School fund raising
Sat, 2007-05-19 15:01
#1
School fund raising
Sat, 2007-05-19 15:01
#2
Not a single school in Canada should need to raise funds for any project. If Cuba can afford free education for every single student from kindergarten on...what on Earth is the matter with Canada??? The least Canada could do is offer free post secondary education. There always seems to be enough money for war...peace goes begging.
Sat, 2007-05-19 15:47
#3
Fundraising was good educational skills.
I don't agree with you on "any project".
In the real world there's fundraising, it's important to learn.
Sat, 2007-05-19 15:48
#4
quote:
Bake sales? Count me in! Huge bars of chocolate? Why, I'll take a dozen! Magazine subscriptions? Sure, sign me up. When the kids were little, I came second to no one in my efforts to raise money for my city's schools. But a report this week in my local paper, the Toronto Star, tells me that school fundraising has become less a local irritation and more a huge pulsing regional blob.
[url=http://www.rabble.ca/everyones_a_critic.shtml?sh_itm=69f07f6d9b0d2897db3... Heather Mallick [/url]
Sat, 2007-05-19 15:49
#5
quote:
Originally posted by 500_Apples:
[b]
In the real world there's fundraising, it's important to learn.[/b]
In the [i]capitalist[/i] world there's fundraising. There's also stock markets and cut-throat competition and war. No need to learn any of that. I ain't gonna study those no mo'.
Sat, 2007-05-19 16:06
#6
Just wondering Unionist.
Let's say the government mandated that every school have 300$ to spend per student on grad trips. And let's say some school really wanted to go to New York and see a play, so they did a chocolate sale, a bakeathon, and raised another 100$ each. Would that be ok with you?
There's fundraising in the academic world as well. I helped organize an undergraduate research conference last year. We contacted professional associations and the private sector for support. A good learning experience as my friends and I learnt we could do it on our own.
[ 19 May 2007: Message edited by: 500_Apples ]
Sat, 2007-05-19 17:10
#7
Moving this to Youth Issues.
Tue, 2007-05-22 11:05
#8
A good educational skill! 500 Apples, you are completely missing the point. Why the hell should students have to fundraise to get the tools for a quality public education which is their right.
For a couple of years I chaired my school community council. 90% of our energies went into fundraising. This was a pretty much middle class school in Oshawa, and the committee generated about $12,000 to $15,000 a year. Some schools make a lot more. A lot of schools in this country don't come anywhere close to that. The money went toward a lot of things that make school life a bit richer, fuller, and more complete educational experience. I'm talking books, up to date computers and sports equipment, not just field trips although they're just as important. Other schools just do without, and guess what, they'll have higher dropout rates, kids from those schools will have a bit less of an edge in getting to post secondary degrees. They'll be that bit less likely to qualify for academic scholarships.
500 Apples, this is an issue of class repression. If you think kids should learn about fundraising, they can hawk apples for scouts or peddle cookies for guides. Equitable access to quality education is a basic fundamental right, and one of the pillars of any society.
Things at least in my province were supposed to get better after the Harrisite thugs were kicked out of offfice. We had a young, eager, and really photogenic Education Minister, who was supported by the teachers unions in the elections. Looks like some people got hosed.
Let them hold bake sales to pay for those tanks.
Tue, 2007-05-22 11:16
#9
Boom Boom
In these small communities along the Quebec coast, we get schoolkids knocking on our doors throughout the school year to raise money for the Terry Fox Run, and heart, cancer, and some other causes. It's not very often that we're asked to give for specific school fundraising, and then usually it's to send schoolkids on a field trip someplace (travel is really expensive here given our isolation).
I'd much rather simply write one cheque to the school every year instead of running to the door in the afternoons and evenings and shelling out whatever change I happen to have, and let the school divvy up the cheque any way they see fit - and, by the way, issue a tax receipt, which I never get from the kids begging at the door.
Tue, 2007-05-22 11:33
#10
Lard Tunderin Jeezus
quote:
Let them hold bake sales to pay for those tanks.
Sorry old friend, but as much as I agree with most of what you said, I haven't heard tell of Dalton McGuinty buying any tanks. [i](Airplane charters from Toronto to Hamilton, yes. Wouldn't want to get caught in traffic with the peasantry, you know.)[/i]
I stopped participating in our children's school council when it was taken over by greedheads out to make certain their little princes and princesses got the privileged education they're certain they deserve. I believe last year they cracked the $100K mark in fundraising. (BTW, they did get themselves standing as a registered charity, and give out receipts, just like Boom Boom wants.)
Once I stood up at a TDSB public forum and suggested that 50% of all fundraising be pooled, so that the poorer neighbourhoods don't fall too far behind.
If looks could kill, I'd be dead - the victim of a couple of dozen upper-middle class soccer moms.
