<p>Many schools have relationships with banks now for student ID cards. Those banks are probably discounting the surcharge to the universities/schools or even waiving them as the other arrangement is so profitable to the bank (and it is). The schools may also feel the fee, if there is on, is worth it because they are paid earlier (not over 10 months or so), there are no collection fees, bad check charges or employee costs for processing paper payments</p>
<p>My brother owns a business and he happily eats the 2% or so charge for credit cards because they are so much easier to deal with than bounced checks and collections. A cash discount wouldn’t be 10%, but more like 1%</p>