Tag Archives: Fees
As Parents’ Share of College Fees Rises, Students’ GPAs Fall: Study
WEDNESDAY Jan. 16, 2013 — A new study offers up a cautionary tale for parents: College students who are well-funded by Mom and Dad actually get worse grades than students who aren’t so fortunate.
On the other hand, students who received financial support from their parents were more likely to complete college and earn a degree than students without such resources, according to the study, which was published in the February issue of the journal American Sociological Review.
“Students with parental support are best described as staying out of serious academic trouble, but dialing down their academic efforts,” study author Laura Hamilton, a sociology professor at the University of California, Merced, said in journal news release
Her findings stem from an analysis of data from the U.S. National Center for Educational Statistics.
As the authors noted, college tuition costs in the United States keep rising, forcing parents to shoulder more of the cost. But Hamilton cited one other study that finds that many students aren’t spending most of their hours hitting the books. That research showed that the average college student spends 41 hours per week socializing, and just 28 hours per week in class or working on homework — less than the time spent in classes in high school.
Hamilton’s study found that when parents were footing more of the bill for college, their offspring tended to fare just a little worse academically.
“Regardless of class background, the toll parental aid takes on GPA is modest,” Hamilton stressed. “Yet any reduction in student GPA due to parental aid — which is typically offered with the best of intentions — is both surprising and important.”
Other sources of funding — such as grants, scholarships, student employment, veteran benefits and work-study programs — were not associated with a lower GPA.
Hamilton suggested that many students might be “satisficing,” which means trying to be adequate in multiple areas rather than attempting to excel in just one.
The good news in the study was that parental financial support boosted a students’ odds of graduating within five years. Students who received $ 12,000 from their parents in the first year of college had a 65.2 percent chance of graduating, compared with 56.4 percent for those who didn’t get any money from their parents.
The findings suggest that it is important for parents to provide financial support to children who are in college. However, they need to set standards — such as a target GPA — and keep their children accountable for their school performance, Hamilton said.
More information
The Nemours Foundation offers advice for new college students.
Posted: January 2013
Fees Lead Some Kids to Skip After-School Sports: Survey
FRIDAY May 18, 2012 — Schools that charge kids to participate in sports may be benching some children, a new survey finds.
One in five parents with an annual household income under $ 60,000 said sports-related fees have forced their middle- and high school-aged children to reduce their involvement in school sports, according to the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.
Budget cuts have led school districts across the United States to scale back athletic funding and implement fees to cover the cost of school sports, according to the investigators.
The survey found that 61 percent of children playing middle or high school sports were charged a pay-to-play fee. The average cost was $ 93, but the fee was $ 150 or more for 21 percent of the children.
The poll also found that when equipment, uniforms and additional team fees were added, the average cost for a child’s participation in a school sport was $ 381.
Twelve percent of parents said the cost of school sports led to a drop in participation by at least one of their children, but that varied substantially based on household income. About 19 percent of families earning less than $ 60,000 a year said costs led to a decrease in their children’s participation in school sports, compared with 5 percent of parents in families earning more than $ 60,000 per year.
Only 6 percent of students received a waiver of pay-to-play fees, the poll found.
The findings suggest that schools should re-examine their waiver policies and consider options such as partial waivers, installment payments, or other means to provide flexibility for families, said Sarah Clark, associate director of the Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit at the University of Michigan and associate director of the National Poll on Children’s Health.
“We know that participating in school sports offers many benefits to children and teens: higher school achievement, lower dropout rates, improved health, reduced obesity and the development of skills like teamwork and problem-solving,” Clark said in a University of Michigan Health System news release.
“There’s not an athletic director, school administrator or coach out there who doesn’t want every kid to have a chance to participate. But there are no easy answers, especially because budgets are expected to get tighter and tighter,” she added.
More information
The Nemours Foundation has more about children and sports.
