In 1984, to avoid significant budget cuts, the Santa Barbara (California) Board of Education decided to charge students to participate in certain "extracurricular" activities. The proposed fee--$25 for each activity--generated controversy and was eventually struck down by the California Supreme Court as a violation of the California constitution's free school guarantee. Now, 25 years later, many schools across the country regularly impose fees for public school activities that have been deemed extracurricular. In some districts, such fees are reportedly as high as or higher than $500 for an activity. This article discusses the controversial fees which are at the heart of a significant ongoing debate over whether public schools legally can or normatively should charge students fees to participate in extracurricular activities. Beyond the legal and social concerns about charging fees for extracurricular activities, a practical question looms: once a school district begins charging fees, can or will it ever stop doing so? Where does this all end?