12/22/05
Maintaining high participation fees for students doesnít make sense
Two school districts are taking the risk and the lead to lower fees for students who desire to play sports and participate in all-important extra curricular activities.
The school boards in Princeton and Forest Lake either have or will lower the fees, because the Minnesota Legislature for the first time in three years increased aid to the K-12 public education program.
Most school boards, faced with revenue shortages, increased those student participation fees and raised the admission prices to balance tight budgets. Some even cut out middle or junior high school athletics all together.
While participation in those activities has held steady, there is evidence in some districts that fewer students are participating in the co-curricular programs because of fees.
Still, school boards are reluctant to change the revenue mix, because keeping the fees is easier than cutting a classroom teacher.
The Forest Lake School Board has lowered the fees for activities in the winter and spring. These fees have been reduced from $205 to $190 in the senior high school, and from $135 to $125 a sport in the junior high school with the cap for families per season reduced from $1050 to $900.
Princeton voters passed a levy election with the understanding that some of the money would be used to lower the fees and transport students. The school board will receive a recommendation to lower the fees from $175 a sport ($225 for hockey) to $100 a sport and to $75 a co-curricular activity. During the last four years, the fee has gone up from $45 to $175.
The Cambridge school district uses a sliding scale, charging the full fee for the first activity, a lower fee for the second activity and nothing for the third participant.
Soon, school boards and administrations will be making recommendations for the 2006-07 budget year. Surely they will look at the consequences of charging fees for students who participate in sports and co-curricular activities.
They should realize the importance of students participating in activities as part of their mental and physical development.
They should examine how these fees have affected participation, and weigh that against the actual savings to the district.
Even though there is a waiver of fees for those families who are on free and reduced-lunch-price status, they should see how many people are too proud to accept these waivers.
In this day and age when it has become so clear that students in the middle and junior high school years need after school activities as part of their mental and physical development, maintaining high fees to participate just doesnít make sense.
Parents who care about this issue should contact their school board members and relate personal experiences with fees. Such contacts will make a difference when these school boards put together a budget. -- Don Heinzman
HometownSource.com
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