Charges Coming For Kindergarten, School Bus Service in Loudoun (VA)?

[KamaAina]

http://www.leesburgtoday.com/news/charges-coming-for-kindergarten-school-bus-service-in-loudoun/article_ddac6740-6ab4-11e4-833d-834bccdfcc11.html

The Loudoun County School Board will be asking state legislators to clear the way for them to charge for full-day kindergarten and student transportation....

Public schools in Virginia are not required to provide either full-day kindergarten or bus service, but if they do provide them, they must it for free. That’s illogical, said Chairman Eric Hornberger (Ashburn) and Bill Fox (Leesburg), the two most vocal proponents of the change....

Loudoun is one of only four Virginia school districts that does not offer a full-day program to all its students, and the only one in a major metropolitan area. Most of the school system’s elementary schools do not have the classroom space to expand its kindergarten programs, and it will cost an estimated $52 million to build kindergarten classrooms at 46 elementary schools....

On a 6-3 vote, the board approved a request that school boards be allowed to charge tuition, up to half the locally funded portion of the district’s average cost-per-pupil—which equates to about $4,000—for non-at-risk students participating in full-day kindergarten.

Come on. I know Loudoun (where Dulles Airport is) is redder than the rest of NoVA, but

[Neurotica]

1. Actually Loudoun is often purple but has an all-Republican Board of Supervisors and majority-Republican School Board

Hmmmmm.

And oh btw it's the richest county in the U.S.

Meanwhile, a number of school fees have recently been implemented and existing fees have been increased exponentially. $200 for a yearly parking pass. $150 to participate in athletics (per student, per sport). $80 to take just one AP exam.

And don't even get me started on what Loudoun teachers have had to deal with in recent years.