HIGH PRICE of free schooling

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/09/2009 (5887 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It cost Justin and Madison Bradbury more than $2,200 for a free public education this past year.

Their mom, Martha Bradbury, is shuddering at much higher costs this school year — Madison is in Grade 12 and will be going to grad and convocation, and Justin is moving from Samuel Burland School to join his sister at Glenlawn Collegiate, so he’ll take transit each day.

Parents throughout Manitoba are about to be hit with a variety of fees, charges and costs for their kids’ public education over the next 10 months.

The school imposes some fees, some spending is at the family’s discretion, and some costs are for things your child doesn’t absolutely have to do — such as going on band trips or playing for a school team.

Those costs add up, and they add up fast.

Madison paid a $75 registration and yearbook fee in Grade 11 at Glenlawn last year, Bradbury said.

“Why am I paying to register my kids in public school? I don’t know why they give them agenda books,” since kids all have electronic devices to store their calendars, Bradbury said.

Madison had to pay $60 for each varsity team on which she played, plus a $25 uniform rental for each sport, her mother said.

There were nickel-and-dime costs, such as $6 for supplies for graphic arts, and $19.06 because the basketball team requires younger players to provide gifts to graduating players.

Madison paid $49.20 for a monthly transit pass — no, the school does not impose that fee. The family lives within Glenlawn’s catchment area, just north of the Perimeter Highway, close to seven kilometres from the school, so Glenlawn is their designated neighbourhood school. South of the Perimeter, the division buses all students without charge, regardless of grade level.

Justin paid a $25 fee to join the Burland band, but that was the tip of the iceberg, Bradbury said. The Grade 8 band takes a trip each year.

“The band trip, while it was great, the total was over $500,” she said. Sure, band members could have stayed behind, Bradbury said, but what family would want to do that?

Over in Pembina Trails School Division, Patricia Albig isn’t happy with some of the costs she paid for her kids in kindergarten, Grade 5 and Grade 8 in Whyte Ridge Elementary School and Henry G. Izatt School.

“My daughter did not want to go into art next year because they go on an art trip every year, which costs $600 to $700. She feels it is too much money,” Albig said, who told her daughter the family could make it work. “But she put it as a last option for Grade 9, which kills me, as she is a great drawer.”

Peter paid $15 for a school T-shirt to wear on field trips. One child was told to donate a minimum of $10 for school fundraising, another told to pay $25, Albig said. Then there was $135 for a compulsory weekend at a camp — great time was had, but it was compulsory.

On the other hand, some parents were pleased how little they had to pay.

“Now that the school year has ended, I was quite surprised that there was so little, as far as fees, other than grad to pay out,” said Jodi Frechette, whose daughter, Meghan, graduated from Sisler High School.

Winnipeg School Division does not charge for band instruments and some schools have minimal or no fees to play on school teams.

Meghan paid $5 for each of two French-immersion field trips, and $25 for an outfit to dance in the cast of the musical Strike outside city hall this spring. But nary a penny did Meghan have to spend to be in the choir or participate in Sisler’s performing arts shows.

Out at Killarney Collegiate, twins Colin and Shaylyn Bylo racked up well over $1,000 in fees in Grade 11, said their mother, Susan Bylo.

The school’s $25 student fee covered lock, locker rental, agenda, printing costs, a student-led portfolio binder, memory stick, and phys-ed transportation. Each paid $25 for art supplies, and each chose to pay $75 to use the weight room at the nearby community centre during school hours and take a body fat composition test.

But then the Bylos discovered one of the joys of high school timetables — Colin paid $124 and Shaylyn $109 for online courses they couldn’t work into their class schedule.

“In order to fulfil required course credits for graduation, it was necessary to look to distance education as there were no courses suitable in one time slot,” said Bylo.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca

A FREE public education and school fees — seemingly a contradiction.

Parents should brace themselves to write cheques — some pretty hefty — and keep a lot of loonies and toonies handy to send to school over the next 10 months.

First up, schools may charge your kids a registration fee for things such as a yearbook and an agenda book, renting a lock for a locker, maybe for renting the locker.

Winnipeg School Division provides all musical instruments without charge, but some other divisions require music and band students to rent or buy their instruments.

Some schools charge students to play on a school team. They may have to pay for a uniform, or at least plop down a deposit to ensure they return the jersey and in reasonable condition.

Shops? Some schools will charge for materials for woodworking, metals, or culinary arts/cooking.

Art? Same thing. Some schools want your kids to pay for materials.

Field trips, band trips, out-of-town sports tournaments, camps — sure, your kid doesn’t have to go. They don’t, like, totally absolutely have to take part, just because everyone else is going.

Sure.

Want to use the weight room? That costs.

There are school fundraising or community service activities — take part, or send a cheque, the minimum to be specified.

Staying for lunch? You may pay for supervision.

It’s not a school-imposed cost, but bus tickets may run hundreds of dollars a year to attend a distant but designated neighbourhood school. With a few exceptions, school divisions don’t bus kids for free beyond Grade 6, and then only if they live more than 1.6 kilometres from school.

Grads at the end of Grade 12 aren’t a school-imposed cost either, though they could cost you into four figures for dresses, shoes, photos, salons — on the other hand, some schools now hold graduation ceremonies at the end of elementary and middle years.

If there are any school fees this school year that strike you as unusual or unreasonable, please drop an email to nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca.