Foundations for public schools?
June 9, 2010 7:46 AM   Subscribe

Is subsidizing elementary education fair?

We live in a wealthy school district and have a foundation that raises upwards of 1 million dollars per year for the schools - or 10% of the operating budget. It mainly subsidizes teacher salaries but also some supplies and enrichment programs.

I worry about how this affects the schools in nearby less wealthy neighborhoods that don 't have this option. Our teachers make about 20K more than average, so combined with smaller class sizes this means we get lots of great teachers. We also have great facilities and music and art, which other schools don't have.

Should it be illegal to create such a disparity within a public school system? Is it unconscionable to contribute or is it every parent for themself?

If you are a teacher, do you support or discourage these organizations? I know it can interfere with your job too.
posted by MiffyCLB to Education (1 answer total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: this is really chatty. Are you trying to solve a problem? It sounds like you just want to talk about this topic. -- jessamyn

 
I suspect if you live in a neighborhood that raises that much money for their schools, it is likely that most of your neighbors would just send their kids to private school if their subsidized public option wasn't available. I suspect most parents view this as a "private school at 10% of the cost" option and take the pragmatic approach. Unfortunately, the result of such an arrangement is that if it is prohibited, you'd probably end up with 90% of your neighbors switching to private school (causing little difference to the quality of the education to their kids) and 10% of your neighbors forced to stay in the unsubsidized public school (harming the quality of education to their kids) for a net harm to the community.

Would it be nicer for people to donate money to all public schools rather than just their own? Yes. However, I don't know of any way to do that without causing similar inequalities.

Ask yourself: Would you be willing to move right now to a lower income neighborhood to avoid this subsidy? If so, I admire your idealism. I lack it. If not - welcome to the gentleman's agreement.
posted by saeculorum at 7:53 AM on June 9, 2010


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