Posted: May 2012
Prosecutors Targeting MMJ Club Member Fees
A Portland-area medical marijuana club got busted primarily for charging street prices for a product that is supposed to be donated from grower to patient. But membership fees required by the Wake ’n Bake Cannabis Lounge were also singled out by prosecutors, and that has other clubs worried they could be next.
The owner of Wake ’n Bake pleaded guilty to two counts of distribution of marijuana last week. An undercover Washington County Sheriff’s Office investigation used a hidden camera to film a whiteboard listing prices for different strains — charging up to $ 180 an ounce.
During plea negotiations, prosecutors maintained that membership fees charged by the club in Aloha were also a violation of the law, a part of the umbrella “distribution of a controlled substance” charges filed against club owner Kathleen Cambron, who was sentenced to probation.
Some Oregon law enforcement officers argue that charging membership fees to belong to a medical marijuana club is the equivalent of selling the drug, and say more busts like this one are likely to come.
“It’s just the tip of the iceberg,” said Clatsop County Sheriff Thomas Bergin, president of the Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association.
Bergin said time and resources are the only obstacles to shutting down more cannabis clubs and he doesn’t mind using the membership fees as a springboard.
“I’d like to see them all shut down today. We’ll get there,” Bergin said.
Under Oregon law, growers are allowed to charge their patients for the costs of cultivating pot but not for anything else. Those who operate cannabis clubs, such as Don Morse of Portland’s Human Collective, charge membership fees to help them pay for overhead and expenses unrelated to marijuana.
“The only way for us to pay the rent, pay the phone bill, is to charge a membership fee,” Morse said. “That’s how we can survive. We’re all volunteers. How do they expect us to be able to provide safe access (to marijuana) if we’re not able to pay our bills?”
Now, Oregon cannabis club owners are worried the Wake ’n Bake case could prompt further crackdowns on operations that charge membership fees.
“It is a concern,” said Curtis Shimmin of the cannabis club Kannabosm in Eugene, who maintained that his operation was within the law. “Our program has been picked apart by several attorneys, and they have all assured me that what I am doing is 100 percent legal within state guidelines.”
Morse, of Human Collective, is critical of operations that are out to make money from Oregon’s medical marijuana law rather than help holders of medical marijuana cards.
“You’re not helping us, you’re hurting us,” he said.
Last year, Oregon voters rejected a ballot measure that would have legalized California-style dispensaries in Oregon. Bergin and others in law enforcement argue that cannabis clubs are in fact dispensaries.
“They’re acting like it did pass,” said Bergin. “(The ballot measure) was to start up these dispensaries, it failed, and they started them anyway.”
Cannabis club owners say their properties aren’t dispensaries but safe havens for cannabis users to obtain and use the medicine they would otherwise have to grow themselves, have grown for them or buy on the black market. Marijuana available at cannabis clubs often comes from authorized growers who donate it.
Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Author: Nigel Duara, The Associated Press
Published: August 30, 2011
Copyright: 2011 The Associated Press
Other Posts of Interest:
Cannabis News – Medical Marijuana, Marijuana News, Hemp, Cannabis
NORML.ORG US CA: Marijuana Dispensary Ordered To Pay City’s Legal Fees
Daily Headlines
by Andrea Swayne, (Source:Dana Point Times)
22 Jul 2011
California
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A judge on July 12 ruled in favor of the City of Dana Point ordering one of the medical marijuana dispensaries — the city has been battling in its nearly two-year legal fight — to pay attorney’s fees in the amount of $ 138,067.10.
The judge’s ruling stated, in part, that “Code of Civil Procedure ‘ ‘ 1032( b ) and 1033.5( a )( 10 )( B ) collectively provide that the prevailing party in a civil action may recover, as a matter of right, attorney’s fees when authorized by statute.”
It also noted that while the amount of hours used by city attorneys in this case were high, they were necessary and at a rate of $ 229 per hour reasonable, “aE&given the collective experience of plaintiff’s counsel, the complexity of the case, and the public benefit generated by public nuisance actions.”
