via The Consumerist: Private School Tells 300 Students To Pay Up Or Get Out

[baldguy]

What started as an uneventful first day of a new quarter at Marian Catholic High School soon turned to mass confusion as an unprecedented 300 students with outstanding tuition bills were pulled from classes.

The students—whose parents owed between $750 and $5,000—lined up outside the school office Monday morning as their accounts were sorted out.

By lunchtime, about 100 students were sent home—some confused, some embarrassed and a few angry.

It was a sign of economic hard times at the Chicago Heights school, which was made even worse because of a technology glitch. The school's telephone and Internet service were down because of storms Sunday, making it impossible for parents to make online payments or for the school to check whether a payment had been made. The problems continued into Monday.

more:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/content/education/chi-marian-catholic-tuition-11mar11,0,1556983.story

I like the fist comment on The Consumerist:

But... But... But...
Vouchers!! School Choice!! Cheaper/better/faster!!
Ponies. For crying out loud, Ponies!!

(Education: expensive. The Alternative: Even More Expensive)

http://consumerist.com/5168472/private-school-tells-300-students-to-pay-up-or-get-out

[ulysses]

1. ponies.

:rofl:

[Hello_Kitty]

2. Welcome to the New Gilded Era. eom

[FrenchieCat]

3. Private schools are called private because folks have to pay to go there.....

The school handled that situation very unprofessionally, because the kids have nothing to do with the bill, as they are not adults.

The school should have contacted the parents, told parents the minimum payment due and provided a drop dead date for such payment to be received. If a parent would send their kid to the school after not paying following that kind of conversation, than the child should have been called into the office, the parent called and asked to take the child home.

Wherever there is a private school, there is a corresponding public school nearby, and parents have to be the adults that they are supposed to be, and if they are unable to pay, at some point have to take their children out of the school and enroll them into the public school system.

In otherwords, the only people who could have been innocent in this deal are the children. The school handled this incorrectly, as they humiliated the children in this ordeal.

[baldguy]

4. The GOP wants *ALL* schools to be private.

[FrenchieCat]

6. Just like their prisons!

[baldguy]

7. Just like Dick Cheney's prisons!

[firedupdem]

5. I attended Catholic schools growing up. This isn't new. I can remember

kids sitting in front of the office or in the auditorium because tuition hadn't been paid. This has been going on since forever. Maybe the numbers were lower, but it's not new.

[eridani]

8. That happened to Kucinich

He worked 3 jobs to pay the bill so he could graduate.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

9. Vouchers are such an obscenely bad idea, it's not even funny.

Nevermind the studies that show private schools not doing any better for low income students than public schools - it's just an absolute joke to think this is anything other than a Republican scheme to end public education.

[AngryAmish]

10. I find it hard to believe that this is a surprise

Luckily I made enough money in high school that I never had to really sweat my tuition payment, but I did have to cut a check every semester.

Yes, if you don't pay your tuition in high school you will be kicked out.