Here is the much anticipated third annual list of high school curricular fees for Montgomery County Public School students.
I'd like to credit Montgomery County Public School staff who compiled this list. All I did was file a request under the Maryland Public Information Act. This is a prime example of your tax dollars at work.
If you thought MoCo students are entitled to a free public education under the Maryland Constitution and state laws, you are right. Dr. Weast and the folks at Carver somehow missed that class, and continue to charge to attend MoCo schools.
The good news is that compared to the 2008-2009 list, MCPS is now charging less to attend public high schools.
More good news - If you student attends Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, your student will receive a terrific education AND attend the school with the shortest list of school fees. Thank you Mr. Williams and staff! Quince Orchard and Seneca Valley also deserve recognition for coming in close behind Blair HS in limiting the number of classes with fees.
As you read the list, I am including the following from Mr. Dana Tofig, ever the faithful MCPS employee, who is the final gatekeeper of all public documents and who graciously handled my request for corrected documents last night at 5 pm. From Mr. Tofig's cover letter accompanying the MPIA:
. . . the inability of a student to pay for materials and other expenses does not prevent a student from taking a particular class.
What does this mean?
As this writer has stated before, these fees are not mandatory. Maryland law guarantees a free public education. Should your family elect to pay, go ahead and make a contribution to the school. Keep in mind - this is a contribution, not a mandatory assessment. You child will not have his/her report card withheld. Your child will still have his/her transcripts prepared, and be able to attend graduation.
And now get your checkbooks out - here is the list.
MCPS 2010 2011_fees High School
Some schools obviously do better than others in reducing fees, and the schools with long lists of fees should take note of them and show more restraint. However, if it's a matter of a school being able to offer a particular class or not, then the fees aren't so bad especially since the fees are for food consumed in class, project supplies, and other consumed items. Plus it's not mandatory if a student really can't afford it.
ReplyDelete@ anonymous
ReplyDeleteSo your point is that it is OK to charge students an illegal fee in some classes? Because? Because MCPS is a big school system and can get away with it?
Students that take science classes and "consume" supplies doing experiments get to do that for FREE. If a student dissects a chicken part (which some science classed do) the chicken part is FREE. But if the student learns to cook the chicken part in a nutrition class and eats the chicken part they have to pay for it?
Why is a free public education only available to students with an interest in science?
Oh, and the illegal curricular fees have NOTHING to do with the offering of classes. Public School classes are funded by tax dollars through the MCPS Operating Budget.
The illegal fees collected in schools go into the local school slush fund and don't pay for teacher salaries or building utilities. There is NO PUBLIC ACCOUNTING for how these fees are used.
anonymous said
ReplyDelete"Plus it's not mandatory if a student really can't afford it."
Gee, and exactly what is that standard? Please get a copy of the "can't afford it" MCPS policy and we will be very happy to post it here!
We've never seen a policy and MCPS' Larry Bowers has said all parents have to do is say they aren't paying and the fee is waived.
No standards exist for the collection of illegal fees.
These fees are very confusing. Most are for elective courses (part of the curriculum, though).
ReplyDeleteHowever, Foundations of Technology is a required class (every student must take it as a graduation requirement). Many school charge a uniform $8.00 fee for this class. Yet, not every school charges a fee for this class. Some schools charge NO FEE FOR THIS CLASS WHATSOEVER. How can this be? How can these fees vary so widely from school to school?
Must be that the "fees" have nothing to do with paying for the course materials. Otherwise, how else could some schools afford to offer these required classes free of charge to students, and others need to charge $8.00? There seems to be no correlation between the FARMS rate of the schools in question and the whether or not a fee is charged.
Seems arbitrary.
And yes, interesting that a few years ago there were many more fees... for science classes, foreign language classes, etc. And now THOSE fees are gone, but these other fees, for arts and vocational and tech classes remain. Yet, the arts and technology classes are just as much a part of the curriculum ("free public education") as science and language classes.
Very confusing.
@ anonymous
ReplyDeleteThe fees are confusing because they are illegal.
If they were legal the fees would have been set in a public process by the Board of Education. That's how the Board of Education sets the Extra-curricular activity fee and the Student Parking fee. Those are fees that can legally be charged in Maryland.
Illegal fees aren't set in a public process, are random, and receipts aren't provided.