Collection Agency Chases Parents Boycotting School Fees

by Mike Bevel, CollectionIndustry.com

In a bid to convince the Canadian government and school board that taxes, not school fees, should fund Calgary schools, parents are trying the unlikely bargaining tool of not paying the school fees. ?That?ll learn ?em,? the thinking seems to go. Or, rather, seemed: now the parents are concerned that the public school board will use collection agencies to go after the fees not paid.

In fact, some parents have already been affected by the turn of events. “There have been a few members of our group who have had some difficulty if their name has been put on a credit watch,” said Dennis Locking, head of a Canadian lobbying group called Parents for Public Education.

The public school board has expressed surprised at the surprise of the parents who have chosen not paying as their form of civil disobedience. Barb Kuester, spokeswoman for the Calgary Board of Education, said Wednesday that it doesn’t want to ruin parents’ credit ratings, but it’s not fair for some parents to pay while others do not.

Parents for Public Education is lobbying the province to change the School Act, arguing parents should only have to pay for extracurricular programs such as field trips.