School Fees aka Book Fees
July 24, 2010
One new way that schools are raising a little extra money is through an annual fee. It’s called a school fee, student fee, or book fee.
Well, this seems relatively new in Chicago, but it seems to be pretty standard in the suburban world (meaning the entire country’s suburbs, not just ours.)
The concept is that the school needs to buy disposable materials every year for the students and that the families need to cover that cost.
My son’s school just sent out a matter of fact letter that the fee will be $100. Ouch! That kind of hurts coming off buying what is usually $60+ in school supplies, new backback and lunchbox, clothes. All the random toys I buy my son when we’re out shopping for the aforementioned items. (Although wait, am I the same mom who shelled out $8K per year for Montessori preschool and now I’m screaming about a $100 fee!?)
One thing that interests/amuses me about the $100 fee is that when I was on the LSC at my neighborhood school last year we decided to add a school fee to cover all the one-time-usage workbooks that must be purchased every year (btw, this is a