At the beginning of the school year it honestly felt that the kids needed to pay for something EVERY day. There were things like field trips and yearbooks and fundraisers. I boycotted a few of the fundraisers because Enough is Enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My kids school has actually decreased the amount of fundraising they do but it is still crazy! I spend well over $100 a year on "extras". When I was a kid my parents were asked to pay for NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was only in the 80's, things have really changed.

Theresa

These were all the things I mentioned to my hubby when he thought we couldn't afford homeschooling. LOL. But in reality, if I am still homeschooling one of the kids in Highschool, I will still have some of those fees, because I will let them join the extra curricular activities at school.

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I have nothing to declare except my genius."
- Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) upon arriving at U.S. customs 1882

I know how you feel. My son's preschool in our school district held a WALK A THON to raise money. OK, these kids are 3 and 4 years old and the fact that they needed 1 adult to supervise every 2 kids to keep them walking the track should have been an eye opener to them that it was not a good idea. Blah. I'd rather they say hey we could use ten bucks to add some books to the library etc.

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Standard of Living and Quality of life are NOT the same thing.

I guess I am lucky. My daughter's school district has a rule that kids can only do one fundraiser a year in which they are active.But the PTO can have popcorn days,dinner nights at CiCis, skate nights, do a rummage sale, etc.

We are never asked for money and so far there has been no fieldtrips other than the kids going to the highschool which is 1/2 mile away to watch the band practice for homecoming as a reward for being good.

Although I'm not fond of the community pot idea for school supplies, I understand the reasoning behind it and I don't have a problem providing school supplies and other little things that teachers may need for the classroom. My issue is with the large price tag for a yearbook(excluding highschool) and those other "extras" that I'm sure add up to not a not so small price tag by the end of the year.