Ed Funding Equity and the ACLU

The NY Times has an article here about a California lawsuit against fees required by school districts. The lawsuit seems to be about fees for required courses, but the fees discussed are mostly for sports or electives. I suspect the suit prompted the writer to make a longer, more thorough investigation of the use of fees to provide relief from the school budget shortfalls, but most of the research got hacked away to make the article fit into the paper. If not, it is really just crappy, sensationalist writing -- not something I associate with the Times.

If we are talking about required courses, I agree with the ACLU; the state has an obligation to provide a free, appropriate, public education to all its children. AP test fees wouldn't be covered because AP is not a requirement (at least I wouldn't think so). Pay-to-play fees for sports would not either. Lab fees for homec and art make sense, as long as a student can meet the graduation requirements without having to take fee-based courses. If all art courses have lab fees and art is a core requirement, then the ACLU has a point.

The use of fees will, of course, create inequities in the system. Rich kids can join cheering ($1,833), but the less wealthy can still be on the water polo team ($180). Okay, in truth, those fees are from different schools, but the point is that the poorest kids will not be able to participate because they don't have money for fees. This is not new -- it happens now because of work, transportation, and interest -- but it will be exacerbated.

If the Court finds against the ACLU, fees may proliferated. That will not last long, however, as parents grow resentful of writing check after check and start complaining. Ultimately, it will fall to the school boards to reexamine the school's core mission and realign the offerings to concentrate on it. If the Court finds for the ACLU, that reexamination and pruning may come sooner. With 15% unemployment, crumbling infrastructure, compounding debt, burgeoning prisons, and spiraling health care costs, the public may well decide it cannot afford schools that are all things to all kids.