Staff Editorial
In a public school setting, creating an education that comes at as low a cost as possible to students should always be the goal. While Manhattan Beach Unified School District and Mira Costa have made great strides in eliminating fees, the administration should increase awareness about transcript fees and take further steps to give students a more affordable education.
Currently, transcripts cost $5 individually, regardless of whether or not they are sent electronically. As part of the college admissions process, many universities require that students send in their transcripts, as well as mid-year reports, and the combined costs quickly add up. But, according to Costa Registrar Dory Rohr, 87% of transcripts are sent electronically, diminishing the administrative costs of delivering; this cost is original the reason for payment .
To match the extensive state-wide effort to make free and appropriate education available to all students, Mira Costa needs to fix the unnecessary costs of high school transcripts. Costa’s administration takes pride in how many students it sends to universities after graduation. But these two different goals do not coincide, and Costa should be able to send almost all of its students to college without forcing them to pay unnecessary costs.
According to Costa Principal Dr. Ben Dale, transcript fees can be easily waived for those who cannot afford to pay them. This information should be made much more widely available to students, seeing as it is not mentioned in the transcript request form or easily accessible on the school’s website. Even if a relatively low number of students require this waiver, without increasing public knowledge, this option is currently going entirely unused.
In other areas within Costa, including athletics, the strive for free education has succeeded in creating cost-free programs. The Manhattan Beach Athletics Foundation has transitioned to MBX, a group covering all MBUSD extracurriculars that eliminates the school’s ability to mandate fees.
A large amount of funds and effort by the Manhattan Beach Unified School District was put into creating Manhattan Beach Extracurriculars. And while sports are just an optional activity at Costa, transcripts are necessary for the entire student body applying to college. If sports are required to be free-to-play, transcripts should be free as well.
According to Dale, the extra revenue from the transcripts goes to the graduation ceremony for the senior class. Specific data on how much revenue transcripts produce minus administrative costs is unavailable according to Dale. But, in a district like MBUSD, relatively nominal costs like graduation can be funded from different areas, such as donations from senior parents.
In all areas of academic life at Costa, the term “fee” is disappearing, due to the potential passage of Assembly Bill 165, which goes further to ensure all students receive free education. If the cost of transcripts can’t be eliminated completely, the administration should change the phrasing of transcript fees to follow with policy.
At a time where MBUSD is making strides to ensure that Costa’s education is cost free, requiring students to pay for part of the college process is inconsistent with the district’s other efforts. Transcript fees should be eliminated so Costa can be closer to giving students a free education.
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