Nathan's Occasional Blog

Mother Sues School District Over Band Dues – Yahoo! News:

“A Sacramento-area school district is now on notice it will be sued by a mother who claims she was pressured to pay for her child to perform in a school’s band. The question is: Was payment required or merely requested?

When it comes to who pays for the music program at Folsom High School, one mother says the school is out of step with the law.

‘My attorney has now sent them a letter, advising them the district is, in fact, responsible,’ said parent Donna Kinsella.

Kinsella is now fighting the Folsom-Cordova School District over invoices she has received for years that assessed dues for all three of her children to participate in the school bands.”

You have GOT to be kidding me. As a long-time instructor for marching bands on both coasts, these people need to realize that marching band is an EXTRA ACTIVITY! Plus, most programs get on the order of $5000 a year from the school district to teach 150+ kids (usually bigger in California) in an activity that needs a lot of staff (it’s not like 1 band director can handle hundreds of kids alone) and over a hundred thousand dollars of equipment. Plus there’s transportation fees, etc. If she didn’t want to fork out a few bucks for her kids to particate, send em off to the local library and tell them to read. I mean think of this … the school doesn’t make you rent a math book right? Right. But a math book doesn’t cost $2500 per unit!