This study investigated fees in public schools in seven school districts of British
Columbia. A conceptual framework was formulated from issues in the literature on
privatization, principles of taxation, school fee law and practices, and the public/private sectors
of education. The framework was then applied to study the occurrence of school fees in public
education and their effects on students.
Purposive sampling techniques were employed to select districts, schools, and personnel
for the study. Selection criteria included size, wealth, location and ethnic composition of
districts and schools. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of fifty-four
professionals including school district officials, school administrators and teachers. The data
were analyzed using qualitative techniques.
Explanations for current fee practices included: 1) financial and budgetary limitations;
2) the philosophy of users' pay; and 3) an educational policy on voluntary educational pursuits.
Fees as a source of revenue to maintain, improve and introduce educational services occurred
in four categories: curricular, extracurricular, incidental, and supplementary and special.
Administrators at the district and school levels emphasized that fee waivers, bursaries and
reimbursements could be applied where necessary. However, costs could not always be
absorbed by the school and, needy students were not always easily identified. Schools varied
in the degree to which they experienced fee administration difficulties. Most principals indicated
that the elimination of all school fees would result in curtailment or discontinuation of certain
activities and items. Educators agreed that psychological and social effects from charging fees
were also important concerns. Main conclusions are: 1) the benefit principle and ability-to-pay principle are both used
to justify school fees; 2) school policies and laws define the application of fees according to
required and non-required curricula, thus fees are encountered chiefly for course electives and
voluntary activities; 3) by charging fees, schools are able to provide resources necessary for
student programs and activities; 4) fees can negatively impact on student participation and
psychology. Two policy directions are suggested based on the principles of benefit and abilityto-
pay: the maintenance of current levels of fees and the augmentation of fee in public schools. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/6985 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Bouman, Claudette Eunice |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 13181042 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
Page generated in 0.0018 seconds