Fairfax County Public Schools will be footing the bill for Advanced Placements exams once again after a ruling by the state Attorney General declared the measure illegal.
Last year to compensate for a $203.4 million lack of funds, Superintendent Jack Dale placed a $75 fee per AP test for students. The fees were part of wide effort to raise money for FCPS; over 32 thousand AP tests are administered every year, which ends up costing the county over $2 million.
The measure to raise revenue has been controversial. The not-for-profit organization Collegeboard requires an $87 fee per test to pay for graders and production.
Many school systems in the country, including Los Angeles Unified School District and the New York Department of Education, pay for student AP tests. However, several smaller districts forward the costs to the students.
In Fairfax County, students are required to take the AP tests and will not receive credit for the course, including the 1.0 weight added to their GPA, if they refuse to take the test.
On January 28, Virginia’s Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II wrote a ruling in which he declared that Fairfax County cannot require students to pay for AP tests. Cuccinelli wrote that powers granted to Fairfax County do not allow it the power to charge students for the exams.
“No statute authorizes a local school board to impose fees for the taking of tests,” wrote Cuccinelli. “Because the Advanced Placement Examination test is the required end-of-course examination, it cannot reasonably be viewed as a service or program for which a fee may be levied.”
Cuccinelli’s decision was based on the powers allocated to Fairfax County and not the actual question of whether students should pay for the tests.
However, the debate on whether these tests, which can be used as full college credits at some schools, should be paid for by the students has seen a variety of opinions.
Because some colleges accept passing AP test scores as credit for classes, some argue that the $75 fee now is miniscule compared to the price of taking a real college class. Others argue that they are such an integral part of the high school curriculum that they should not need to be purchased.
“The thing is that most people don’t take AP exams for the college credit,” said senior Mustafa Mokhtarzada, “most kids take them because they’re trying to get into college, and they look good on transcripts. Fairfax County is such competitive area with so many kids trying to get into good colleges that they need to take [AP exams]. AP tests are a necessity for most kids to get into college, and so I think that they should be part of the public school budget.”
Superintendent Dale is scheduled to meet with the School Board in March to discuss what to do with the collected fees.
It is likely the money will either be returned to the students, or the County will make AP tests optional this year. Although having already paid for the tests, turnout is not expected to go down.
