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         March 21, 2010        

Schaumburg school district to charge
tuition for full day kindergarten

Another Illinois public school district has come up with a strategy to charge unconstitutional tuition fees for full day kindergarten.  This time it's Schaumburg School District 54, where their slogan is "Ensuring student success" at their free public schools.  Only, now it's for a tuition fee to attend one of their free public schools.

The administration of Schaumburg District 54 is using the same justification that Batavia schools uses for charging tuition for a kid to attend his free public school.  Schaumburg District 54, like Batavia School District 101, believes that by adding the name of "enrichment" to the word, "instruction," they will exempt themselves from the decision from the Year 1925 of the Illinois Supreme Court in Segar versus the Rockford School Board that declared that "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."

Schaumburg District 54 will be offering full day kindergarten at just one of their schools.  The tuition charge for full day kindergarten at Campanelli School will be $300 per month.  Campanelli does actually refer to it as "Full Day Kindergarten," but as a "parent-paid option for incoming kindergarteners."  The Program Information Sheet says that, for the tuition charge of $2,700 per year, the student will receive "enrichment instruction in the classroom, physical education, music, art, as well as a lunch period."

Oops!  I think that they just incriminated themselves.  Twice!  You saw, above, what the Illinois Supreme Court declared in requiring that instruction in public schools be without a tuition charge.  The Schaumburg District 54 Full Day Kindergarten Program Information Sheet says that they are providing "enrichment instruction."  In addition, the Illinois Constitution, at Article X, Section 1, says, in pertinent part, that "Education in public schools through the secondary level shall be free."  The District 54 Program Information Sheet says that they are providing "physical education."

I've printed out the District 54 Full Day Kindergarten Program Information Sheet, in case we need it for a court case, and also saved a back-up copy as a pdf document (Thanks, Michele, for teaching me how to do that) in case District 54 suddenly decides that it would be prudent to remove the words, "instruction" and "education" from their web document, or even delete the entire page from their web site.

In fact, District 54 just incriminated all of the other districts, such as Batavia and St. Charles District 303, because those programs are the same as the one in District 54, and if District 54's program is "instruction" and "education," then the other programs are instruction and education, too.

Subsequent to my inquiry this past Friday, District 54 is having its Full Day Kindergarten tuition policy reviewed by their legal team.  Be sure to send your lawyers a copy of your Program Information Sheet, District 54.

I've invited District 54 to send a representative to the next Board Meeting Plenary Session, this Thursday in Springfield, of the Illinois State Board of Education ("ISBE"), where I will be asking ISBE to review the constitutionality of Illinois public school districts charging tuition for full day kindergarten, regardless of what cute false name, such as "Enrichment" or "After School Enrichment," that the school district gives to their full day kindergarten program.  I will be asking the State Board to direct school districts to stop charging tuition for instruction, and to characterize full day kindergarten, by any name, as instruction.

For all of the public school districts which are offering a full day program, it's either kindergarten or day care.  If it really was day care, kids would be able to do anything they want, whenever they want, whether that be coloring, playing games, running around outside on the playground, socializing with their buddies, eating or drinking snacks, taking a nap or just sitting there and doing nothing at their own discretion, all watched over by anybody who meets the standards of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services for this kind of baby-sitting service.  When it's a program led by Certified Staff (a trained and licensed teacher), as in the cases of Batavia, St. Charles and Schaumburg, that's not day care.  That's kindergarten.

I strongly support Full Day Kindergarten, but if a public school district offers it, they can't charge tuition for it.  It's unconstitutional, and I'm going to get it stopped.

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