Kyle Evanko
Focus Editor
Recently, I’ve been hearing many complaints from my peers concerning the new remedial summer school policy and that it is extremely unfair. And although at first I was in agreement, it turns out it’s not as bad as it seems, and I am now in favor of the new policy.
The rumor going around is that now if you fail a class, you have to pay to take it over the summer to make it up. That’s not entirely true. The only circumstance in which you’d have to pay for a course is if you passed with a “D” or higher and wanted to get a better grade or take an entirely new course. That means for those who fail with an “F” grade will still be able to attend summer school free of charge using funds from TCUSD, while those with a “D” will be required to pay as a “D” still earns credit.
In fact, it is illegal for any school to require money from a student if he or she failed the class with an “F.” This is how it has been for years; this isn’t changing.
Last year, students who earned a “D” or higher and retook a class for a better grade didn’t have to pay; this year, they do. Since a “D” or higher letter grade still earns credit for the high school student, retaking the course for a better grade is purely optional (many students do so to improve their transcript for a better shot at college).
Now, the thing that I didn’t know is that the Temple City Schools Foundation, a completely separate, third-party group, funded classes for those who wanted to improve their grade.
With the economic times and pinching of both TCUSD’s and TCSF’s funds, TCSF can no longer provide the funds to run those classes, and students must pay the cost of $500 for a year-long course over the summer.
I completely agree with this change. It is wonderful that a separate organization striving to protect our city’s education has been providing these funds over the years, but they are in no way obligated. Times are tough, and they just simply cannot provide any more. In fact, many of the other school districts have been charging for the same make-up courses for years; we were just lucky enough to have received help in the first place.
So students need to stop blaming the district for “making me pay because I failed” because not only is that untrue, the district worked hard to even provide summer school for us this year. Originally, the district faced not being able to offer summer school at all.
But, fortunately, the state provided the district with some specialized funds, and our district pushed summer school through and made it work.
I know the district hasn’t necessarily always been on the students’ side, but this time is different. Be thankful we are even having summer classes this year and study a bit harder next time to not get that “C” or “D” in the first place.