School fees are illegal
Posted by Tyler Kinch on 2nd October 2006
It looks like B.C. courts have ruled that the charging of school fees for any materials or equipment required to finish a course leading to graduation is a violation of the B.C. School Act. You can read about it here.
I could not be anymore happier with this decision and I hope it spreads across Canada.
I use to live in B.C., and I was in a better area as our school would only charge $50 total for the entire year. $25 would be a text book deposit that would be returned once all text books were returned. The other $25 was a non refundable fee.
When I moved to Alberta, we saw ourselves with fees up to $400. Being low income, we simply could not afford it. There was a waiver system; however we needed to be an Albertan resident for a longer period of time to apply for the waiver. Also the embarrassment of having to waive the fees is enough to make parents who really need the waiver, not apply for the waiver.
Victoria has been fee-free since 1997. They’ve been running schools fine since then, from what I hear. There is no reason why any other school district can not be fee-free. It’s time we start demanding our provincial governments to change the funding formula for schools, and make sure no one is forced to pay amounts they cannot afford to attend school.
Posted in Education, Politics | 6 Comments »