School board considers student registration fees
After being given the impression early on that proposed student fees in the Oshkosh Area School District were to replace the former textbook fee, we now learn - according to this article in the Oshkosh Northwestern - that the fees are indeed student registration fees, and are expected to generate more money than the textbook fees did when they were in place a few years ago.
The textbook fees - in place during the 2002-03 and 2003-04 school years - generated $98,330 and $90,949 respectively in additional revenue for the district. If approved, the student registration fee is expected to bring the district approximately $160,000 in additional revenue in the first year alone - the 2007-08 school year.
Many districts in recent years have gone the route of such fees and when compared with them, Oshkosh's proposed fees - $20 for elementary students, $25 for middle school and $30 for high school - fall somewhere in the middle, with some districts charging more, others less. Exceptions would be made, the district says, for students who receive free or reduced lunch; and a family cap of $75 per school year would be set.
But the question on the lips of many in the community is should the district be charging registration fees at all or is being enrolled in a public school district one of the things that should be automatically afforded to students through our tax dollars?
It's a debate that could go on forever, and probably will - among voters and citizens, that is - but the school district's board of education will likely be voting on the issue at its meeting on Feb. 14.
In the meantime, I suppose the argument will continue to be made, that these fees "replace" the textbook fee since the textbook fee is no longer in place. But a fee is a fee no matter how you slice it. I think most of us understand fees in one form or another are here to stay at all levels of government, whether we approve of them or not. But it would be more sincere to call it what it is and not use semantics to try changing its face. An enrollment fee is just that - an enrollment fee.
(How do you feel about the proposed fee? Vote in our online poll.)
The textbook fees - in place during the 2002-03 and 2003-04 school years - generated $98,330 and $90,949 respectively in additional revenue for the district. If approved, the student registration fee is expected to bring the district approximately $160,000 in additional revenue in the first year alone - the 2007-08 school year.
Many districts in recent years have gone the route of such fees and when compared with them, Oshkosh's proposed fees - $20 for elementary students, $25 for middle school and $30 for high school - fall somewhere in the middle, with some districts charging more, others less. Exceptions would be made, the district says, for students who receive free or reduced lunch; and a family cap of $75 per school year would be set.
But the question on the lips of many in the community is should the district be charging registration fees at all or is being enrolled in a public school district one of the things that should be automatically afforded to students through our tax dollars?
It's a debate that could go on forever, and probably will - among voters and citizens, that is - but the school district's board of education will likely be voting on the issue at its meeting on Feb. 14.
In the meantime, I suppose the argument will continue to be made, that these fees "replace" the textbook fee since the textbook fee is no longer in place. But a fee is a fee no matter how you slice it. I think most of us understand fees in one form or another are here to stay at all levels of government, whether we approve of them or not. But it would be more sincere to call it what it is and not use semantics to try changing its face. An enrollment fee is just that - an enrollment fee.
(How do you feel about the proposed fee? Vote in our online poll.)
posted by Cheryl Hentz at 10:54 AM
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