I understand that the duty for a taxpayer to pay for a free education ends at high school, so I understand why some taxpayers might not want to pay for the AP test itself under the theory that the benefit of the AP test is to give an individual kid college credit.
But if a district doesn’t want to pay for the test, then the test should be optional and the kids class ranking should not be negatively impacted (so AP bump-up should not be removed) because the family can’t/won’t pay for the test. Having the extra credit for the difficulty of the AP course removed is discriminatory against kids whose families can’t afford the fees and it actually hurts kids who are competing for scholarships or who live in states where the top X percent of kids get admitted to the state flagship.
Personally I feel like the AP scores give good, independent feedback to the school and as a taxpayer I’d support my school district paying for the APs. But that’s up to the voters in the town and I think it’s fair enough to say districts don’t have to pay for the tests as long as students aren’t hurt by not taking them.