PTA Fees in DCPS Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our Title I school, the PTA dues are $12.

Since most of our families survive on less that $40K a year, asking them to donate $100s of dollars would be unreasonable.

It drives home the fact that even in public school in the District, education is still separate and unequal.

So do you feel that the wealthier PTA's should subsidize the poorer ones? Or should schools with poorer students receive more "state" funds per student. You need to also consider the wealthy public schools do not recieve grants from non-profits (such as the Gates fund, which gives a lot of money to DC), nor Americorps volunteers or subsidized teachers from Teach for America

New poster here... Actually yes. I do think that wealthier PTAs should subsidize poorer ones. I always thought it would be a good idea for the wealthier schools to donate a portion of their fundraising activities (e.g. 10% of all $$ made from wrapping paper sales) to poorer schools. Just an idea and a good way to teach about community-mindedness. Although I am not a religious person, the following biblical quote strikes me as particularly relevant: “For of those to whom much is given, much is required”

[Anonymous]

I'm a parent at a low income school and I think that parents shouldn't have to raise funds for classroom aides and art teachers. I think the central admin should pay for it--crazy I know.

I'm amazed and impressed by the funds the upper NW schools can raise and wouldn't presume to take a penny of your hard won fundraising efforts away.

However, if you're feeling generous, we do have an amazon wish list posted on our website:

www.thomsonelementary.org

We also have awesome bake sales!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At our Title I school, the PTA dues are $12.

Since most of our families survive on less that $40K a year, asking them to donate $100s of dollars would be unreasonable.

It drives home the fact that even in public school in the District, education is still separate and unequal.

But the Title One schools get much much more federal money and private donation funding than schools that are not title one. Our school is not Title One, and our principal, who came from Title One school was shocked at how many more resources (textbooks, computers, office supplies) and how many more staff her old school had. Its not that simple. The schools all need more.

[Anonymous]

Title I funds are up on the DCPS budget page. An overall school operating budget of 3.8 million (medium sized elementary school) gets you about $125,000 in title I money. Most of the upper NW schools raise $250,000-$400,000 through their PTAs.

Truly, all public schools in DC need more. But the children that start off with the least, get the very least at school too.

[Anonymous]

I'd have to draw the line at donating funds raised by parents to other schools. Not every parent at my kid's upper NW school is wealthy; the parents put in a lot of effort to raise that money, and there are always other project that coud be funded. Sure, maybe we could do some joint projects with a Title I school, but that's as far as I'd be willing to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It drives home the fact that even in public school in the District, education is still separate and unequal.

I don't think you're ever going to escape that. if it's not the PTA the parents give through, it will be through some other mechanism--say, youth soccer, or after-school art programs. Life in the US has inequality--some parents have more money to spend on their kids than others. It's inescapable.

[Anonymous]

I don't know, I would expect that some of these PTAs will come under closer scrutiny by the IRS in the future. The Capitol Hill Cluster Schools raise large sums, but haven't filed taxes in years. If a standard charity with similar revenue pulled something similar, the would stand to lose their status as a 501c3. In essence, we've got non profits with no board oversight and no auditing raising large sums of money in DC. It's just a matter of time before the IRS steps in.

[Anonymous]

After reading about Thompson's wish list, I bought a few books for them via Amazon, but I later got an email from Amazon saying that UPS could not deliver the books. Amazon suggested I pick up the books myself from UPS, but that would have been a huge pain, so I ended up just getting my money back from Amazon. If the Thompson poster is still checking this, you might want to look into what is going on.

[Anonymous]

I don't have a connection to Thompson, but dealing with UPS in DC has been a pain for my family. It seems likely to me that the local driver's route put Thompson's delivery after school hours, and of course, the driver used his discretion as to whether or not packages can be left without signatures. Of course, hauling to MD to collect packages oneself on weekdays is out of the question!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After reading about Thompson's wish list, I bought a few books for them via Amazon, but I later got an email from Amazon saying that UPS could not deliver the books. Amazon suggested I pick up the books myself from UPS, but that would have been a huge pain, so I ended up just getting my money back from Amazon. If the Thompson poster is still checking this, you might want to look into what is going on.

Not the Thomson poster, but that was a really nice thing for you to do.

[Anonymous]

For poster 13:58, thank you so much for thinking of Thomson students. It was very kind of you and I'm so sorry UPS gave you a hard time.

I'm a Thomson parent and I will definitely follow up.

Again, thank you and I apologize that the donation process was not simple.

[Anonymous]

I've twice donated books to Thomson through Amazon and never had any problem.