Citation Numbers: 65 Op. Att'y Gen. 37
Judges: BRONSON C. La FOLLETTE, Attorney General
Filed Date: 3/16/1976
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/6/2016
VIRGINIA B. HART, Chairman Department of Industry, Labor andHuman Relations
In light of the recently enacted tuition requirements for schools in the vocational, technical and adult education system, ch. 39, secs. 288 and 728, Laws of 1975, and in light of the fact that over 90 percent of indentured apprentices in this state attend local vocational schools in order to satisfy the related instruction requirements of their apprenticeship indentures, you request my opinion on the legality of charging such tuition to apprentices indentured under ch. 106, Stats., for such required, related instruction. Specifically, you ask:
*Page 381. Whether the tuition requirement violates the intent of sec.
106.01 (10), Stats.?2. Whether the state can legally require that apprentices pay tuition to attend local vocational schools as a condition of their apprenticeship?
3. Whether the tuition requirement can be applied to apprentices whose indentures were approved before enactment of the tuition requirement?
4. Whether the tuition requirement applies only to students, and if so, whether it can apply to persons who are employed apprentices, as defined in sec.
106.01 (1), Stats., when attending vocational school classes?
In an earlier opinion, 64 OAG 24 (1975), I concluded that there is no constitutional prohibition against the charging of tuition for any course of instruction offered at a school in the vocational, technical and adult education system. I further concluded that the charging of such tuition, and the manner and extent whereby such charges are to be made, are policy matters which the legislature is free to determine in the exercise of its legislative power. It is my opinion, for the reasons stated below, that the legislature has established no legal impediment to the charging of such tuition to apprentices indentured under ch. 106, Stats., for the related instruction that apprentices must receive as a condition of their apprenticeship.
An apprentice, as defined in sec.
Section
". . . all school officers and public school teachers to cooperate with the department and employers of apprentices to furnish, in a public school or any school supported in whole or in part by public moneys, such instruction as may be required to be given apprentices.
In answer to your first question, I do not believe that the intent of sec.
Your second question, whether the state can legally require that apprentices pay tuition to attend local vocational schools as a *Page 39
condition of their apprenticeship, assumes certain facts which are not necessarily correct. The state does require that persons who attend vocational schools pay tuition. Sec.
In answer to your third question, whether an indenture was entered into before or after enactment of the tuition requirement has no legal bearing on the state's power to enact the tuition requirement. The state lawfully can apply its tuition requirement to apprentices whose indentures were made and approved before imposition of the requirement. Moreover, any unanticipated difficulty or expense to the apprentice, resulting from the tuition requirement, is not likely to relieve the apprentice from his or her indenture. cf. Clune v. School District (1918),
Your fourth and final question asks, in essence, whether employed apprentices who are paid for the hours they attend vocational schools are somehow exempt from student tuition charges by virtue of their paid, employment status. I am of the opinion that they are not. Section
It may be that there is a reasonable basis for exempting apprentices as a class from the tuition requirement. 31 OAG 155, 158-159 (1942). Nonetheless, it is for the legislature to determine whether tuition should be charged at schools in the vocational, technical and adult education system, and which classes of persons should be exempted from any tuition requirement.
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