As Funds Dwindle, Students Charged For ‘Extras’ Fees Are Now Being Charged For Activities Once Offered Free

As state funding dwindles and school-district budgets shrink, students are being charged for “extras” once offered for free and taken for granted - extras like sports, Spanish-language classes, and singing in the chorus.

“As money gets tighter, we’ll see more districts using fees,” said Terry Lindquist, superintendent of the Puget Sound Educational Service District, which oversees 35 school districts in King and Pierce counties, plus Bainbridge Island in Kitsap County.

Though public-school students have always paid some fees - for such things as yearbooks, driver’s education courses and supplies for shop classes - the list is expanding.

“We’re seeing more school districts depart from past practices to make up for state and federal funding reductions,” said spokesman Chris Thompson in the office of the superintendent of public instruction.

Here’s a sampling:

Students in the Snohomish School District pay $60 a year to play a sport. Two years ago, it was free.

Students at Bellevue’s Newport Senior High School pay $45 to park their cars on campus.

In Gig Harbor’s Peninsula School District, students pay $200 to participate in sports, and $75 for band, chorus, cheerleading, drama or a role at the school newspaper.

“We’re the king of fees,” Peninsula superintendent Mark Mitrovich said unhappily.

After four consecutive levy failures in the past two years, the 9,000-student district relies entirely on state money to run its 15 schools.

“I worry that it could deny kids the benefit of a total educational experience,” Mitrovich said.

Other school districts - including Snohomish, Bellevue, Issaquah and Renton - also are charging fees for high-school sports. The pay-to-play system beats the alternative, which for some districts was no sports at all.”We had a double levy failure and were forced to cut our co-curricular budget from $600,000 to $300,000,” notes Ginny Tresvant, superintendent of the Snohomish School District.At Gig Harbor High, Principal Jan Reeder said she considered charging students a fee to take biology last year, but was blocked by state law.”It costs a lot to buy those frogs, worms, clams and fetal pigs used for dissection in biology classes,” she said.

The Legislature this year cut $67 million from the state’s education budget by reducing funds for administration, vocational education and transportation.