Jump to content

Band fees in Southern California made illegal


Recommended Posts

The ACLU lawsuit effects more than just band. Even sports teams will be feeling the financial burden, anything that is required by the coaches or sport needs to be covered by state funding. So without trying to sound too vial....if a male student is required to need a jock strap and cup for protection, the school needs to purchase it for every player, shin guards for soccer players will need to be purchased by the schools. I know these are little things expense wise but they will add up to be a lot.

Even academics will suffer from this. If students are taking AP (advance placement) classes, if they wanted to take the state tet at the end of the year they would have to pay for it, but now the state will be made to pay for this VOLUNTARY test. Kids don't have to take AP classes, they choose to, now the state will be paying for that. how many of us remember getting a materials needed for class list, well that can't happen now.

What is really sad is that the state of California is in a huge financial crisis. Many regular teachers are being laid off due to lack of funding....some of these teachers have tenure and have been at their jobs for over 5 years. It's a shame that the ACLU isn't trying to keep more teachers in the classroom, but rather they are suing the state for money they know it doesn't have at the moment.

All of this is supposed to be covered by tax money. In my opinion the state should be required to pay for everything that is required for a student to graduate and get their high school diploma. If my daughter doesn't want to be in band, sports or cheerleading I don't think it is fair that my taxes help pay for the neighbors kids to do so. If my daughter wants to do extra curricular activities I would be more than happy to cover what is needed.

Edited by dbg
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will just say the same thing I tell my kids when they scoff at the thought of dues. Things cost money. I didnt have money in high school. I sold lots of fruit. Hocked cookies. Hustled and bamboozled. Hit the streets and do the fundraisers. While your at it, work on your roll step.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Football is EXTRA-curricular.

Music is CURRICULAR.

not in a lot of cases for marching band, actually.

my marching band is an actual class that carries a grade.

lots are not, and therefore are not curricular.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The ACLU lawsuit effects more than just band. Even sports teams will be feeling the financial burden, anything that is required by the coaches or sport needs to be covered by state funding. So without trying to sound too vial....if a male student is required to need a jock strap and cup for protection, the school needs to purchase it for every player, shin guards for soccer players will need to be purchased by the schools. I know these are little things expense wise but they will add up to be a lot.

Even academics will suffer from this. If students are taking AP (advance placement) classes, if they wanted to take the state tet at the end of the year they would have to pay for it, but now the state will be made to pay for this VOLUNTARY test. Kids don't have to take AP classes, they choose to, now the state will be paying for that. how many of us remember getting a materials needed for class list, well that can't happen now.

What is really sad is that the state of California is in a huge financial crisis. Many regular teachers are being laid off due to lack of funding....some of these teachers have tenure and have been at their jobs for over 5 years. It's a shame that the ACLU isn't trying to keep more teachers in the classroom, but rather they are suing the state for money they know it doesn't have at the moment.

All of this is supposed to be covered by tax money. In my opinion the state should be required to pay for everything that is required for a student to graduate and get their high school diploma. If my daughter doesn't want to be in band, sports or cheerleading I don't think it is fair that my taxes help pay for the neighbors kids to do so. If my daughter wants to do extra curricular activities I would be more than happy to cover what is needed.

Me either. In fact, since I do not have any kids in school I shouldn't have to pay any taxes to the school. And by the way, I have never used the fire department, I shouldn't have to pay for that. If something happens in the future and I need them, I will gladly pay all back taxes. And since I never have been on half the interstate highways in the country, and never plan to, I shouldn't have to pay taxes for that either. Taxes for the police? I'll buy a gun and take my chances, just give me the money. In fact, when I think about it, I probably don't directly use about 75% of what my taxes pay for.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a band fan in SoCal I've been following this closely, and have talked to several directors about this issue.

The key point that I think many outside of California (this is a state-wide thing, not just SoCal) are missing, is that the ACLU is filing lawsuits against school districts to prohibit them from collecting ANY fees of any sort. THIS MEANS NO FAIR SHARE. Band programs are not allowed to even ASK parents to pay. Programs now have to be 100% fund-raiser supported, as opposed to those supplementing the budget.

This wouldn't be a problem if the schools weren't grossly under-funded to begin with. I talked with the band director of a band that has been a BOA Grand Nationals Semi-Finalist within the last five years. His district administration is very supportive of the arts, a luxury many band directors do not have. This is the funding the district provides him with for marching band...