Tue, 2007-05-22 13:19
#11
quote:
Originally posted by oldgoat:
[b]A good educational skill! 500 Apples, you are completely missing the point. Why the hell should students have to fundraise to get the tools for a quality public education which is their right.For a couple of years I chaired my school community council. 90% of our energies went into fundraising. This was a pretty much middle class school in Oshawa, and the committee generated about $12,000 to $15,000 a year. Some schools make a lot more. A lot of schools in this country don't come anywhere close to that. The money went toward a lot of things that make school life a bit richer, fuller, and more complete educational experience. I'm talking books, up to date computers and sports equipment, not just field trips although they're just as important. Other schools just do without, and guess what, they'll have higher dropout rates, kids from those schools will have a bit less of an edge in getting to post secondary degrees. They'll be that bit less likely to qualify for academic scholarships.
500 Apples, this is an issue of class repression. If you think kids should learn about fundraising, they can hawk apples for scouts or peddle cookies for guides. Equitable access to quality education is a basic fundamental right, and one of the pillars of any society.
Things at least in my province were supposed to get better after the Harrisite thugs were kicked out of offfice. We had a young, eager, and really photogenic Education Minister, who was supported by the teachers unions in the elections. Looks like some people got hosed.
Let them hold bake sales to pay for those tanks.[/b]
I just don't follow your line of reasoning.
The government can never pay for everything as there is a finite money supply. If high school students want their grad trip to be in new york city, they should have to fundraise as that's quite a luxury.
I give money for bake sales and chocolate sales all the time. I am not aware of anyone ever asking me to help pay for education - ever.
What do they fundraise for where you live - school supplies? (If that's the case, then I understand where you're coming from).
[ 22 May 2007: Message edited by: 500_Apples ]
Tue, 2007-05-22 14:43
#12
Boom Boom
quote:
Originally posted by Lard Tunderin' Jeezus:
I believe last year they cracked the $100K mark in fundraising. (BTW, they did get themselves standing as a registered charity, and give out receipts, just like Boom Boom wants.)
I think tax recipts for school fundraisers is proper, and should be automatic. Until I start getting tax recipts, these local school fundrasiers for charity will just get my spare change.
Tue, 2007-05-22 15:24
#13
In the Toronto District School Board, the average teacher spends between $1000-$2000 of his/her own money per year to buy school supplies. We're talking basic: books, pencils, etc. My brother's wife is a primary-level teacher in the TDSB. I donated several dozen children's books my kids had outgrown to my sister-in-law's classroom so that she wouldn't have so much to buy.
There was a proposal at the TDSB to pool all fundraising, distributing all funds equally to all schools in Toronto. They decided not to do it because some wealthier schools would bow out by starting completely independant trust funds for those parents who would like their funds to go to their own school. Also, think of the paperwork.
Basically, education is another area where the Liberals haven't restored the cuts initiated by the Mike Harris government.
Tue, 2007-05-22 16:05
#14
Sven
quote:
Originally posted by Sineed:
[b]In the Toronto District School Board, the average teacher spends between $1000-$2000 of his/her own money per year to buy school supplies.[/b]
Link?
ETA:
For example:
A [url=http://www.nyccouncil.info/pdf_files/reports/teachersspending.pdf]relati... recent (2003) study[/url] of NYC school teachers found that the average teacher spend $426.68 for school books and other supplies. Under the Teacher’s Choice Program, NYC teachers would be reimbursed for $200 of such spending. So, the average annual net purchases of school books and supplies by NYC teachers would be $226.68.
Since 2003, the amount of the reimbursement has been [url=http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/5D834500-75E9-48E2-89B4-B227DBA4C47D... to $245[/url].
Now, whether teachers should be spending [b][i]any[/b][/i] of their own funds for books and other school supplies is an appropriate question. But, I’ve not seen any real data to support claims that teachers spend $1,000 to $2,000 per year on school books and other supplies.
The [b][i]best evidence[/b][/i] of such teacher spending are studies (such as the NYC study) of (1) programs where such spending is reimbursed, either partially or fully and (2) state or provincial (?) tax credits for such spending. I say this is the “best evidence” because it requires the filing of actual receipts for such spending in order to get such a reimbursement or tax credit.
Otherwise, it’s too easy to simply [b][i]claim[/b][/i] that outrageous amounts are being spent by teachers for school books and supplies. It’s a serious enough issue that the claims should be supported by hard data.
[ 22 May 2007: Message edited by: Sven ]
Tue, 2007-05-22 21:10
#15
quote:
Originally posted by Sineed:
[b]Basically, education is another area where the Liberals haven't restored the cuts initiated by the Mike Harris government.[/b]
I believe that the shortage of money for program spending originated with neo-Liberal ideology in general. In the 1970's, it was social programs that were causing inflation and debt to soar. In came Mulroney and John Crow to teach discipline to lazy Canadian workers. UI and social welfare were too generous and would have to be cut. And there were too many kids from poor families rising above their stations in life. Somebody's got to dig ditches and flip burgers, or the ideology doesn't work.
