Ugh! What a pain in the ass! I haven’t really had to deal with that, too much myself except, I think 4th and 5th grades. The school Kiddo was at then was heavily fund-raiser focused. We mostly didn’t participate.
His middle school mostly does stuff like “Family Night Out” at restaurants and yogurt places. Also they do family game nights in the gym a couple times a year where they charge a couple of dollars to get in and sell hot dogs and stuff.
The thing that gets me the most, that I hate to irrationally disproportional lengths is the pizza party reward. Especially when it is attached to what is supposed to be charitable giving. Just before Thanksgiving, Kiddo was raiding our pantry of canned goods. I mean he was trying to take several grocery bags full to school. When I asked him why, he replied that whatever class brought in the most food got a pizza party. Not, for poor people, or for the hungry or for the food bank, but for a pizza party. I asked both him and his friend if they even knew which charity the food was going to, nope, just that they were getting pizza if they brought the most food. Needless to say they received a lecture and they were each give a couple cans to take, but no more.
This is a kid who volunteers at the animal shelter, regularly goes through his stuff to donate to charity, but for some reason, and despite the fact that we have pizza several times a month, that was all he could remember about this food drive.
Kimstu, I’m on the side believing that good leadership doesn’t require huge compensation (especially if asking for subsidies and fundraisers) .. but private companies are free to pay grossly excessive payments if shareholders agree.
I’m guessing you’re not a fundraiser for the national political parties then. They (both of them) have been shamelessly hammering us since around 2007 with constantly-repeated assertions that THIS is the most important moment for us to donate big bucks RIGHT NOW – because the other side is about to win, cannot possibly win, has already won, might conceivably win, and every other combination of pressing circumstances they can come up with.
If they do, then you’re pretty much stuck with a CEO job market in which grossly excessive salaries are the norm.
Consequently, a taxpayer-funded organization such as NPR is pretty much stuck with needing to offer a grossly excessive salary in order to attract high-quality CEO candidates.
I couldn’t agree with you more that typical CEO compensation in US industry nowadays is grossly excessive, at least in the top tiers. And one of the reasons I think that that’s a bad thing is that it drives up the asking price for talented CEOs in non-industry organizations too.
I made a donation to my party of choice once, four years ago. I’ve been getting donation requests ever since. I’ve also been following the stories about these Super PACs and have learned that pretty much every candidate, including the incumbent, all have super wealthy sugar daddies funding their PACs. They don’t need my measly $20, and that donation isn’t going to buy me one shred of influence against Sugar Daddy’s millions or billions in donations. They can all suck me dry; I’m not giving any one of these con-artists another dime, ever.
Hmmm…all these school fundraisers wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact many school districts are strapped for money because everyone thought their taxes were too high?
Nope, but I’d love to work for them because of their analytics work. There’s some very creative stuff going on in their shops with that. It’s just not with there with, well, their marketing department.
They already do that, and they have an arrangement with the supermarket to get a cut of what parents spend there. My bonus card is already linked to the school and I don’t buy enough processed food to look for the specific programs that the school is enrolled in.
I’d love to see them do more “dinner out” stuff; there is at least one local restaurant that does them and they seem to be pretty successful.
The school also does a walk-a-thon thing in the fall that does fairly well, probably because it’s more or less a direct contribution to the school.
If it were up to me, I’d have someone at the district level whose job it is to coordinate volunteers and fundraising. This person would not be directly in charge of PTOs, but s/he would have to review budgets to make sure they’re realistic in terms of money available vs. the goals the PTOs have established; help the PTOs find and apply for grants (I know that philanthropy is down because of the economy, but there is still money out there.) to cover programs; organize and coordinate fundraising efforts (making sure, for example, that three elementary schools aren’t selling at the same time); and setting guidelines for fundraising so that it’s better planned.
But it’s not up to me, so I’m stuck fending off fundraisers that come one right after the other.
You just might be on to something there. I have no problem with a few fund raisers here or there, if it’s limited to optional activities (like the class trip). However, I think that in the case of essential school supplies, they shouldn’t need fund raisers…and if the budget is that short, maybe it’s time for some news articles about how teachers are paying for supplies from their own pockets.
Believe me, I understand that fund raisers are horrible. Im really glad they keep them to a minimum at my daughter’s school.
This said, instead of just going to a PTO meeting to complain, why not actually join the PTO (“the mommy brigade”)?
I volunteer a lot at my daughter’s school* and from my experience, it’s the same group of moms volunteering for everything. It would be awesome to have more volunteers.
it occurs to me that maybe I’m one of “the brigade”.
I tried to join the PTO. The Mommy Brigade is a fiefdom and it’s very difficult to find a niche that doesn’t involve stepping on another mommy’s toes. It just seems that they’re more about control and the idea that no one can do as good a job as they do. In fact, it seems that most parents who try to get involved end up being chased out.
True story: When the sprog was in kindergarten, the room mommy asked me if I knew of any symbols for Hanukkah. I gave her some suggestions (e.g., dreidels, menorahs, and Stars of David. Simple, basic shapes.) and offered to cut the shapes out so she didn’t have to. She thanked me for the input but told me she could cut the shapes out herself and sounded kind of put out that I would even offer to do that.
I love love love those scrip cards! Groceries, gas, utilities, online retailers, restaurants, movie tix… All with rebates, Zappos’ gives 10% back, my trash pickup I get 8% back, woo frickin hoo we are 1/4 of the way to paying band camp fees just with those rebates.
Still we have the glossy fundraisers. Cookie dough, Michigan trinkets, all the rest of it, it’s still crap.
You and your…LOGIC! Durn you. Remember the articles Cecil wrote a while back about CPS schools which really turned around with parent involvement/fundraising? Yeah, one of those is my daughter’s school. They’ve actually done a really great job of it, explaining exactly what they are given by the state and CPS, what the programs we all love cost (full-time music, ecology, full-day kindergarten) and what the dollar difference is. It’s amazing how much simply knowing what the money is FOR makes me feel better about it.
They’re also really good at making it clear that while not everyone can afford to give the same amount, everyone can give something. The social pressure is to give, but not a specific amount. And really, that something can be very, very small. The Scary PTA Mom accepted my $5 with a gracious smile and genuine thanks when I was unemployed, with the same enthusiasm as she accepted some other family’s $500 check. They minimize the “Stuff” fundraisers ('though they do some of those) in favor of outright begging and budget charts.
Also, we’ve got parents with experience in grant writing who volunteer to apply for all kinds of grants. I’m happy to pony up another $5 when I see we just won another $10,000 from Home Depot or Pepsi or whomever.
But yes, it’s because the school is so damn underfunded that it’s needed in the first place. We all know that these donations are technically optional, but because the process is so transparent, we all understand what will happen to the school we love if we stop ponying up the cash. We understand that we’re essentially funding a private-ish school within a public school district, and that makes all the difference.
I have no kids, but my cousin’s daughter attends a private, pricy Catholic high school. In addition to the ten to twelve grand a year each student pays, the school wants 20 bucks per ticket for every school play you attend, and they also insisted that every kid had to own an iPad as well, so the parents got to fork over for that too.
Around here it inevitably becomes a discussion about how high teachers salaries are. It’s no wonder the teachers do not want to have that discussion. Thanks Chris Christie.
My son is at a private Catholic School. He has to have a laptop computer. Each sport is around $1,200. Uniforms for sports with a team bag runs another couple hundred. There are two large events every year with $100 per seat tables, and silent auctions.
So, yes, they charge and get us to donate and get us to buy.
