As the years have gone by, many high school students have found themselves swallowed up in a sea of course, program, and club fees, expensive technology, school supplies, and more. This has led even financially stable families to struggle paying for students to reach their full potential.
Many families choose to send their children to public or magnet schools because they are free to apply to, the logic being that it will be cheap to attend. Unfortunately, in 2025, this is not the reality for students who want to experience social events or higher academic opportunities.
“In high school, I have to pay for course fees, I have to pay to go to certain events like homecoming, Prom, Movie Night,” senior Valentina Escobar said. “And even then, there’s the additional cost of getting food or whatever at these events. And then there’s the club fees which they’ve started to raise them like, it’s absolutely insane. I would not be surprised if I paid over $500 just in these four years of school.”
While it may seem silly, even fun after school activities such as dances can greatly alter a student’s experience in high school as these provide times for students to bond with one another and have fun in unique ways that can only be reached through paying for a ticket. Additionally, rising fees for college classes make it difficult for some students to attend AP or Dual Enrollment classes that could propel them through their academic journey. Meaning that there are less and less students able to follow their interests or pursue higher-level classes due to these financial constraints.
“Just knowing that I have to pay so much, especially for classes that are supposed to help me,” senior Arielle Levi-Haim said. “The fact that I have to pay so much money is a little stressful. For example, I’m taking Comms, and I have to pay $200 for that class. Now I’m just doing one [dual enrollment], but for other people who are doing two, three, or four college classes and have to pay $200 per class, it’s a lot.”
While financial aid may be an option to some students, many others may not qualify for it and still struggle to pay the fees. Even those students who do receive financial assistance still find themselves having to ask for or earn the money to make up the difference for what they may still owe. Else they may be forced to drop out of a class or club they genuinely enjoy because of their financial situation.
“It’s like really hard for me to, every other week, be like, ‘Hey Mom and Dad, I need this amount of money for this,’” Escobar said. “And I know I shouldn’t have to worry about it because I need to pay for these things, but at the same time we have to pay for other things like bills, groceries, and a bunch of other stuff. So, it’s really hard for me.”
Despite the financial burden increased school prices may place on the shoulders of students, many still understand that, for many classes and clubs, these fees are necessary in order to afford trips, supplies, etc.
“A positive of having [club] fees is definitely the fact that it shows people are willing and able to support clubs,” Levi-Haim said. “And that helps them get recognition and any materials they need. Because clubs don’t have any other source of income besides doing fundraisers, but you can’t always do those all the time, so club fees can definitely help.”
On the other hand, as more clubs have these fees, more strain is put on families and the number of students able to participate in certain courses and extracurriculars narrows greatly.
“With club fees, you pay for it, and you’re guaranteed something, for example a shirt or something like that,” Escobar said. “For example, FBLA, you just had to pay the fee and you didn’t have to pay for the State Conference at all which was really nice. But they’ve started to increase the price of that, which is kind of sad because I know a lot of people who want to go to these conferences, but it’s just not possible because of money.”
For programs like Fashion Design, which may require more funds for materials such as fabric, sewing machines, etc., a relatively high course fee is expected, and students understand why it needs to be paid. However, it may not be as obvious for every program area what those fees are put towards.
“I use the fees for miscellaneous things we use throughout the year, as well as providing students with either a flash drive or SD card as well as specialized paper, sketchbooks, printer ink, and other consumables that aren’t a part of my main classroom budget,” Multimedia program leader Monte Carman said. “I have worked at a school where fees were not collected, and I can still cover the content, but we lose some of the flexibility you have working up to industry standards and it becomes much more challenging to keep track of SD cards and replacing them and batteries if, and when, they fail.”
With all these price tags on education increasing in number everyday, there seems to be a lack of understanding of who is paying these fees and the fact that many do not have the means to satisfy them. With this social, emotional strain on students many may not be able to enjoy their high school career as much or reach their full academic potential.
“High school has cost so much more money than middle school ever did,” Levi-Haim said. “I feel like we do a lot more in high school, and we also have a lot more opportunities such as college classes. But because of that, it comes with so many more expenses than what we had in middle school.”
