Illegal Fees To Attend Public Schools

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Illegal Fees To Attend Public Schools

invite response
2012 Sep 18, 4:49am 43,276 views 136 comments

I was a bit shocked when I went to re-register my daughter for another year at public school but the online registration would not let me enroll her until I agreed to pay for insurance for a mandatory school-issued iPad, or assume all liability for even accidental damage for it.

Since I was pretty sure that's illegal, I complained and was then allowed to register her without either paying or agreeing to accept all liability for it.

But now she's being singled out for public humiliation as the only student whose parents didn't just roll over and obey. They won't let her take the iPad home, and at the same time they require her to do homework on it. They're using her now to pressure me to agree to the illegal charge.

Not sure what else to do, I called the ACLU and was happy to hear that I'm not alone. These illegal fees have increased in recent years and caused considerable hardship for thousands families that can't pay. Often they are not even given required textbooks until they pay some illegal fee. I can pay, but the principle of the thing really bothers me. The school should obey the law, especially the state constitution.

So the ACLU has filed suit and it looks like they are going to win:

http://www.aclu-sc.org/doe/

Anticipating the win by the ACLU, the state legislature is trying to head off some kind of judgement against the state by enacting a law that provides mechanisms to enforce the state constitution's ban on fees for public schools, AB 1575. That bill is on the governor's desk right now

Not sure what to do in the immediate future though, since this is harming my daughter right now. Perhaps I could agree to the illegal liability for a week, maybe enough time for the governor to sign the law (if he is going to).

Or could I get an emergency injunction that would force the school to treat my daughter just like all the other students, and not discriminate because we are protesting illegal fees?

I can't figure out how to get an emergency injunction though. I looked at the San Mateo County court website for hours and got nowhere. Calling didn't help either. The people at the county court offices are not helpful.

Advice?

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128

Patrick 2012 Oct 5, 4:59am

Woohoo! Governor Brown signed AB 1575, reaffirming that public schools cannot charge mandatory fees, and creating a mechanism to complain about illegal fees without filing a lawsuit:

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/parentsandthepublic/2012/10/fees_for_public_schools_draw_suits_settlement.html

In this case, the government seems to be functioning properly.

129

Dan8267 2016 Mar 19, 8:00pm

thunderlips11 says

Textbooks ain't that much cheaper than the tablets.

Textbooks are indeed much more expensive than tablets, mostly because of copyright laws and the publishing industry, but also it's far more expensive to produce dozens of textbooks than a single tablet.

The government should just pay a person $1 million to write the definitive textbook on a subject, and then give away the content to everyone. It would make the textbook cost less than a penny per print and still incentivize the best people in the world to write the best textbooks on any subject.

130

Dan8267 2016 Mar 19, 8:07pm

rando says

Students could probably learn better from the Wikipedia than from lots of the textbooks I've seen and used.

~~Wikipedia~~ The Internet

The last thing we need is students learning that Plato was an ancient Hawaiian weatherman and surfer taught by Barney the Purple Dinosaur. There are sooooo many better sources of real knowledge than Propogandapedia.

And I'm not the only one who says so.

131

zzyzzx 2016 Mar 19, 8:09pm

I'm adding your story to my long list of reasons not to have kids.

132

GNL 2016 Mar 20, 9:07am

This is purely big government and big business coming together. Electronic surveillance for future profit and tracking citizens. The proof to my statement is that they are making it a requirement.

133