Parents charged thousands of dollars for school information requests

| June 29, 2022

Parents have come forward with stories that they were charged thousands of dollars for public requests made to their respective schools. These requests involve school curriculum and other public records request related to what the school is doing. One of these schools charged a mother $74,000 for her request to review school curriculum.

From Fox News:

“I received an estimate for, say, $80 for information that I requested,” Nicole Solas said. “And then when I requested similar information, a month later, the price skyrocketed to $2,600. So schools will charge you whatever price they want to charge you. So that way you’re not going to know what your kids are learning in school.”

Solas argued that public information is not public if it cost money to obtain it and that schools are trying to create “barriers” to make it accessible.

Parents around the United States are being charged tens of thousands of dollars, including some fees into the millions, for public records requests in their school districts, Fox News Digital has learned.

Fox News Digital spoke with parents around the county — such as in Michigan, Oregon, and Rhode Island — as well as with public records experts who said they believed schools were using exorbitant fees in order to price parents out of the information they are legally entitled to, such as those related to curriculum.

A parent from Frederick County Public Schools in Maryland told Fox News Digital that she requested emails that spanned one month between various entities and was asked to pay $5,000. “I never got the [records] because that’s well beyond what I’m willing to pay for information my tax dollars already paid for,” she said. FCPS was contacted for comment but did not immediately respond.

Fox News has the article here.

Category: Schools

24 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
MustangCryppie

I paid for this info already, assholes! They’re called property taxes! What a bunch of schmucks.

MustangCryppie

“…as well as with public records experts who said they believed schools were using exorbitant fees in order to price parents out of the information they are legally entitled to, such as those related to curriculum.”

Wow! I wonder how much studying these “experts” had to do to figure that out!

Graybeard

When, in a past life, I was a petty bureaucrat in a state agency, we received a FOI request from the Austin Statesman. We had to come up with a price for the cost to generate the information requested (it was not in a pre-existing form).
I did some quick computations, determined that my staff and I could generate that in an hour or two. We could determine cost of the employees time easily enough, and the cost of the computer time. It would be quite reasonable.
However the head of the department was unwilling to give anything to them. They are a left-wing paper, eager to put anything we did in the worst light possible. He set the price at several thousand dollars.
We never generated the information.

The bureaucracy does not play fair. Never has, and I doubt it ever will.

Anonymous

Why the Constitution…
comment image

Graybeard

Almost like Tommy Jeff understood the depravity of mankind.

Old tanker

Time for the parents to file a class action suit against the school district and request investigation by the DA and state atty Gen.

ninja

Speaking of parents..

These two articles may be worthy of posting on TAH…

What do you think, thebesig, Admin?

3 minute video from Sky News Australia:

“Joe Biden has been labelled “corrupt to the core” after a leaked voicemail from 2018 revealed he called his son to tell him he was “clear” in relation to a New York Times article that mentioned Hunter’s name in connection to a Chinese oil tycoon.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWzpFwWd95U

“Voicemail Suggests Biden Called Hunter To Discuss Business Dealings”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIiR24w-hh0

3.2.1….KABOOM!

“Biden’s Approval Rating Plummets Across The World”

ninja

Voicemail Suggests Biden Called Hunter To Discuss Business Dealings:

ninja

Joe Biden has been labelled “corrupt to the core” after a leaked voicemail from 2018 revealed he called his son to tell him he was “clear” in relation to a New York Times article that mentioned Hunter’s name in connection to a Chinese oil tycoon.”

Roh-Dog

https://youtu.be/vMMwEj-8Hk4
The United Spot might have the whole of The Laptop from Hell.

5JC

Sounds like a “poll tax” to deny parents input in what those that can’t do are up to.

Anonymous

Exactly!

Roh-Dog

The King says ‘pay up, serfs!’, and if you don’t like it He is sure the FIB will find a crime.

You’ve been noticed, citizen.

“[Republics] die in darkness”, right Bob? Jeff?

Anonymous

comment image

Flagwaver

It’s like parents think they have power over their children and what they learn or something…

Roh-Dog

Curiosity in the First Degree, Class A felony; mandatory Life w/o parole.
Aggravating factor guidelines include: failure to worship Pride Month, not knowing at least 60% of the 76 state-sanctioned genders, failure to donate to BLM/DNC/NIH’s Faxci Vacation Fund, etc, possession of any vehicle with an 8-cylinder engine; sentence is mandatory and immediate gender reassignment and commandeering of the guilty’s domicile to be reparations’ed to a BIPOC lesbian inuit Furry wolfkin.

Roh-Dog

Apparently I thoughtcrimed, there is 150 genders now.
I will repent by saying 50 Hail Pelosis. Please boost your social credit by reporting me to the SPLC.

26CB299A-0533-4371-A82A-7D2A052C0DD1.png
KoB

I plead guilty as charged on all counts, throwing myself on the unmercies of the court, due to reasons of sanity.

“Notice to all parents…Due to the many unreasonable requests from parents wanting information on how we are indoctrinating your children, all requests for said information will be handled by our Public Education Disinformation Officer, Hellan Waite. For PEDO, please go to Hellan Waite.”

Anonymous

The fiends!

A Proud Infidel®™️

Sounds like bureaucrats doing anything they can to prevent taxpaying peasants from peeking into their precious paper fiefdoms!

Graybeard

All the parents involved ought to run for the school board, with the campaign promise of full disclosure of curriculum and finances.
Get out the vote, and save the children.
Of course, Soros et al will fight that with every penny they have – but school parents network like crazy.

Tallywhagger

Make a formal request to examine, and reproduce, financial records of the school who charge exorbitant “fees” and see what else they have been up with their financial malfeasances. Examine their internal controls and management controls to see who is responsible for the determination of rates and how those “fees” are to be accounted for.

Green Thumb

The VA used to pull this shit.

Only way around it is to file a FOIA request and hope they do not black out everything.

jeff LPH 3 63-66

When I attended American schools from the early 1950’s to 1963, we learned the ABC’s, reading, writing, arithmetic. Now the amerikan schools teach their students all sorts of shit that were uknown during my days going to school. YUP, this shit can’t get any better like I’ve said in past comments.