Students Walk, Pay More As Minnesota Schools Cut Costs

By Nashiah Ahmad

In addition to keeping up with the win-loss records of her 12th grade daughter's high school teams, Liz Leitch-Sell of Monticello, Minn., must keep up with the new price tag for the sports.

The Monticello school district, which has been blasted by the same fiscal chill affecting other schools across Minnesota, has raised classroom sizes as well as sports fees to make the $2 million in cuts needed to balance the district's $27 million budget for fiscal 2003.

Ms. Leitch-Sell cringes at the mention of her daughter's sports fees, which have nearly doubled, to $375, this year for three sports. "It starts to become something you can do only if you have money, which is...