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         March 1, 2010        

Rob Sherman Advocacy challenges
unconstitutional kindergarten tuition fees

The Illinois Constitution prohibits public schools in this state from charging tuition for "instruction in the subjects taught."  That hasn't stopped the school districts in Batavia and St. Charles from charging tuition for full day kindergarten in their public schools.

Batavia and St. Charles are located on the Fox River, between Elgin and Aurora, thirty-five miles straight west of Chicago.

Batavia School District 101 charges parents $2,500 tuition per year ( back-up link) for a child to attend full day kindergarten.  St. Charles School District 303 charges $2,250 tuition per year ( back-up link ) for full day kindergarten.

Article X, Section 1, of the Illinois Constitution states, in pertinent part:  "Education in public schools through the secondary level shall be free."

The Illinois Supreme Court has interpreted that clause as meaning that public schools aren't totally free, but rather that "instruction in the subjects taught, without a tuition charge," constitutes free public schools, and that parents who can afford it can be required to pay for the cost of materials.

In E. L. Segar et al. Plaintiffs In Error, vs. The Board of Education of the School District of the City of Rockford, 317 Ill. 418, 148 N.E. 289, decided on June 18, 1925, the Supreme Court of Illinois stated, in the last sentence of the second paragraph, "A system of schools which permits all persons of school age residing in the district to attend classes and receive instruction in the subjects taught, without a tuition charge, provides free schools, and the fact that the parents of pupils financially able to do so are required to provide their children with text-books, writing materials and other supplies required for the personal use of such pupils does not change the character of the school."  This decision has been reiterated in several much more recent decisions, so it is still current law.

Public school districts aren't required to offer full day kindergarten.  However, there clearly is no wiggle room in that, if a school district chooses to offer full day kindergarten, or any other subject or class, such as driver's education, during the regular school day, the school district is prohibited from charging tuition for that instruction, regardless of whether or not the State requires that class to be offered.

Last week, I spoke with a high-ranking official of Batavia School District 101, in behalf of one of their parents, to ask that the School District review the constitutionality of charging tuition for full day kindergarten.  The school official promised me a follow-up in the next few days.

This week, I will contact the St. Charles School District to ask that they, too, review the constitutionality of charging tuition for instruction in their free, or maybe not-so-free, public schools, with respect to their full day kindergarten program.

The risk of doing nothing, that the Batavia and St. Charles school districts face, is that somebody will take them up on their offer for tuition-based kindergarten, but at the end of the year, after they've received the services, sue for the return of their tuition fee, as well as the tuition paid by everybody else who has ever participated in the district's full day kindergarten, on the basis that their constitutional rights were violated by being required to pay tuition for the free public education that their child has a right to under Article X, Section 1, of the Illinois Constitution.  What will the school district do for money, then, when they have to pay back all that tuition money, and they don't have the money to do it because it's already been spent?  Then the districts will really being facing fiscal catastrophe.

I'm not stopping there.  I will also contact the Illinois State Board of Education this week to ask that they remind school districts throughout the State that they can't charge tuition for any of the classes that they offer to pupils during the regular school day, and that if any school district is charging tuition, that they must immediately stop doing so.

The practice of public schools charging tuition for instruction is a cancer on public education.  If the cancer isn't eradicated promptly, it could spread to the point where it is out of control.  That's what has happened with driver's education in Illinois public schools, and I have a lawsuit going in the Illinois Court of Appeals to stop it.

I seem to be winning, there.  Stop me before I sue, again.

I'll let you know what happens.

Please e-mail a comment to me at rob@robsherman.com to let me know what you think, and I'll post your comments, below.

I look forward to your comments on this one.

Please tell your friends about this through your social media networks and word of mouth.

Send personal comments, comments unrelated to this story or notification of typos that you see in any of my posts to rob@robsherman.com.

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