in our schools, you pay for your own supplies all through--some teachers have extra pencils and stuff in class, but you are expected to return them at the end of class. one teacher went so far as to take your shoe for a pencil so you wouldn't leave with hers. that was middle school, where everyone had their own...in elementary school I believe they have a lot of extras, but it just comes out of the budget, i suppose.

the only real fees we have are for parking. transportation is and must be paid for by the school if you live outside a certain distance range (.8-1.2 miles or something, depending on your age group), inside you can walk or get a ride from someone. We have aides who monitor the lunchroom...sometimes subs get that as one of their periods, or the assistant gym teacher. anyone who doesn't teach the full amount of periods per day.

I suppose that if those things aren't built into the budget in Ontario, it's better to have some fees that are fairly low, just to subsidize it a bit. it's a lot to expect people to suddenly go from paying no fees to $500, for example. it's something that would probably need to be introduced slowly to reduce the amount of waivers needed because people just couldn't afford it.