Never mind that none of that was true, our Conservative and Liberal governments plowed full steam ahead with ideological goals and continued making deep cuts to social programs. PSE tuitions rose several times the rate of inflation between 1991 and this decade. Politicians across Ontario tried to blame Bob Rae's NDP for a critical shortage of doctors across Canada, more evidence of a federal funding problem. Canadians bailed out big banks for their gambling habits abroad in 1991 by allowing them to create more money as interest-owing debt. Since Mulroney-Chretien, Canada's national debt soared from one ideological maneuver to the next. The feds have downloaded costs to provinces and slashed transfer payments to provinces by several billion dollars over the years, and Canada has subscribed to the ideology quite a bit moreso than most rich countries have. The provinces then download costs and funding shortfalls to municipalities. There is a shortage of money in the economy overall.
Access to higher education is described in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights that Ottawa signed on to a few decades ago. The ideology basically says access to higher education is not a human right anymore. With free trade deals, WTO and since "GATS", the big corporations want to create a market out of PSE, because that's what the ideology gods say we/they must do, but most of all because they want to profit from education in future. Access to PSE is already based on ability to pay and based less and less merit. And yet we know and understand that an informed public is essential to any democracy. The more there is public education, there more democracy takes root. And people the world over realized long ago that these two basic requirements for a true democracy go hand-in-hand.
Wed, 2007-05-23 05:13
#16
[url=http://www.thestar.com/Unassigned/article/214561]More from the Toronto Star Article, May 17, 2007[/url]
quote:
It's raising questions of a two-tiered system, especially when some schools aren't able to raise any funds and others bring in $400,000 a year, says a recent report from advocacy group People for Education.In response, NDP education critic Rosario Marchese last week introduced a private member's bill that would ban parent fundraising for school additions or classroom costs.
quote:
Kathleen Wynne: It's very interesting that the party opposite has not once acknowledged that the funding that has gone into the ... education system under this government is beyond imagining, given what the previous government did: $2 billion out of education, $3.5 billion into education in the province.As I have said previously... the issue of fundraising is one that I take very seriously ...
Fundraising is much more than just the dollars and cents that communities raise for projects. It is about community cohesion. It is about community building. It's something that's been around for a very, very long time, under that member's watch as a school trustee, as well. It is the responsibility of school boards to make sure resources are allocated equitably.
We have put more money into education (for) the basics.
quote:
Wynne: Does the member opposite believe that it was appropriate when he was in office in 1991 for people ... to be raising money for computers? ...The member opposite claims that there has been no money for the things that parents are fundraising for. In fact, we have put in $32 million for school libraries. That's $6,600 for every school library. There are 7,600 new support staff under this government ...
The member opposite has claimed publicly that there's only $25 million that's been spent on repairs in our schools. That is ridiculous. Boards have had access to $4 billion under the Good Places to Learn.
The member opposite finds it impossible to... understand that we are rebuilding where the previous government tore down. He should be supporting us... if he believes in publicly funded education.
Wed, 2007-05-23 14:06
#17
I remember reading about the Harris years and school funding shortages. There was a little girl who went selling chocolate bars by herself one evening. I forget what in hell they needed money for - a school trip or books or some damn thing. She went into an apartment house, and some creeps grabbed her out of the hallway apparently. I don't think they should be putting kids at risk like that. With all this oil and gas and hyrdro-electric power and oceans of timber carted away and siphoned off to the States everyday, there's no excuse to be short of anything in this frozen Puerto Rico.
Wed, 2007-05-23 15:20
#18
I feel like this is the right place to say that I was the QUEEN of selling Girl Guide cookies!
Wed, 2007-05-23 19:11
#19
What exactly does a Cuban education consist of?
[url=http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2006/10/12/news/16172.shtml]ht...
I have no idea the agenda of these people, but this "free" education seems to come with a few costs.
[ 23 May 2007: Message edited by: ChicagoLoopDweller ]
Wed, 2007-05-23 23:27
#20
Hey look, a militant U.S. university with a diddy about Cuba. [img]rolleyes.gif" border="0[/img]
[url=http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Jan2006/mandic0106.html][b]How Princeton welcomes war criminals[/b][/url]
quote:
Sadly, other major U.S. academic institutions are increasingly refusing to allow independent voices to be heard, preferring instead to support government spokespeople who use universities like speaker phones. If students do not stand up to this, the so-called “military-industrial-academic complex” will become painfully real
Cuba's education system is [url=http://www.cubanlibrariessolidaritygroup.org.uk/news.asp?ID=52][b]world class[/b][/url] and has produced more doctors per capita for the island nation than any other western country is able to claim. Many Hispanic and African-American students, unable to access the handful of mainly white medical colleges in the U.S., apply every year to Cuban schools and hoping for the chance to receive six years of free medical training, $4 dollar a month stipend, books, supplies and housing courtesy of socialist Cuba.