This ruling adds to the $ 2.4 million Orange County Superior Court Judge William Monroe ordered the dispensary to pay in March when he declared the city victorious in its public nuisance lawsuit filed in an effort to shut the business down.
The Capistrano Beach dispensary, Beach Cities Collective, has been closed since January when the city, citing building code violations, had it red-tagged.
Beach Cities Collective has filed an appeal with the 4th District Court of Appeals.
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom
Ore. Lawmakers Decide To Increase Pot Card Fees
Faced with tough budget decisions, Oregon lawmakers have decided to tap the popular medical marijuana program for an estimated $ 7 million to fund other health programs and reject a pile of bills that would have made it much tougher for people to get a medical marijuana card.
It’s a legislative attitude adjustment that had marijuana advocates crying foul at the idea of doubling the annual fees charged marijuana patients to $ 200. But they think they it may move Oregon a step closer to their goal of bringing medical marijuana into the mainstream economy where it can be readily available to anyone and taxed.
“It’s not good for the patients,” said Christine McGarvin, a member of the state Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee. “I do appreciate the politics of it.”
With law enforcement from the U.S. attorney’s office to local sheriffs and police chiefs decrying medical marijuana as out of control, the Legislature saw more than a dozen bills aimed at reining in one aspect or another of the program that went into effect in 1999. Eventually, a team of three former state troopers came up with a bill that would have made it virtually impossible for doctors to prescribe the drug. The bill was relegated to a quiet death in committee.
Rep. Andy Olson, R-Albany, a former state police lieutenant, said their bill was dead for the year, but he plans to work on the issue through the summer and fall and bring back a bill next year.
This past week a Ways and Means subcommittee approved doubling the $ 100 annual fee for medical marijuana patients, and imposing a new $ 200 fee on growers who are not already patients. The $ 20 discount for poor people receiving food stamps and state medical coverage will be eliminated, and only available to people on social security. The $ 7 million raised will go to other programs within the cash-strapped Oregon Health Authority, including clean water, emergency medical care, and school health centers.
If the measure gains full approval as part of the budget, the fee increases go into effect July 1.
Rep. Tim Freeman, R-Freeman, said he wouldn’t call the medical marijuana program a cash cow, but acknowledged that the additional revenue is being used to subsidize unrelated services.
Freeman said Gov. John Kitzhaber’s recommended budget left a large hole in public health funding. The Oregon Health Authority had already planned to increase fees in the medical marijuana program but decided to hike them even higher to help fill the budget gap.
The fee increases came out of the governor’s direction that some health programs that received general fund revenue in the past would have to find fee revenue instead, said Barry Kast, interim director of the Office of Community Health, which includes the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program.
As of April, nearly 40,000 Oregonians held patient cards at $ 100 apiece, raising about $ 4 million a year. Separate legislation would charge patients $ 10 to replace a lost card.
Medical marijuana advocates decry the idea of a fee increase as an unfair tax on some of Oregon’s poorest citizens.
“We managed to escape, I thought, without any changes to the program,” said Bob Wolfe, of the Oregon Marijuana Policy Initiative. “All of a sudden, out of nowhere, we get this stealth tax on the poorest people in Oregon.”
But Paul Stanford, who owns a chain of medical marijuana clinics and is gathering signatures for a marijuana legalization initiative for the 2012 ballot, said the budget measure bodes well for eventual legalization of marijuana. He estimated that taxing it could raise $ 150 million a year.
Morgan Fox, communications manager for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C., said Oregon was following in the footsteps of states like Colorado and Vermont, which have been gradually making medical marijuana more accessible and putting it under more state control.
“If we are willing to realize it is legitimate to tax patients to fund social programs, we should be willing to see it is legitimate enough to open it up as an industry.”
Jonathan J. Cooper reported from Salem.
Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Author: Jonathan J. Cooper, The Associated Press
Published: June 11, 2011
Copyright: 2011 The Associated Press
Other Posts of Interest:
Cannabis News – Medical Marijuana, Marijuana News, Hemp, Cannabis
