pay a fee. $20 for elementary, I think it's $30 something for middle school and nearly a hundred for high school.
Do you not know the difference between ‘curricular’ and ‘required’?
I can remember my parents sending us to school with glue, paper, pencils, crayons, paint and folders. Now the kindergarteners need 2-3 boxes of crayons, 12 glue sticks, 2 reams of copy paper, headphones 4 boxes of kleenex, hand sanitizer, wipes, ziploc bags, disposable cameras....I believe the higher grades (middle/high school) require those expensive graphing calculators, too. On top of all the supplies, they also have a uniform dress code so we end up having to buy an extra set of clothing for each child that they can only wear to school. When I was a kid, we had play clothes and the clothes we wore to school, church and other polite events. Not so now. My kids have their old play clothes, their school uniforms and when we can afford it...something they can wear that doesn't make them look like raggamuffins or uniformed drones. Extracurricular activities??? I haven't even thought that far, yet!
CURRICULAR ACTIVITY
Curricular activities are those activities which are integral to the classroom and result in a
course grade and credit.
REQUIRED:
1. Needed; essential: missing several required parts.
2. Obligatory: required reading.
Do you ever wonder what the ratio of school administrators to teachers is in your district?
The only way for this practice to stop is for parents to say
NO, especially in tough economic times.
I was in my local k-mart. They have the town’s school supply list available so parents can pick it up and start shopping. The items were suggested, not required. I can’t imagine school officials in my town requiring parents to do much of anything in the way of school supplies.
Most schools require a "fine arts" credit which is band or choir or theater. So, yes, the student is required to come up with $. My beef is schools bend over backwards for the football team but the band is left to fend for itself. I just got through forking over about a $100 for uniform stuff and there will be more bs throughout the year. Two years ago, I told Junior he had his choice of a car or a quality instrument. He chose the instrument. Turns out the car would have been cheaper but the car wouldn't have allowed him to advance in any competition past anything local. Other schools provide good instruments but not ours. Of course now that he's #2 in the state, the band director gets bragging rights and the school gets brownie points but I'm still making payments.
OK, thanks. Now that you’ve confirmed that you don’t know what you are talking about, we can have a basis for a discussion. You are right on the curricular, but seem to be at loss on the ‘required’.
State law will establish how many classes a student must have to graduate. Some of those classes will be required, the rest may be made up of electives. Thus a class can be curricular, but not required.
It appears that NMex requires the following:
Total 24 credits including
4 years:
English
Math
3 years
Social Studies
Lab Science
So obviously, close to half of the courses needed for graduation are curricular, but not required.
Now, if they are charging for the required courses, that would be different than charging for an elective course, if another, free, elective was offered.
The thing is, our kids' school is a Chapter 1 school (I always get that mixed up with Chapter 13 lol) and most of the students are from low income families and get reduced or free lunches and free preschool services. Fortunately, we don't qualify. I know the reason I have to send in 12 glue sticks...no one else is sending them in! The reams of copy paper (sometimes up to $4 each) are required because the schools don't provide the teachers with copy paper.
Did I also mention that the school lunch is now almost $2 per day for elementary kids? If both of my kids ate lunch every day at school, we'd be paying $20/week for my two and thecrappy food that isn't even healthy when you measure the fat and sugar content.
When I was in high school...we paid $1.10 and when I was in elementary, it was .40 - .60 per day.
If they need it to graduate then it is required.
I cannot understand why the schools don’t supply the teachers with something as basic as copypaper. That’s the least they can do.
I wonder if teachers are still coughing up $400 a year for supplies. Maybe after listening to complaints from the teachers, the administrators decided to get smart and hound the taxpayers (parents).
Too many administrators, too much waste.
I cannot understand why the schools don’t supply the teachers with something as basic as copypaper. That’s the least they can do.
I wonder if teachers are still coughing up $400 a year for supplies. Maybe after listening to complaints from the teachers, the administrators decided to get smart and hound the taxpayers (parents).
Too many administrators, too much waste.
Here's what they did with the Memphis city schools this year. (My kids aren't in that system.) In all their infinite wisdom, they decided that in order to save $$, every student that lived within 2 miles of the school is now required to walk. Doesn't matter if they have to walk on busy streets or through crime ridden streets in bad weather. They've got to save money, darn it!
In the mean time, the superintendant gets to keep his armed bodyguards and the administrators get to keep their school vehicles and cell phones so they can record pornographic videos of their female students. In addition, their food program is rife with corruption with employees stealing thousands of dollars in food to operate their personal catering businesses and feed their families and friends and probably churches. They did bring a guy in, last year, to address the problems with the food service dept but when he started pointing these problems out...they fired him. He didn't last a week. Stepped on too many toes.
The parents are NOT happy that their little precious darlings are having to walk so far while all this other stuff is going on. I can't say that I blame them in light of how the budget is allocated. But...it's a Democrat town. The mind set of the average Memphis govt employee is..."I'm a get mine!" What more can they expect?
You are getting there. If they need THAT class to graduate, it is required. If they need A class to graduate, but not that specific class to provide the hours, then it isn’t required.
For example, a student might be able to take band (with a significant fee attached), work on the school newspaper (with a smaller fee), or run laps for 50 minutes each day as part of PE (for free). Any would provide credit for one class toward graduation, but none would be a required course, and the fee would not be required for graduation.
The student (and parents) would then have to make choices based on interests and abilities. It’s good preparation for life for those who don’t want to live in a socialist utopia of ‘entitlements’.
...and which law does that violate?
Then we actually agree. If the student HAS to take THAT class and is unable to pay the ‘fees’ something should be done. Ie. used materials, different assignment or even a different class. I simply do not feel that a child should be in danger of being unable to graduate due to simply being poor. I do not think that a district should be able to ‘require’ ANY class that the student has to pay for. That’s what our taxes are for.
None that I’m aware of. But that doesn’t make it less of a fact.
“And then the teacher collected all that stuff the first day and handed it out to other children, as needed.”
I’ve heard of that happening. I cannot believe that is legal, and I’d like to see what they think empowers them to do it. I’d sure try to have the teacher arrested for theft.
Wow! My late father always said public education is a racket.
$400 is the sum bandied about by teachers unions regarding out-of-pocket expenses their teachers have to spend for classrom supplies.
Yikes! Armed bodyguards! Someone’s gunning for the “superintendent?” Pornographic videos? I wouldn’t doubt it. Didn’t TN have a scandal several years ago about middle school students in a locker room being taped by the administration?
People get the government they deserve. You’re lucky your kids aren’t in the system.
Anywhere you have a food service, whether it’s in a county hospital or a public school system, you have people who are going to try to walk out with a turkey between their legs.
The state doesn’t require the kid to take band to graduate. It’s a choice.
And if you’re that concerned, why don’t you send the school district a check.
Clovis, CA, has not been overrun with illegals. The high schools are good schools, and the community overall is well off and pretty conservative. All of the Clovis Schools provide football uniforms and they all gave good football and baseball teams. Clovis High has won two national baseball titles and any number of Valley championships. Taxes aren’t any more for the most part than other areas of the State. There was a ballot measure requesting a 1% increase of the sales tax but Clovis voters overwhelmingly rejected it.
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