[ 23 May 2007: Message edited by: Fidel ]
Thu, 2007-05-24 10:07
#21
quote:
There was a little girl who went selling chocolate bars by herself one evening. I forget what in hell they needed money for - a school trip or books or some damn thing. She went into an apartment house, and some creeps grabbed her out of the hallway apparently. I don't think they should be putting kids at risk like that.
Fidel - Schools don't put kids at risk like that. What parent allows their "little girl" to roam door to door alone asking for money? Parents are responsible for their kids after school. Many schools ban door to door and restrict fundraising to family and friends.
Overall I agree that funding should be adequate for all school supplies for all subjects. This includes funding for necessary educational field trips. Part of a student's education is to be exposed to the actual workings of the subject matter in the world at large. Science students should see science at work in the community. Arts students should be exposed to professional artists in the communtity. It has always been an accepted fact that sports and physical education include inter-school competition requiring regular field trips so the same should apply elsewhere.
I have been a working artist in the schools for over 25 years and witnessed the decline in support for the arts in schools. Many schools bring in shows and arts projects that are funded by parent councils. Many of my Secondary School clients now charge the students directly to bring in a show or workshop. What I've seen is wealthy schools bring in many events while poorer schools suffer. During the Harris years my touring company went out of business after having to cancel the 96/97 season because client schools no longer knew if they would have any budget at all after January '97. We were not the only company to go out of business because of this. In fact one of my clients retired rather than watch his drama department be dismantled. He had built the program up to a budget of several thousand dollars. I contacted his replacement the following year who told me she couldn't afford anything because her budget was now $600.00 for the whole year and the Principal still expected her to produce two or three plays a year including a musical.
Students raise money for their communities and charitable causes. This should be what their fundraising efforts are for. I know they still do on top of fundraising for their own school activities. There is a fatigue factor setting in. It's wrong. There should be a funding pool provided by the government to cover field trips or guest speakers spanning all subject areas. Definately the Ministry of Education should be covering any and all practical expenses such as books, supplies, repairs, etc.
Thu, 2007-05-24 10:57
#22
quote:
Originally posted by mimeguy:
[b]Fidel - Schools don't put kids at risk like that. What parent allows their "little girl" to roam door to door alone asking for money? Parents are responsible for their kids after school. Many schools ban door to door and restrict fundraising to family and friends. [/b]
I don't blame parents for the new bakesale education system. It's putting the onus on children and over-worked parents to raise money for what should be covered by a fully-funded public education system. Working parents don't have time to donate to chocolate bar education.
Between WWI and 1974, Canada didn't accumulate $20 billion dollars worth of national debt. And just look where we are today since failed neo-Liberal ideology under Mulroney and bailing out the banks in 1991. Post-secondary student loan debt alone is over $20 billion dollars right now. That's a quarter century worth of indentured servitude for the right to access higher ed. And that's a repayment schedule if all goes well with steady employment. The Canadian economy has lost a quarter million good paying manufacturing jobs since 2002. Meanwhile, exports of raw materials and energy to corporate America continues at a frenzied pace in this Northern Puerto Rico with a few Polar bears.
Fri, 2007-05-25 07:44
#23
In my area (North Bay) I know a number of teachers and parents who work bingos because they have to fundraise for books and supplies. If you've ever been involved with a group who works bingos you'll find that once you volunteer it becomes like a second job. I did it for 14 years and I'm SO glad it's over.
Lots of kids sell chocolate bars, Christmas wrapping, Regal and sundry other stuff but they are discouraged from selling door to door because of the danger. Instead they sell to all their aunts & uncles and their parents take all their cookies & chocolate bars to work (where I buy them because I'm just not fat enough yet).
I really resent the fact that these parents, kids and teachers have to put in so much of their time and effort to pay for basics. Field trips, sports teams, etc I have no problem with but I can't afford to buy everybody's raffle tickets and cookies. I just wish the provincial government would come up with a funding formula that really does fund the schools so all we have to fundraise for is the extras.
Sat, 2007-06-02 02:47
#24
I really resent out-of-pocket expenses for basic school activities, too. My son goes to school in Mississauga, and they even make them pay to attend assemblies if they're having someone in to speak or entertain! It's unbelievable. They nickel and dime you constantly to pay for stuff you shouldn't have to, and then they try to get you to fund raise on top of it.
Wasn't there a court challenge in BC about this?