Arl parents - how much did you give to the school last year?

[Anonymous]

Did not grow up/attend school in the US but now has kids in APS ES - I was surprised to learn while reading another message board that we parents are *expected* to give money to school - this from a poster claiming to be a HS teacher...

We make $150K/yr so just above county avg I believe, and we do give money whenever the class parents collect them, and usually chip in at the high end of the suggested amounts which I interpret as "meeting the expectations". What we often opt out are PTA fund raisers, raffle tickets and such. So it really doesn't add up too much - I'm pretty sure it's less than $100/yr. Is this at the low-end regardless our HHI?

I'm curious to learn how other families decide how much to give to school. And do you give even when not asked for. Tks!

BTW here's an excerpt of the post I read:

...parents, speaking broadly, don't give money to the school (whether middle class or poor) and don't care much about sports or school community. Instead, they spend lots of money on private instruction...

[Anonymous]

bump