Anyone who has a kid in school knows that the first week is fee week.
Amongst other fees, it used to be for the primary school kids they'd 'suggest' you buy a $5 'agenda' for your kid to help him keep track of homework, tests etc. Then, it became mandatory for you to buy your kid a $5 agenda. Now it is both mandatory and $10. That's a $5 increase in a matter of about four or five years for something that has no educational benefit.
They say it's necessary. Fine. Your kid has to write down assignments, tests, trips etc. -- well what's wrong with one of those blank notebooks from the dollar store? Or one of those calendars with the big squares? (Also available at the dollar store.)
But no, the schools prefer the printed agenda -- that way it has a personal greeting from the child's very own Principal and from the school board. It has the individual school's code of conduct, lunch schedule, floor map, song, cheer, bullying policy, internet policy, etc. All of this information is available elsewhere and isn't used by your average K-8 student, but it sure makes the agenda seem invaluable.
Someone is making a lot of money from this. I don't know who got the idea to make these silly wastes of paper but they must be a millionaire by now. Selling an idea like this to multiple school boards and then supplying the product --wow. Clever. And there has to be a different one every year so the calendar will be correct and the Principal's message will be fresh.
There is nothing wrong with kids taking responsibility for their assignments and upcoming events, but surely it doesn't require a $10 coil bound, holographic covered, multi-coloured, over-paged, glorified datebook to do it.
And then there's high school fees. An agenda, student ID and yearbook are all compulsory at my older kids' school. $40 per kid. If you don't have the forty dollars on the first day, they don't give your schedule.
How's that for FREE PUBLIC EDUCATION -- Dalton? TDSB? Anyone?
canadianna
14 comments:
depends entirely on your particular school board. my oldest is in grade 5. they don't pay for their agendas.
in fact.,the principal nearly pulled the plug on them last year after finding that alot of the kids weren't using them.
this year, the teachers are to check them daily to ensure they're being used.
the agendas are well-organized and i find them helpful in monitoring what my kid's up to at school.
My kid's agenda was $8. I don't think it's much to pay, what irritated me was the specific list of all the accessories you have to buy. As a parent I don't mind shelling out to buy a few extra supplies. The gas cost of parents running their cars while waiting for the school buses to pick up their kids easily exceeds whatever costs these schools are asking of them. If anything I would agree with an exemption for low-income earners who could apply for a grant of some sort. The SUV/suburban homeowners can afford it (and I'm not bashing them, being one myself).
If an item is obligatory, it should be free. Pencils, paper, agendas, and yearbooks should be paid by the school if they are manditory. It doesn't mean your child should have an unlimited supply of pencils, but one every three weeks should do.
Unless I am incorrect, education that is obligatory should be free. While taxpayers do pay for practically everything that has to do with schools, parents should not pay for teachers, buildings, ot supplies. If it is manditory that a child needs to have a student card, then the school should pay for it. Otherwise, contact your trustee and MPP/MLA. If that doesn't work, then seek legal advice or go to the media.
Jeff -- The idea is good, but a dollar store planner would work just as well. There's no need for individual schools or boards of ed. to contract out for these in huge numbers when a simple duotang and a few sheets of paper would work just as well.
raphael -- Sure, you SUV parents can afford to shell out for these sorts of things, but that doesn't make them a necessity -- doesn't it bug you that someone is making big bucks from something that is not an educational necessity?
And speaking as a low income parent of four, my kids alread stand out with their last year's Walmart/Zellers wardrobes, I don't want to be drawing any more attention to our finances than I need to -- it's really none of the school's business if I can't afford something that I deem unnecessary - I should be allowed to just say no without any issue.
skinny dipper -- exactly!
My biggest problem is with the highschool fee though -- I'm wondering if anyone else has come across a kid being denied his schedule because he didn't have money to pay for things like a yearbook/ID and agenda. (BTW -- I had the fee for my kids -- it's one of their schoolmates who didn't).
bottom line for me is that you shouldn't have to pay for something you don't want...period.
The agendas came as a package from the same folks who do school pictures.
Want to talk about a ripoff? How about the price of school photographs?
