For the third year in a row, Utah lawmakers are considering a bill to get rid of the school fees that families pay. But HB0415 doesn’t have the support of teachers and education groups.
Educators told lawmakers during a Senate Education Committee Meeting on Feb. 23 they are fully behind the intent. However, the bill does not provide any new funding to make up for the revenue schools would lose.
The state’s largest teachers union, the Utah Education Association, and the Utah State Board of Education are against the bill in its current form. The Joint Legislative Committee run by the Utah School Board Association and Utah School Superintendents Association also opposes it because of the financial strain it would put on schools.
“I love this bill. I love it. I would love to get rid of fees altogether,” said Democratic Sen. Kathleen Riebe, who is also a teacher in the Granite School District.
“But the fiscal note is zero. And if we remove the ability to charge fees, I'm really afraid that some of these programs would evaporate because it’d have to be absorbed by the school districts. Our bigger school districts could do that. Our smaller school districts couldn't.”
Utah’s 2018 teacher of the year, Aaryn Burchill, said her students in the Uintah School District already experience inequities because they're in a rural school district. She said getting rid of fees would increase these inequities because it would “destroy a lot of the programs and opportunities.”
The bill’s fiscal note estimates school districts would lose about $55 per student. But not all school fees are eliminated. Schools could still charge for extracurricular activities, like sports teams. They could also still charge for Advancement Placement, International Baccalaureate or concurrent enrollment classes.
Republican sponsor Rep. Mark Strong told the committee, “anything that is part of the regular school day, part of your normal education, we won't be charging fees for.”
He pointed to Utah’s Constitution which says “Public elementary and secondary schools shall be free, except the Legislature may authorize the imposition of fees in the secondary schools.” Low-income families can get fee waivers, but Strong said not all families who need it will qualify.
State Board of Education Deputy Superintendent Angie Stallings said schools could still charge a majority of the regular fees they have, but not any general fees.
In the Canyons School District, for example, high school students pay up to a $50 registration fee and $5 for lockers, which is listed as a “general fee.”
Some activities, like choir class, are “co-curricular” — meaning it's an activity that happens during the normal school day, but also outside of school hours. Strong said while those situations are less clean-cut than the others, schools could not charge for what happens during the school day.
Mitchell Atencio, an instrumental music teacher at Corner Canyon High School, hates that they have to charge fees for the music program. He said it restricts which students can join and keeps out “students who want to be here, who need to be in these programs.”
But, he said the budget for his program comes solely from student fees — adding they would need some other source of funding to operate the program if fees went away.
“I would hope that we’re able to find that money before we can pass a bill like this to be able to affect that change positively,” he said.
When asked in a text message if funding will be added to this bill, Strong responded “We are working on it but won’t know until we have more details on the budget.”
The bill does include a five-year “ramp down” period to taper off the fees, but it leaves it up to school districts to decide what that looks like.
The bill passed through the House and moved out of the Senate Education Committee. It now goes to the Senate.
