The Vancouver School Board is considering bringing in standard school fees across the city in an effort to comply with the law that mandates a free education.
Education critics say that the practice of charging school fees for things like library cards and computer printing is widespread in Vancouver, and skirts dangerously close to a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that ensures students won't be charged for courses they need to graduate.
"There's a wide range of fees being charged for the same courses at school by school. It undermines equity," Helesia Luke of the B.C. Society for Public Education told CTV News.
CTV News has discovered fees that range widely across the city, from a low of $40 for Grade 8 students at Killarney Secondary to a high of $390 at Point Grey Secondary.
School board chair Patti Bacchus says staff members are trying to get a handle on the different optional fees being charged in Vancouver schools.
"There's a lack of clarity, and that concerns me as a school trustee. We need to be very clear, we need to be transparent, we need to be accountable," she said.
The school district is collecting the numbers from all 110 schools in the district for a report that is scheduled to go to trustees next month. The VSB's goal will be to standardize fees by the next school year.
Luke says a standard fee for Vancouver is a start, but she wants education officials to go one step further.
"We really should have a standard across British Columbia, so that everyone can feel confident that their children can get the same opportunities that everyone else has," she said.
She places the responsibility for achieving that goal squarely with the B.C. government.
"The province needs to step up to the plate and say, ‘Not only do we not charge school fees or course fees, but we provide the funding,'" she said.
Premier Christy Clark said decisions related to school fees are the responsibility of school boards, and it's up to them to decide how to raise revenue. Education Minister George Abbott was unavailable for comment.
In northern towns like Fort Nelson, students pay just $20 for a yearbook. In Surrey, B.C.'s largest school district, Grade 12 students pay about $110, but in West Vancouver, the total soars to $295.
Back in Vancouver at Churchill Secondary, technology education teacher Ed Olson says the fees are a necessary evil.
"If you followed the law exactly, it would cripple programs," he said.
"We only ever get told that our budgets are cut, not that they've been increased or restored."
Two decades ago, the school board provided Olson with about $75 per student for materials, but he says it only contributes about $20 per child now. That means the class has to fundraise and Olson collects a "supplemental fee" of $20 from each student.
He acknowledges that course fees are illegal, and that teachers are using a semantic loophole.
"We just changed what we called them. It's not a course fee anymore, it's a supplemental fee or an enrichment fee. It's all a battle of words," Olson said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Mi-Jung Lee