If you have a school council at your school it's the perfect forum to get the agenda issue out in the open. Choice of purchase should be optional.
And speaking as a low income parent of four, my kids alread stand out with their last year's Walmart/Zellers wardrobes, I don't want to be drawing any more attention to our finances than I need to
And again, I entirely sympathize. In fact, I don't mean that to be patronizing. I believe strongly that these kinds of things should be subsidized based on income. Some people can pay these costs, while others cannot (or have better places to put their money, like food). Perhaps parents could receive eligible exemptions based on income.
gosh, one wonders how we ever did it when we were in school without all that handholding
raphael -- you don't sound patronizing.
I just figure this is wasted money -- even if the schools were to pay for them -- the cost of these things is more than their value, especially when you can get similar (without the bells and whistles) much cheaper.
I really do wonder who's making money off of it.
My daughter had a long list of supplies she needed (including 2 large boxes of kleenex). She needed $25 because the school was going to buy the binders and other supplies. (There is no cost accounting for this, I just have to take their word that it actually costs $25). She also needed $5.50 for an agenda. There is a school in the area that required all students to bring 2 packages of plain computer paper for the office for photocopying. That is where I would draw the line.
The agenda's should be optional. In grade 12, they became mandatory at my high school. In June, I found it buried at the bottom of my locker, flipped through it and noticed I only wrote one word in the entire book: "test" on Oct 7. Not worth the 5 bucks.
Barbara -- That is too much. You can understand budget constraints, but parents are already footing the bill through taxes, fundraising etc. Office supplies should be the responsibility of the schools. Besides, they waste so much paper on unnecessary notices etc.
adam -- you sound like my kids. The only ones who actually use the agenda regularly are the younger two (grade 6 and grade 9). The grade-sixer does it because he's forced and the grade nine because she's efficient -- but I guarantee that when the grade-sixer is in highschool he'll drop the habit.
You've hit on a pet peeve of mine. I loathe those stupid agendas. And just why is my grade 8's agenda cost $10 and my two SS kids cost $5...and for what? I don't buy it makes the students better students. I have 3 A's students and not an agenda user in the mix.
I know I'm late to comment on this post, but just found it. As a retired high-school teacher from NB I will add my 2-cents.
I worked as financial faculty advisor for our student council which was responsible for collecting student council fees, locker fees, athtletic fees, etc. A few years ago, one of our VP's insisted that all these fees be amalgamated and that they would include an agenda. I argued against this as I thought many students would not use these agendas--to no avail. As I collected fees and passed out agendas, some students actually refused them. Others, though, were quite enthralled to get them.
However, I do think more and more students used these over the years as they became used to them. To my knowledge, no one but the agenda companies benefitted financially from this.
We charged a computer lab fee of $5 to cover the cost of paper and ink that students used in printing out assignments--not unreasonable, I don't think, as they would probably have spent a similar amount on supplies for other courses.
Some parents protested fees for hair nets and aprons in culinary classes. Students in the shops had to buy appropriate safety glasses and gloves (It's hard to imagine any parent not wanting their child to have that protective equipment).
I provided Kleenex in my classroom at my own expense (as the alternative was far worse). Asking students to bring in these supplies is certainly reasonable.
As far as "Skinny dipper" saying that things such as pencils and paper should be free--I don't think so. It is the parents' responsibility to provide basic school supplies.
Thanks for your input and I see what you're saying.
As for paper and pencils -- most parents provide their own anyway which is one of the reasons back to school shopping is so big these days. The school needs to have this stuff available for free to the kids, but there should be an assumption of reasonableness -- kids won't need replacements every couple of days.
Again, I don't argue against the use of the agenda -- only the source. If the school insists that a student must have a book in which to write down assignments then either it should provide the book without cost or allow the parents to choose a book of their own. An agenda is a glorified notebook -- if the parents can get one cheaper, then they should be allowed.
The other fees you note are not unreasonable -- the unreasonableness comes like in the case of my older kids -- where the school will not issue their schedule without the fee -- and when this fee doesn't include anything absolutely necessary to learning (a yearbook, an agenda and an identity card -- total $40 -- exact change MUST be provided) that's when it becomes unreasonable.
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