Pay for play

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$1300.

Wow Julie I thought summit as more than stark but it is about the same

 

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Just found an article from the local paper. Pay to play $651 per sport for 2011-2012 school year. New levy after after 8 failures will increases rates $427 a yr per $100,000 of home value. After that didn't even want to look at what the new rate per $100,000 is now. Guess it still cheaper than private school.

 

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You still pay school taxes even if you don't use the schools and the private high schools near us are $9-10k per year. Plus fundraisers...

 

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$1300.

It's around $1,600 - $1,800 here depending on township.

Len

 

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You still pay school taxes even if you don't use the schools and the private high schools near us are $9-10k per year. Plus fundraisers...

Yea I know. I just ment supporting the levy and paying the new taxes is cheaper than not supporting it and it failing and sending her to private school. The state really needs to fix the funding problem. The past few years has done nothing but divide our district.

 

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In Minnesota property tax rate varies from 2% of value to 2.5% depending on the area. So your annual property tax on a $100,000 home is $2,000-$2,500. We fund per student and accross the state some schools are fully pay to play (~$600 per sport) most pay around $200 per sport so it's still subsidized.

If your paying $200 your not "pay to play" your still more than 50% subsidized so I would call that an activity fee, not pay to play.

Problem is that eliminating the cost to the school of HS sports is a short term fix. Doesn't address rising costs of education versus lowering quality.

If you told me that eliminating sports would reduce class size 25% I'd hop on the bandwagon myself, truth is that activities are just a pitance of the schools overall budget, but because of the visibility of sports it's easy to get people motivated to come out and vote for a levy if you threaten to take football away.

The quality issue isn't necessarily something you can lay at the doorstep of government bureacracy or teachers unions, but there certainly needs to be some pendulum swinging away from rising costs of administration to get that money back into buying down class sizes. Our high school class size averages 34 students and our elementaries are pretty close to that as well. One of the biggest issues that public schools face that private school pass on is excluding high cost kids. Every special needs kid (blind, deaf, autism, ADHD, dyslexic, etc..) is entitiled to a public education at whatever the cost. Private schools pass on these and cherry pick the kids that are easy to teach and can pay. I'm supportive of educating everyone, but I do think they should allow area magnet schools for some special needs because it's just to expensive to have a 1:1 ratio of teacher to pupil for certain special needs sprinkled throughout an area. Getting off soapbox now. Have a good weekend!

 

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when my nieces kids were in school, they held bingo games to raise money to support the sauker and softball teams. the parents (and any relations) got a discount on the fees if they came out and helped. Her kids did okay because she has a lot of relatives in this area.

 

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In Minnesota property tax rate varies from 2% of value to 2.5% depending on the area. So your annual property tax on a $100,000 home is $2,000-$2,500. We fund per student and accross the state some schools are fully pay to play (~$600 per sport) most pay around $200 per sport so it's still subsidized.

If your paying $200 your not "pay to play" your still more than 50% subsidized so I would call that an activity fee, not pay to play.

Problem is that eliminating the cost to the school of HS sports is a short term fix. Doesn't address rising costs of education versus lowering quality.

If you told me that eliminating sports would reduce class size 25% I'd hop on the bandwagon myself, truth is that activities are just a pitance of the schools overall budget, but because of the visibility of sports it's easy to get people motivated to come out and vote for a levy if you threaten to take football away.

The quality issue isn't necessarily something you can lay at the doorstep of government bureacracy or teachers unions, but there certainly needs to be some pendulum swinging away from rising costs of administration to get that money back into buying down class sizes. Our high school class size averages 34 students and our elementaries are pretty close to that as well. One of the biggest issues that public schools face that private school pass on is excluding high cost kids. Every special needs kid (blind, deaf, autism, ADHD, dyslexic, etc..) is entitiled to a public education at whatever the cost. Private schools pass on these and cherry pick the kids that are easy to teach and can pay. I'm supportive of educating everyone, but I do think they should allow area magnet schools for some special needs because it's just to expensive to have a 1:1 ratio of teacher to pupil for certain special needs sprinkled throughout an area. Getting off soapbox now. Have a good weekend!

Don't want to get too far off topic here, but I agree with your points. The buzzword today is "inclusion", which is fine in a perfect world - but it does come at a steep price. And accepting that depends on the importance society places on educating "special needs" kids, and how to go about it. DD teaches in a private school, and has a few students classified as special needs. The school employs a part-time teacher for special needs, but it is a constant challenge keeping on pace in the regular classroom when you have a mix of students with drastically diverse learning abilities. The problem with "magnet" schools specific to special needs kids is getting parents to overcome the imagined stigma of their kid being "stupid".

Quality education IS expensive - there is a reason Catholic schools (for instance) are expensive - it's called no tax money. Quite a few Catholic schools in poorer areas are struggling with the economy being down, but public schools could learn a lesson in frugality and using money wisely. I think Catholic school tuition rates reflect an accurate cost-per-pupil - but then you have to add in costs for special needs, and I'm not sure "inclusion" is the best all around solution.

Pay to Participate has long been standard practice at nearly every Catholic school - from grade school through high. If buses are used for sports transportation, it comes out of their budget. Football is about the only revenue sport that can afford that luxury. Catholic schools are held to the same education standards as public schools, but by not accepting public funds, they can make their own choices about inclusion. Is that an advantage? Well, considering that attending a Catholic school (or ANY private school) is a choice - someone STILL has to pay the bill for special needs regardless of where the students attend school. Think about it - if you make the CHOICE for private school, you are STILL paying the same tax rate.

Bottom line - the price of extra curriculars is going to continue to climb - maybe it's better to have those costs split out from education expenses. Isn't it a little more fair to have the people who actually use and benefit from sports shoulder the expense? After all, it is a personal choice to play sports.