It’s nice to have public education but it is constitutionally optional. The state legislature can terminate public school programs whenever they please.

And if and when your state goes bankrupt/insolvent the public schools are to close, most likely starting with the Universities and Colleges. Understand that one thing is clear in the Federal Constitution, the states may not print money.

And CA is well on the way to becoming a hollow state.

It’s nice when there is everything for everyone, but the party is about to be over. The only question is where lines are to be drawn and when.

Like the Obamacare nonsense, once you “entitle” everybody for everything, you have to ration it and the death panels are appointed. That’s now economics work. The more these runaway courts create “rights” the more water must be added to the soup until our “schools” are schools in name only.

It’s going to be a very interesting 12-60 months. When a system is actually going down, the speed of the decline accelerates. Watch for the acceleration.

The fees for transportation, art, science lab, PE clothes, field trips, AP tests, and others are just symptoms that the system is in dire need of an influx of funds, and better management of the funds the school district does get.

When I worked in Oakland, the Disrict would regularly run out of supplies in April (no pencils, paper, copy supplies, cleaning fluid, etc.). At least that is what we were told. That meant teachers reached into their own pockets to make these thihgs available for students – 98% of them couldn’t afford it on their own. Now is that an equitable system? At first I was shocked that the system was so poorly run – but everyone just seemed to shrug their shoulders and accept it. As always it is the teacher who has to carry the burden of the underfunded and mismanaged system.

Nextset – we want “rabid enforcement” of this right because it is fundamental to our democratic system.

the southern california middle and high schools i attended were both in fairly well-to-do areas (different districts as we moved between middle and high school), and both required me to purchase PE clothes. my high school made student athletes pay a bus fee for transportation to away games. if you couldn’t afford it you had to show evidence of financial hardship, something akin to being on free or reduced lunch, and you would not have to pay. boosters raised money for our uniforms (which required a deposit, returned once the uniform was returned to the school) and transportation scholarships. i can only imagine those schools were able to use the language of “required” because the parents had the funds and wouldn’t bother looking into whether or not such requirements were legal.

while i can appreciate the spirit behind the law, it is no secret that money is tight for schools. if families that can afford the fees pay them in order to preserve programs and make scholarships available for students who would be otherwise unable to play, that seems the perfect balance and to meet the intent of the law- no one is left out for inability to pay. it is especially appealing when your options are pay or the programs don’t exist; makes the decision pretty easy.

Usually the cases never make it to court as districts settle. The law is very clear.

When the collapse comes – and it can happen anytime now – the schools will simply shut down in bankruptcy and this will happen before the cities discontinue basic services. Our school districts are not funded to provide every pencil, food item and scrap of clothing to the school kids. Families were to do this and there was no legislation to the contrary. As they have done across US life the Courts have decided to become a legislature and create spending mandates out of thin air without funding them, regardless of the consequences.