If you are really that skeptical and conspiracy theory minded then get out of the studiio. There are several of these that come up year after year each year and if this raises such suspicions in your mind then it is going to continue to get worse the longer you stay there, which will poison your veiw of your instructors, will ruin your experience of being there, and will take the joy out of your instructor trying to teach you.
Now if this is just your initial reaction to not having the money to do it, thats fine but instead of getting an attitude about it just let them know you can't do it. Or if you just don't like the idea of competeing then let them know you just would rather not participate.
But if you do have the money and don't mind competeing then it would be a good idea to get involved. Its a chance to go out and do something different and have some fun doing it (and unfortunately its going to cost a few bucks to do it).