$0 for instructors

$0 for transportation

$0 for instruments

$550 for supplies

That's it. $550 per year to try and run one of the best bands in the state.

I'm normally a big supporter of the ACLU, but they couldn't see the forest for the trees here. I think they expected that schools would stop charging participation fees and everyone would get free marching band. The reality is that schools will stop charging participation fees and just cut marching band programs because there's no money to run them. It's already happened to a couple of schools... the dominoes start to fall.

How does this affect DCI? Primarily, the talent pool in California is going to start to dry up. I'm not at all worried about Vanguard or BD attracting kids to march. I am a little worried about who will be around to march in California's Open Class corps 5, 10 years from now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm normally a big supporter of the ACLU, but they couldn't see the forest for the trees here. I think they expected that schools would stop charging participation fees and everyone would get free marching band. The reality is that schools will stop charging participation fees and just cut marching band programs because there's no money to run them. It's already happened to a couple of schools... the dominoes start to fall.

Precisely. Regardless of how "well-intentioned" their actions may have been, the ACLU lawsuit directly threatens a lot of performing arts programs. Too bad someone didn't think before they acted. Things may have been "not great" before the lawsuit but the ACLU has made them "much worse". As I said earlier: "First Do No Harm".

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Football is EXTRA-curricular.

Music is CURRICULAR.

Therefore, charging extra fees for MUSIC classes makes no sense. It's either part of the state-mandated curriculum (and therefore already paid for, for those choosing to participate in its classes), or the state must remove it from the curriculum, deeming it useless for general education.

The problem with "bands," being large and public-facing, is they look like EXTRA-curricular activities to the ignoramuses running schools.

When schools do this, they're actually saying "Instrumental Music is not a high enough priority for us to make it work within a strong curriculum."

Next.

In our district, concert band, orchestra, choir and theory are curricular...they are graded classes. Marching band, jazz band, percussion ensemble, pit orchestra, a variety of special vocal groups....these are all extra curricular.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a band fan in SoCal I've been following this closely, and have talked to several directors about this issue.

The key point that I think many outside of California (this is a state-wide thing, not just SoCal) are missing, is that the ACLU is filing lawsuits against school districts to prohibit them from collecting ANY fees of any sort. THIS MEANS NO FAIR SHARE. Band programs are not allowed to even ASK parents to pay. Programs now have to be 100% fund-raiser supported, as opposed to those supplementing the budget.

perhaps the band director can take a digital camera, and have a fundraiser where he emails the band parents a picture he took of the band, for the low price of whatever the marching band fees were last year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

more and more schools make marching band extra curricular nation wide.

once again the ACLU screws things up

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a band fan in SoCal I've been following this closely, and have talked to several directors about this issue.

The key point that I think many outside of California (this is a state-wide thing, not just SoCal) are missing, is that the ACLU is filing lawsuits against school districts to prohibit them from collecting ANY fees of any sort. THIS MEANS NO FAIR SHARE. Band programs are not allowed to even ASK parents to pay. Programs now have to be 100% fund-raiser supported, as opposed to those supplementing the budget.

This wouldn't be a problem if the schools weren't grossly under-funded to begin with. I talked with the band director of a band that has been a BOA Grand Nationals Semi-Finalist within the last five years. His district administration is very supportive of the arts, a luxury many band directors do not have. This is the funding the district provides him with for marching band...

$0 for instructors

$0 for transportation

$0 for instruments

$550 for supplies

That's it. $550 per year to try and run one of the best bands in the state.

I'm normally a big supporter of the ACLU, but they couldn't see the forest for the trees here. I think they expected that schools would stop charging participation fees and everyone would get free marching band. The reality is that schools will stop charging participation fees and just cut marching band programs because there's no money to run them. It's already happened to a couple of schools... the dominoes start to fall.

How does this affect DCI? Primarily, the talent pool in California is going to start to dry up. I'm not at all worried about Vanguard or BD attracting kids to march. I am a little worried about who will be around to march in California's Open Class corps 5, 10 years from now.

The answer to this is to change the law. Maybe make it so that extracurriculars can charge fees, but they must offer waivers\reduced for those that have demonstrated financial need so that all can participate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...