Mont. Co. Board of Ed. Keeps "Equity" Alive at Kennedy HS with Exorbitant $143.50 Mandatory Graduation Fee! "All means all" except at Kennedy High School in Silver Spring.

The "historic" Montgomery County Board of Education is keeping alive the male tradition of ripping off students in Silver Spring.  The all woman Board of Education has continued the illegal practice of allowing local high school principals to set ANY mandatory fee for seniors to attend their own FREE public high school graduation.  As in past years, Kennedy High School in Silver Spring tops the list of fees by charging seniors $143.50 to attend their own free public high school graduation.  If students don't pay, they can't attend their own graduation.

The great women "leaders" on the Board of Education are fine with this and sit back in their brand new leather swivel chairs and claim to be interested in equity.

But actions speak louder than words and this all women Board of Education is no different than the male dominated Boards of Education in the past.  This Board of Education is fine with students at Kennedy High School paying $143.50 to attend their own graduation while students at Poolesville High School pay $27.50.  

As a reminder, senior dues and graduation fees do not exist in Montgomery County or in Maryland. No such fees have ever been authorized by the Maryland legislature or the Montgomery County Board of Education.  The illegal graduation fees found in MCPS are set by the local principal and often include a slush fund for expenses not detailed in any publicly available documents.

Here is what 2019 MCPS Seniors are being forced to pay to attend their own MCPS free public school graduations.  If the fees were legal, they would be authorized by a governing body, in compliance with the Maryland Constitutions guarantee of a free public education, and uniform across all high schools.