Add Plano to the List
Plano has something to cheer about. They don’t have one either. You know, one of these.
The PISD communications director said so.
I just confirmed with our Athletics Department that the district does not currently charge a fee for athletics.
By Merritt Patterson
Sep. 22, 2010 | 4:07 pm | 24 Comments | Comments RSS
24 comments to "Add Plano to the List"
I looked at the communications you received from HPISD and don’t see an issue here. The organization is a nonprofit, the financial statements are audited and we all know the state doesn’t provide sufficient funding for extracurricular activities. I also assume that the fees aren’t illegal.
And you can’t point at Plano and Coppell and say they are better stewards of funds because they don’t have fees for athletics. They’re just raising funds another way, like making the parents join booster clubs and wear identical tshirts or do a lot of fundraisers in which they send kids out on the streets (and parents to the office) to sell trinkets and magazines. I’d much rather pay a fee.
All of you parents who are in a huff spent literally thousands of dollars at the elementary schools on carnivals, auctions, Sally Foster, etc. Remember how much you spent to buy ceramic class projects, have your kid be principal of the day, or to be carnival sponsor?
It’s only $250 per kid. For a voluntary activity. Please, please, move on.
Guess what? Not every parent spends thousands of dollars
on that stuff! In fact, lots of parents don’t! Because it’s voluntary! That’s why the ace fee should be a voluntary donation – not required. Remeber? It’s a public school!
You still did not answer my question, Why is our fee so much higher than every other public school? If my kids want to play athletics, I’m happy to pay for it, also. Tell me how much the uniform is and I’ll pay for it. Equipment? We can chip in for that too. How much are the busses? Let’s divide the cost by the number of kids riding and pay that. But to charge a blanket high fee to everyone “because they can afford it”, is unethical at best. By the way, our taxes are going up. Doesn’t bother me near as much as all the unexplained fees the district charges.
I did not miss any posts. Again, you have not answered my question. Do you think the district would take my check instead of making me pay the ACE fee? I think not. And another by the way, just because our books are audited does not guarantee anything. Enron’s books were audited. So were all the banks and mortgage companies that are failing. For that matter, so are DISD’s. I can think of a few financial scandals they have had.
Everything around here is voluntary, except when it isn’t.
I am sure the athletic department would be happy to any donation you would like to offer. I think the previous poster’s point is that the ACE fee is cheaper than paying for uniforms, transportation, etc. on an individual basis.
Enron was audited, but somehow I doubt that the transactions at HPISD are anywhere near the complexity of Enron’s. DISD has had some scandals with credit cards that I can recall, but the insinuation that the ACE fee is somehow some kind of illegality worse than a ponzi scheme is simply ludicrous.
If you want to find something to be angry about, direct your wrath at Robin Hood. It is the main reason the ACE fee exists.
Also, perhaps you haven’t noticed, but everything about living in the Park Cities costs more than it does in other parts of the Metroplex. And when 3/4 of the school tax dollars go elsewhere, parents have to pick up the shortfall. It’s really not that hard to figure out.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/highschools/topstories/stories/092410dnspohsboostershscopy.1234d07a6.html
And the idea that each and every expense for your kid to play sports should be broken out and paid for on a case-by-case basis is beyond insane. (That’s why it’s such a pain to go to lunch with a group of women vs. a group of men: add 30 minutes for the women to get out their calculators to determine to the penny how much each one owes individually… but that’s another topic for another day). A pre-determined flat fee works best.
Until someone can come up with a smoking gun on some actual financial malfeasance that ACE has enabled, then I don’t think it’s that big a deal.
And is ACE fee tax deductible.
One of your sentences sums up this thread and the reason for all the people who think the fee is fine, “I don’t know why the fees are different….Quite frankly, the point is I don’t care.” Most people in this district just want to pay whatever is asked for – absolutely no questions asked. That is why the fees are higher, because the district can get away with it. People will pay it, no matter how high it is. Your statement about how you will pay whatever you can afford is unbelievable, but common. So if a car is worth $5000, but the price is
$20,000, you will pay that simply because you can afford it? You don’t even want to KNOW whether you are getting the right value for what you are paying. And all these comments about Robin Hood. Yes, it’s terrible and yes I know we have to give away tons of our money. But so do Plano and Southlake, and Coppell, and I think even DISD is considered a propery-wealthy district. We are no different that many, many other districts in that regard. I do think it is a good article in the DMN about funding, but it is mainly about booster clubs, where it is voluntary to contribute. What we are talking about here is the school district REQUIRING a large donation. Someone keeps asking if it is tax deductible. If it is, then it can not be required. Fees are not tax deductible, donations to some organizations are. The fact that we have such a great booster club that raises so much money, not to mention the endless other fund-raising things we do, is even more reason to question a required “donation” by the district.
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