The Fundraising Conundrum

So how many school fundraisers have you participated in?

Some real doozies stand out for me. In elementary school, we used to participate in regular paper drives. As I matriculated to the upper grades, it was an event I enjoyed. We used to line up the cars before school as they entered the parking lot and stacked newspapers next to parked station wagons to be sent to the local paper mill.

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I wonder with 6 children how many hours mom spent raising money for our schools?

It was a fun community event sponsored by the Normal Park PTA. It’s where I had my first cup of coffee. I am not sure that my mother’s memory of this activity would be so pleasant. Getting up early to stand in the cold, then delivering a car full of newspapers to the paper mill afterward. I wonder with 6 children how many hours mom spent raising money for schools?

So Much Time So little Cash

In Junior high school we raised money for the band with scented oil lamps among other things. The school had an annual barbecue. A lot of effort for limited cash.

In high school we had a “rock-a-thon” where we rocked in rocking chairs overnight. The rocking chair I used is now in my living room.

The point is a lot of inconvenient effort for little cash.

As Inequality Grew

The ongoing effort to raise money continued in my career as an educator. From student art auctions to magazine sales the effort to access desperately needed funding far outweighed the return.

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My first assignment as a principal was at a school that ran a version

of an annual stewardship campaign.

One of the greatest inequalities among schools was the result of the economic disparity around the communities being served. My first assignment as a principal was at a school that ran a version of an annual stewardship campaign. It was a magnet school in the center of one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Charlotte. About one third of the students came from that community.

The PTA would raise about $100,000.00 a year that allowed for instructional and community spending that gave us a big advantage over many other schools. I was able to set up professional development protocols that included teachers attending conferences of their choosing. We could by resources for the classroom that included the latest technology. When we decided to give teachers the opportunity to determine how much of the money was spent, our test scores rose significantly.

Average is not Reality

The average annual fundraising in public schools is around $20,000 according to NPR (1). That’s the average. Some of the schools where I worked struggled to have a PTA much less raise a few thousand.

When schools where I worked were able to approach the average, we could improve classroom resources but always had to give up on materials and teacher resources that we thought could improve student opportunity.

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This equals .06% of federal discretionary spending.

According to National Center on Education Statistics, there are 98,577 public schools in the United States. If we gave every school an additional $100,000 to spend at their discretion, that would amount to $9.9 billion. This equals .06% of federal discretionary spending. (2)

A Question of Time and Resources

Think of it. School personnel and families could give their time to such activities as field trips and lesson planning rather than coordinating sales at little additional cost to the American taxpayer. A pretty good return on investment.

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Community time for schools could focus on time together rather than organizing to raise money.

Wealthy communities would no longer have to depend on PTAs tending to cumbersome budgets and impoverished schools would have discretionary funds to support struggling students. Parents could spend more time with their own children. Community time for schools could focus on time together rather than organizing to raise money.

Could we trust individual schools to spend the money appropriately? Certainly, better than school bureaucracies.

The federal government now provides about ten percent of school funding nationwide. A .06 increase could do wonders for school resources.

A Good Investment for Our Wellbeing

We now have politicians advocating for military spending to increase from 3% of GDP to 5% (We now spend 5 to 10 times more than our nearest adversaries). We have Generals who say that our most important national security concern is education. We roughly spend the same amount for public education from all sources as the federal government does on our military.

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Starting with $100,000 for each school’s discretionary needs

would be the proverbial drop in the bucket.

Just think what the benefit would be if half of that 2% GDP increase in federal spending focused on education? Starting with $100,000 for each school’s discretionary needs would be the proverbial drop in the bucket.

To improve equal opportunity in education we would need to spend significantly more on personnel, instructional resources, and facilities. That $100,000 per school would be a great place for increased funding to start and help us understand our country can afford this investment. ©Paul A Bonner

(1) (The secret world behind school fundraisers and turning kids into salespeople, Sarah Gonzalez, Jess Jiang, Sam Yellowhorse, Planet Money 2/28/2024).

(2) USAFacts, usafacts.org