State to monitor ban on fees
Parents can seek reimbursement
Strapped-for-cash school districts will no longer be able to try to balance their budgets on the backs of students through charges and fees.
The ACLU of Southern California announced a settlement Thursday with the state over a suit that attorneys had filed on behalf of families illegally billed, sometimes for hundreds of dollars, for a range of things: books, course materials, lab costs, lockers, musical instruments, sports fees, uniforms. The encompassing agreement calls on the state to monitor school distircts for violations, create a complaint system to reimburse families for improper charges, and post notices of new state regulations in schools. The annual district audit will now certify that the district adhered to the requirements.
The merits of the case were never an issue. Students are entitled to a free public education, and the state Supreme Court ruled a quarter-century ago, in Hartzell v. Connell, that this must include the full costs not only of regular academic classes but also school-sponsored extracurricular activities.Waivers for families that can’t afford the fees aren’t allowed as an alternative. Examples of permissible charges are few and very narrow: materials for items that students make and take home with them, deposits for instruments on loan, school-provided accident insurance for sports.
“This is a historic settlement that puts an end once and for all to the pay-to-learn system,” said Mark Rosenbaum, the ACLU’s chief counsel.
The suit was settled unusually quickly – within three months of filing in early September. Court approval of the details is expected later this month.
Rosenbaum credited Gov. Schwarzenegger, his secretary of education Bonnie Reiss, and Attorney General and soon-to-be Governor Jerry Brown for quickly recognizing the state’s responsibility and earnestly working on ways to live up to it.
There are parallels in this case to the Williams lawsuit, which the ACLU filed a decade ago on behalf of low-income students attending rundown schools with unqualified teachers and insufficient supplies. Rather than fight the lawsuit, as his predecessor Gray Davis had, Schwarzenegger quickly struck a deal that included a complaint process and monitoring system. Now, he leaves office settling a suit with similar provisions (He continues, however, to fight the biggest, most important suit, Robles-Wong v California, over the basic adequacy of education funding. A hearing on that begins this morning in Superior Court in Oakland.).
Rosenbaum and the ACLU didn’t have to look hard, once the illegal school fees were brought to his attention, to find examples. Within weeks, interns had documented fees published on four dozen district web sites. They included $150 for lab fees for biology and chemistry in Irvine, $20 to $50 for foreign language workbooks in San Ramon Valley, and a $75 to $100 “fair share” fee for participating in ABC Unified.
It wasn’t just the amounts but examples of embarrassment and harassment that the ACLU discovered once the suit was filed. One girl was stopped in the middle of an AP exam and told to pay the money owed, Rosenbaum said. A teacher in Spanish class wrote the name on the blackboard of a girl whose family said it could not afford the cost of a workbook.
Within two weeks of the final court order, the state will send a letter detailing the ban on fees and charges to every superintendent and county education office. The settlement includes specific language of proposed amendments to the Ed Code and regulations that the State Board of Education must adopt. They must be enacted this year, or the settlement is off.
Rosenbaum said he has spoken with Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and is confident the Legislature will pass the legislation.
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SVEF is the education foundation advocating for the needs of school districts across Silicon Valley. SVEF seeks to improve public education through establishing partnerships with the private sector and the education community ..
I don’t say this very often, but good for the ACLU. These fees have done more to undercut school funding than support it, as schools have replaced items in the budget with these fees and even when state money comes back, the fees would still be collected – kind of like the lottery. I remember when lottery funds were spent on new things in schools. Now, they’re just rolled into the categorical funds and have supplanted state funding. To say the funding system in CA is broken, would be an understatement – but the entire state government is broken, so why should this be any different.
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The ACLU school fees settlement will keep the law from fading into obscurity as was the case in past 26 years. My concern is the lack of oversight that districts maintain over parent tax-exempt groups. Schools provide the information about students’ families to the fundraising groups which has resulted in posting online the accounts of students noting with a capital red ‘N’ for non-payment, creating delinquent student accounts barring students from graduation activities until unpaid donations are paid in full, sending blast emails listing names of boys who are behind in payments, having students ‘volunteer’ at a value of $20 an hour to work off their debts, transcripts and books are withheld until debts are paid, and other unacceptable fundraising practices. Adults found it is very difficult to garner donations from the public so placed the burden on the backs of the students. The expenses associated with activities have not been kept at a reasonable level by school administrators and the result has spilled over into the academic area. Guidelines for boosters, foundations, PTOs and other parent tax-exempt groups have to be established as an integral part of districts’ commitment to making public schools an equal playing field for all California students.
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Yeah, life is unfair and these fees aren’t right, but how long do you think these classes and programs are going to be offered if the schools have to eat the cost? CA has to find a way to adequately fund its schools including these programs and it hasn’t yet.
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Thanks, ACLU. Now all programs will be cut for sure, except in the better heeled districts can afford them.
Families who can afford it will put their kids in tournament and pony leagues, and the rest of the kids who might have been subsidized with waivers can steal cars or sell drugs… Much like during the furlough days, when the haves go to science camp and the have-nots sit around with grandma.
My wife — an educator — and I believe that the free education entitlement is a root cause of the problem. Our society is broke and the Ponzi scheme of expanding demographics is not coming back. Families should pay a few hundred dollars a year to help the schools. Maybe more. $1000 a year per child would make a huge difference for the schools.
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If education is not free where do the majority of the population who have little or no disposable income send their children to school? If their children don’t go to school what are the consequences for them and for society as a whole?
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I hope someone will also prioritize general funding.
In tough times especially, schools without computers, current books, and other basics should get a greater or only % of fed and state funds until all are on equal footing to educate the kids.
Also, to toss in another idea-
Parents who can afford to pay for kids insurance should use it to pay for school visits and that can do much to supplement school health program costs in a tight budget. also more HC at teh school means parents don’t need to leave work and kids don’t leave school over minor needs, saving parents from problems on the job and other costs.
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