Jul 31 2008
Public School to charge for use of lockers!
The sturdy steel bastions where high schoolers shove their books, papers - and sometimes their classmates - will now come at a price for some local students.
Choctawhatchee High School will begin charging students $5 to use a locker next year.
With budget cuts, “it is strictly being done to help take care of the maintenance of the lockers,” said Choctaw Principal Cindy Massarelli-Gates.
Local high schools spend between $2,000 and $5,000 every summer repairing lockers and changing combinations, she said.
Massarelli-Gates doesn’t expect the fee will “be a big shock” for parents, particularly because Crestview and Niceville high schools have been charging a similar fee for the past few years.
“The cost of keeping up a locker is a lot,” Massarelli-Gates said. “That cost has just continued to go up. As our budget has tightened, we’ve had to look at some ways to tighten some things.”
In addition to rising costs, schools are facing declining enrollment. Schools are funded by the state primarily on the number of full-time students.
Read more here.
[From me]
What’s next? Charging for use of the restroom? How about having a toll booth set up in the hallway for access to go to class? They could even have a cover charge for the lunchroom. What other ways could they make money?
What do you think?
11 responses so far
Wow! It has been a long long time since I’ve been to my home town of Crestview (FL) but I can’t believe they charge for locker use! I thought tax payers dollars were all of the expenses of school.
No surprise… no wonder laws for homeschoolers are getting worse. Make it too hard to homeschool and we’re forced to go to public schools. Then business of schools will be prosperous again.
Christine’s last blog post..That was a Looong Quiet Day!
Wow! It has been a long long time since I’ve been to my home town of Crestview (FL) but I can’t believe they charge for locker use! I thought tax payers dollars were all of the expenses of school.
In addition to rising costs, schools are facing declining enrollment. Schools are funded by the state primarily on the number of full-time students.
No surprise… no wonder laws for homeschoolers are getting worse. Make it too hard to homeschool and we’re forced to go to public schools. Then business of schools will be prosperous again.
Christine’s last blog post..That was a Looong Quiet Day!
Oops! Double post! Sorry!
Christine’s last blog post..That was a Looong Quiet Day!
I live in Texas and in Texas we like . . . love our high school football. I think we could probably cut the 2 grand from athletic costs or some of the other fancy things that schools have now days. There is no need to force parents to pay for something that is obviously needed while our schools waste so much on frivolous things.
Michael’s last blog post..A Long Absence
And I thought the lottery was to solve all of the school problems in Florida? Gee…I wonder, did they pull the money that used to go to the schools and use it on other porkbelly spending projects that would get them re-elected…inquiring minds would like to know!
M. Steve Heartsill’s last blog post..Keep Your Hands Where I Can See Them!
If the money in the schools really is short, they can either A) raise taxes and let everybody pay the cost, or B) do something like this and let the users pay the freight.
Of course we live in Alabama so property taxes are abysmally low (we have 3000 sq ft and our ann’l tax is about $800), and school fees for band, lab, etc are quite common and have been for years.
Bob Cleveland’s last blog post..Maybe It’s Supposed To Be Enough???
My wife and I have a friend in Minnesota whose local public school charged her child a fee to be in the marching band.
Quinn Hooks’s last blog post..Boxer and the Revolution
In Texas the lottery was suppose to help pay for education. And, for the most part it did. Of course, for every dollar the lottery brought into the education budget, one was taken out from the original education budget and put into another state program.
[sigh]
Michael’s last blog post..A Long Absence
I’m surprised that this is a news story. I’ve been out of high school for 7 years now. All through middle and high school, there was a $5 fee for use of the lock. And if you had gym class, you had to purchase another lock.
What’s the big deal? Pens, pencils, paper, trapper-keepers, book bags, and other school supplies have never been free. There have and always will be relatively small fees associated with going to public school and participating in school-related extracurricular activities including athletics. Sure beats the $$ that are required to attend an inferior private school.
The schools whose fees border on excessive likely are located in a city or county that refuses to adequately support the public school system through increased property tax or increased (penny) sales tax.
Big Daddy Weave’s last blog post..Rev. John Killinger Responds
We bought our own locks in high school and I was fine with that. I would have paid to rent one if needed. It is part of school. We paid to park our cars so might as well pay to park our books and important folders! I bet more care is taken with those that have had to pay for them. Just as BDW said, there have always been fees for things in school. It is still less expensive than private or home schools.
If you don’t want to pay the fee then just carry around your books all day. That is totally your choice. Even the poor kids would find $5 to make that easier.
Totally would be willing to pay for the bathroom if it meant it would be routinely clean. I say that about ALL public bathrooms.
This story made http://detentionslip.org! Voted #1 for crazy headlines in education and schools.
hall monitor’s last blog post..School charges students to use lockers