$50 school parking fee, why not?

[WNYresident]

$50 school parking fee, why not?
By Lee Chowaniec
Sep 1, 2005, 10:49

Email this article
Printer friendly page

Some Lancaster High School parents are outraged that their children will be paying $50 to park their vehicles on school property; property owned by a School District they already pay high taxes to support.

At the recent School Board meeting, a stated that some of their kids work minimum-wage jobs and then have to come up with another $50 to park in a lot their parents pay taxes for.

Lancaster District School Superintendent Tomas J. Markle declared that the decision made by the school board to increase the fee from $5 to $50 was based on need and fiscal responsibility demanded from residents who defeated the proposed budget earlier in the year.

Residents were disgruntled with a contingency budget that increased spending by 7.7 percent. The school board made known that the spending increase was attributed to capitol expenditures and higher student enrollment, the by-products of a growing town.

The fee increase is needed to offset the cost of paying off-duty police officers to patrol the parking lot and for parking lot maintenance.

The board had considered raising the fee to $75, but acquiesced to Markle’s request to reduce it to $50.

When residents pressed the board in late spring to not consider bringing back the defeated budget in another form, but rather go to an already inflated contingency budget, they brought to light the fact that many buses were not filled, some less than half full.

Markle declared that if the higher fee is enough to get some kids back to riding the buses, so be it. He is trying to fill a transportation need.

Rightfully so! The function of a school is to provide transport so students can receive the education they rightfully deserve. Taxpayers should be held responsible to that end alone.

Too often, fees are taxes in disguise. Not so here. I may disagree with School Board member Ken Graber’s analogy that “like the adults who work downtown and pay for parking in a lot, so should kids parking on school lots. But I do agree with him on “it’s the expense of owning a car.” Compared to costs like gas, insurance, upkeep and depreciation, $75 is not “exorbitant”. That is, if you can afford to have a car, or one provided to you at that age.

It should also be noted that raising the fee to $75 was already being discussed at budget meetings and work sessions and at later formal school board meetings. There was no public outcry, in fact, little in the way of public attendance. Too often residents attend town and school board meetings after the fact.

Perhaps some of the kids and their parents should look to those less fortunate who realize budget impacts and too often have to make cost cutting life-threatening decisions and/or scale back on ordinary quality of life expenditures.

They should also consider those adults who are required to have a car to get to their minimum wage jobs to eke out a living and have no alternate way of getting there because Lancaster does not have any semblance of a public transportation system.

But then again, it’s the me generation


© Copyright 2005 by Speakupwny.com

[NCnewbie]

I think what kills me about this issue is that in a lot of cases, Mommy & Daddy are buying the CARS for these kids, but they get concerned over the parking permit.

I went to Lancaster, and I drove there. But I have no problem with charging the kids, after all, there's always the bus.

[colossus27]

Agreed...