The Hidden Cost of Public Education, Part 4: What the ALSDE Says About User Fees

This is the fourth in an ongoing series examining the hidden costs of public education in Alabama. Click to view Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

So what kind of guidance has the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) given regarding user fees?

Dennis Heard and Sonia Peaspanen, both of whom are Financial Administrators in the LEA (Local Education Agency) Fiscal Accountability area of the Office of Supporting Programs at the ALSDE, shared this presentation with the Alabama Association of School Business Officials in May 2013. (They call them “school fees”. I call them “user fees”.)

Here’s the same version online, dated June 2010. Nothing in the “Student Payments” section, beginning on page 51 in the linked online PDF, changed from the 2010 to the 2013 version.

There is one other official document, entitled “School Parking and Locker Fees“, pictured below.

And that sums it up. That’s all the guidance the ALSDE and the State Board of Education have given, in writing, to our local school districts.

Each board of education in Alabama is then charged with setting their own schedule of user fees.