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Our School District Gets On My Nerves
By JLP | September 9, 2010
(begin rant)
At the start of this school year, it was announced that our school district would no longer accept checks as payment. This announcement included checks written for school lunches. They will now accept cash, money orders, or parents can sign up for an account with MyLunchMoney.com and pay that way. Cash and money orders are inconvenient for me because everything we do is electronic. I rarely have cash on hand. The MyLunchMoney website charges a $1.75 fee per transaction. Sure, it doesn’t seem like much but on a $100 transaction, that’s a 1.75% fee.
I called the director of nutrition services for our school district to find out more about this policy change. Here is what she told me:
• “We’re moving away from a cash-based society.” This one made me scratch my head because they tell parents that they can pay with cash.
• “We had problems with some checks bouncing and the parents were left with lots of fees.” My response to this: “So? Why should I care about this? Why should those of us who DON’T BOUNCE CHECKS have to forgo the ability for a few who do bounce checks?” Why couldn’t they flag these students’ accounts and not accept check payments? Each kid has their own ID number that can be flagged so that the kid cannot buy extras through the lunch line. It wouldn’t be hard to flag the account to not accept payments by check.
• “The person running the cash register does not have time to process checks during the lunch period as they are trying to move students quickly through the line.” This also made no sense because the kids are supposed to make payments during non-lunch hours.
The director was quick to direct me to the website. I asked her how much this would cost me and she said $1.75 per transaction. If my kids were at the same school, I could get by with paying only one transaction fee. Unfortunately, our three kids go to three different schools, which means three different transactions.
Anyway, I don’t care for this new policy. It’s another example of government making a decision with no regard to those who are impacted by the decision.
(end rant)
Topics: Budgeting | 16 Comments »
September 9th, 2010 at 5:33 am
Fortunately our schools still accept checks but we also may use mylunchmoney.com. We very rarely carry cash as well but I refuse to pay a fee for the convenience of paying with a credit card any time of day, rather than having to remember to get that check in my child’s hand before he or she leaves in the morning. On a side note, if they drop the credit card fee for parents, will lunch rates rises to combat their fee of every parent who pays with a credit card?
September 9th, 2010 at 6:53 am
Send a letter to your school board. Not one reason that the director of nutrition gave you made sense. Either she doesn’t understand why they changed, or the people making the decision didn’t think it through. Our district uses PayPams and there are no fees. Have them check into that.
September 9th, 2010 at 8:14 am
Not that I am a cynic or anything, but do you think the school gets money from mylunchmoney.com in exchange for this “service”?
Regarding your point that: “It’s another example of government making a decision with no regard to those who are impacted by the decision.” So true. I have seen this in company policies too. I can’t count the number of times I have seen highly-paid professionals spending their time doing clerical work that was previously done by clerical staff – but these clerical staff have been made more “efficient” by transfering the work to other people.
September 9th, 2010 at 9:01 am
I would much rather write a check than use cash, it gives you a record of payment and there is less worry about it being lost. I have never purchased a money order, they make me think of poor people. I would hate to pay a transaction fee. I agree with Jamie about contacting the school board. My child’s school is private and likes checks for the food service.
Another great post.
September 9th, 2010 at 9:29 am
Our school system hasn’t *yet* undertaken this policy, or if they have, I haven’t heard about it. But then I *do* carry some cash on me at all times … specifically to deal with idiocy just like this.
On the other hand, ask me how I felt when I walked into my daughter’s 1st-grade class last year and found all the kids gone to music class … but calculators out on every child’s desk. With math workbooks beside them.
Yeah.
September 9th, 2010 at 9:56 am
So far we can pay w/all forms of media. Our lunch program can be paid via Cafe Prepay (now no fee) where I can see what #1,2,and 3 have (or haven’t) been eating.
I agree–write the letter. It’s a ludicrous policy!
September 9th, 2010 at 10:11 am
Another problem that would be solved by school choice.
September 9th, 2010 at 10:17 am
Every time the district tries to cash a bounced check, they incur some fees as well. I suspect the business office thinks they will reduce these to more than offset the costs of the new system/paying by credit card. This fee money could then be spent in the classroom. This all sounds great, but they need to be able to back it up with data. If they won’t tell you how much they spent on bounced check fees, and how much they’re paying the new vendor for service, you should cry foul.
September 9th, 2010 at 10:17 am
Since this is a very local issue, you can probably form a group of like-minded parents and fight to get the policy changed to the way you want.
(love the rant, btw!)
September 9th, 2010 at 10:28 am
This is definitely a school board issue. Get a few like-minded parents and make a complaint with the board.
I don’t think the school district should be required to take checks though. As long as they offer cash payments, it seems acceptable to me. Go to the ATM once in a while. Life requires adjustments.
I would say this was more of a whine than a rant.
September 9th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Retired wrote:
“I would say this was more of a whine than a rant.”
Hahaha…thanks for the laugh. “Rant” sounds more manly…lol.
September 9th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Oh, our online payment plan is PAYPAMS and it is much worse. You have to pay an activation fee every year of 10.00 for each child and there is a 1.50 convenience fee per child every time you pay online. It is so wrong!! So far this year we have only signed up 1 of our 5 because we don’t want to pay 50.00 plus their lunch fee.
September 10th, 2010 at 6:31 am
My son’s 11th-grade IB (IB!) History class required him to buy a new notebook, because the one we got him was an inch too small. Why do they care, you ask? Because he won’t be able to cut and paste the handouts the teacher gives him into the smaller notebook. Holy Diminished Expectations, Batman, they’re doing Gluestick Engineering in the ADVANCED HISTORY CLASSES! Is it any wonder our high school graduates vote for Democrats?
September 10th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Can you say “holepunch”–that’s a lot of horses’ hooves going to waste…
September 10th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
Sounds like another government program is being contracted out for “convenience” and the private company is getting a little experimental with the fees. Don’t be surprised if they tinker with it to see how much they can make before you squeal.
November 10th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
We just started using mylunchmoney.com with our kindergarteners. We have auto-pay set up. Today we got a call from the school that one of the two girls had a zero balance. We checked online and told them mylunchmoney.com shows a $53 balance for both of them. The school’s information from mylunchmoney.com shows $53 for one and $0 for the other. They actually made her put back some of her lunch – probably the only parts she would eat. Now we’re going to have to call mylunchmoney.com and figure out what’s happening when we have much better uses of our time.