Student fees vs. taxes

It is that time of year where kids go back to school. In Utah with middle school through High School that means you get to pay school fees. This was not unknown to me, but it still can be a schocker to the wallet. There are locker rental fees, and book rental, and various class fees. If your child participates in any activities there are fees for those things too. Some of them make sense, but that book rental fee has concerned me since I was about 12. I've never had to rent my books. In college I would buy them and resell them but I digress.

So, any way, we are presently feeling that our wallet is much lighter. Fees can range anywhere from $110. to $350 for my kids. My man is smiling about this.. He is positively happy to be paying the fees! I mention this because people are NOT generally happy to pay "extra fees." My man is!

He say look at it this way, in VA we had property taxes that were about $1300 higher each year to cover the schools needs. He is happy because our property taxes are lower on the assessment, and we pay for our kids on an individual basis. Then he is hopeful that when those kids are out of the public school system, We won't have to pay it to the government but be able to use that money for other things, such as helping our kids with college or other such frivolous things.. The thing is the man is Happy about the fees....

I think men are just wired differently...