Student fees touchy topic in tough times

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Marcayla Weidenbacher, 14, left, sits on the couch and writes with her dad Mark Weidenbacher at her home. Marcayla has diabetes, a costly disease for the middle-income family. Marcayla doesn't meet the poverty threshold to qualify for certain benefits at school. But her Dad petitioned Kennedy Junior High School this year to have her student fees waived. The school granted Macayla a waiver last year, but this year is asking her to "work it off" with 10 hours of school service.

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Mark Weidenbacher earns a decent wage at an area trucking company.

But mounting medical expenses for his diabetic daughter Marcayla have forced the West Valley City father into some creative, and humbling, budgeting decisions.

Most recently, Weidenbacher sought relief from Marcayla's school, asking John F. Kennedy Junior High to waive its basic enrollment fee of $84. He's among a growing number of parents who technically don't qualify for a fee waiver based on income, but who have asked for one this year.

Final counts on waivers won't be available until the end of the school year. But at Granite School District, requests have doubled, said district spokesman Ben Horsley. At least, that's what we're hearing from principals."

The increase is yet another indicator of troubled economic times -- in this case, pitting the basic need for health care against the basic right of education.

"I'm not going to trade my daughter's life to pay school fees. I just won't do it," said Weidenbacher.

And with more middle-income families crying foul over fees, schools could have a harder time fending off legislative attempts to abolish them.

Some favor fees as a user tax -- a fairer way to fund schools in a state where there are more kids to be educated than there are wage-earning taxpayers to pay for it.

But there are those who seek to abolish them, at least those for basic academic items like textbooks, science lab,

Among them is Rep. Craig Frank, R-Pleasant Grove. Last year, though, after numerous attempts at a bill, Frank said he was giving up. "Districts have said it will cost them $13 million, which would require us to find money elsewhere in the budget or raise taxes," said Frank. "I don't think that would appeal to my constituents."

Weidenbacher would champion renewed efforts to do away with fees, which he says are arbitrarily imposed and enforced.

Though generally limited to "electives," such as football and band, fees differ in kind and amount by district. The base price for enrolling at Kennedy Junior High is $84, which might not seem like much.

But Weidenbacher said monthly $266 insulin refills, other medications and a specialized wheat-free diet prescribed for Marcayla's Celiac disease add up.

He earns nearly twice the financial threshold to qualify for a fee waiver, which is about $23,000 for a family of three. But after paying all his out-of-pocket medical expenses, Weidenbacher figures he's left with about $22,000.

The argument won Weidenbacher a waiver last year. And the school was poised to grant another this year, provided Marcayla works for it and perform 10 hours of service to the school.

Weidenbacher isn't opposed to the idea, but he says the school principal hasn't said what he expects Marcayla to do. And he questions the fairness of asking some students to work while others get off "scot-free."

"I understand the need for guidelines. But there's a point at which you have to question right from wrong," said Weidenbacher.

Kennedy Junior High principal Bill Kenley did not respond to repeated attempts to reach him for comment.

But the practice of requiring students to work in lieu of fees is perfectly legal, though rare.

Last year, Granite district schools approved 7,700 fee waivers, requiring only five students to work it off.

But schools tend to underreport work arrangements, said Dave Stoddard, director of high schools at Jordan School District.

Guidelines published by the Utah State Board of Education urge schools to look beyond janitorial work for tasks that "enhance self-esteem," are "age-appropriate" and in line with a student's abilities. If a student refuses to work, schools are free to use "all legitimate" means to collect past-due fees, including excluding students from commencement ceremonies and yearbook signings.

"Sometimes it's not worth the trouble of finding meaningful work and then supervising the kids," Stoddard said. "On the other hand we get parents asking to have their kids work. And in this case, it sounds like a principal trying to help a family he has no obligation to help."

kstewart@sltrib.com