Ooooof.

My University just "discovered" that it is 1 million dollars in the hole. This is after 2 years with no pay raises, and a 10% budget cut last year. Now we have to cut an additional FORTY percent for the remainder of the year. All this while we've got an INCREASE in enrollment, especially in the department where I teach. So, yeah....oooof.

There is a FEE to take a regular class (not an extracurricular activity, mind you) at my daughter's high school.

Theatre. It's a class, with a credit, and they're charging $25. Granted, they probably won't enforce it if a kid can't or won't pay, but there is so much of that going on at her school right now that it puts these kids -- and the parents who are struggling -- in a HORRIBLE position.

It's so upsetting...on top of everything else that is upsetting nowadays.

:cry:

extra materials and costs connected to a theater class. Doesn't make it right, mind you, but it would be the justification for it.

You can attempt, if this is a public school, to simply refuse to pay the fee and then see if they kick her out of the class.

I also have to ask everyone who complains about such fees if they have always supported and voted for higher school taxes. Schools are expensive. A good education is expensive. When I chose to send my children to an excellent secular private school rather than to the very good public school, I learned how much a good education really costs. The fee for my kid in the private school was about $4,000 per year higher than the amount that the public school got. And even that fee did not completely cover the costs. There were major and minor fund raisers all year long, as well as strong encouragement for people to gift or will significant money to the school.

And yes, even when my kids were no longer in the public school, I ALWAYS voted to approve bond issues. I was not very popular at the private school because I openly said I should not be exempt from penny one of school taxes. The same applies to anyone who does not have kids in public schools, whether you are childless, the kids are grown, or whatever. The future for all of us depends in no small part on good public schools.

Yes, it's a public school, and I do absolutely support higher taxes for schools, approve bond issues, etc. Even when she wasn't in a public school.

I certainly don't fault the teachers. It's just that we are being nickled and dimed to death in ways I never could have foreseen at a public school. Even if they would state up front, at the beginning of the year or semester, that this is what shall be expected of parents regarding these never-ending expenses, that would be preferable. At least we could plan and not feel blindsided nonstop.

But these things come up with no warning, a week or two into the class. It puts everyone in a horrible position.

it would be understandable if there were materials involved, such as an art class or something.

But my daughter is very involved in threatre -- and I'm a theatre booster parent -- so I'm knee deep in production-related volunteering, fundraising, expenses, etc.

She has taken this theatre class before, and there are no materials or extra expenses, per se. I haven't spoken with the teacher yet to ask what this fee is for (simply out of curiosity), but my sense is that it is to help offset the cost of actual theatre productions at the school.

Many of the kids taking theatre class are not involved in the extracurricular theatre events.

I could see why this would be upsetting to parents whose kids are not involved in the actual productions.

I'm a broken record, but this goes back to my "fragmentation" rant that I started a thread on.

Dear Goddess, even within this one school there is incredible fragmentation. The departments don't work together, the fundraising efforts are NEVER coordinated, etc.

I'm seeing how fragmentation in every aspect of our lives is really a detriment. I've tried to get things under one umbrella at the school, to help the various groups which are in dire need of funds....but I get the deer-in-the-headlights reaction.

Do people even WANT to be unified in order to be more effective and reduce stress?

Maybe THAT is the question I should be asking instead of assuming they do. ;)

:hi:

....but I'm teaching music theatre at the college level. The program is underfunded to start with, and even though we have the highest enrollment and retention rate in the entire University, performance teachers are paid 2/3 the salary per contact hour with students versus any other discipline. (I suppose because we have so much MORE contact...a math teacher may teach three one-hour classes a week, while I teach 16 1-hour lessons, plus four classes, and direct shows at night. If I was paid the "regular" rate I guess they would be more than one million in the hole).

All this to say, yes, I imagine the fee is to make up the difference for a program that is already underfunded. As someone who has these kids after they leave High School, I am grateful to hear of a public school that even HAS a theatre class!

She plans to go to college for musical theatre. She met Annie Potts ("Designing Women," "Pretty in Pink") after a show performance this past Christmas, and she chatted about schools, recommending a school we'd never heard of.

Muehlenburg (sp?) in Allentown, PA.

My daughter is a junior, and the sticker shock of tuition is setting in fast and furious.

:scared:


Back to the original point, I absolutely support teachers and don't fault anyone in particular for the troubles we're all experiencing -- teachers, parents, students alike. It's a systemic issue, IMHO.

My frustration lies with the lack of communication and coordination about it all, and the piecemeal fees that come at me nearly daily, not just from theatre, but other directions involving the school.

It's overwhelming. Maybe to others it isn't, but to this Virgo, it is. ;)


EDIT TO ADD: And this is another glaring example of how athletics are funded so much more than the arts. But at my daughter's school we are VERY blessed in that the arts is really a huge part of the school as far as attendance and such. They DO generate revenue (and, if they'd listen to me, could generate more ;)). But the funding aspect is still disproportionate.

Oy.

:hug::hug::hug:

:hi: