Matt Whittington

Journalism F

The actual cost of public schools

        Are students at public high schools paying too much money for things such as: athletic user fees, prom tickets, lunches, parking fees, transportation fees, or class dues? Many students, and parents agree. While a public education is supposedly free, hidden costs can put thousands of hard earned dollars right down the drain. Another good example of this is the numerous school supplies required for schoolwork, such as graphing calculators which normally sell at about one hundred dollars. Through numerous sources, and data, it is pretty safe to say that students do indeed pay too much money for high school.

        Many students at Norton High School also believe that they are required to pay too much money for school. When asked how they felt about the fees that came with attending the school in a survey, 14 of them said that they pay too much money. The other three went as far as saying that the amount of money they pay is downright outrageous. Not a single student out of the 17 said it was a fair amount, or chose little to none.

        These concealed prices also plague high schools around the nation, not just in Norton. In an article from www.usnews.com, the Krause family dishes out thousands for their child, “Confronted with the option to pay $1,500 a year for a school bus to come, the Krause family decided to drive their daughter both ways each day instead—a cost of about $150 a week, Krause estimates.” This is just one example with the high cost for transportation to and from school on a daily basis. Other high schools are also finding new ways to get money, “At high schools in several states, it can cost more than $200 just to walk in the door, thanks to registration fees, technology fees and unspecified "instructional fees." This was found from an article on http://online.wsj.com.

        It is obvious that many schools around the nation are in desperate need of funding, but does that make it okay to make students pay secret, hidden fees? One civil liberties group does not think so in an article from http://www.nytimes.com, “Now a civil liberties group is suing California over those proliferating fees, arguing that the state has failed to protect the right to a free public education.” This California group actually believes that these fees are not only unjust, but unconstitutional. School fees have been slowly rising from year to year as school administrators learn that they can get away with these fees, but it will be interesting to see if the government cracks down on unconstitutional fees.