school auction rant

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Forgive me, and maybe I am just an old-fashioned public school educated working mom, but if I really have a problem with school auctions by private schools for operating funds. Frankly, if you need the money to run the school, then you need to charge more tuition. If the money is for financial aid for those who otherwise couldn't afford the school, then I have a different postion, it's charitable.

At both our preschool and our older child's school, auctions raise funds solely for financial aid. It was my impression that this is the case at many/most private schools in the area. Auctions that generate operating funds are often run by public school PTAs.

[Anonymous]

Ladies, let's not get into another debate between the uber-rich and the sort of rich (as somebody who pays full tuition without aid but doesn't have a wing named after me, I put myself in the latter category - I do not subscribe to the theory put forth on other threads that people who make $250K a year are solidly middle class). My view on this is I pay for everything I am asked for and I donate what I feel I can give (last year a lot; this year a little - it's a recession, after all). If the school wants me to pay more in tuition just raise tuition and I'll pay it. But, I am not going to be guilted in to spending $5,000 at the auction because somebody's math purports to show I owe it.

On the other hand, it is true that the cost of tuition doesn't cover everything, so they need annual funds for the operating budget and auction funds for scholarships (in some schools financial aid is an item in the annual budget as well, but the auction is 100% financial aid). This need exists even in expensive private schools that cost $30K a year for fundraising to cover these things (especially financial aid). So the posters who were saying they couldn't believe these schools even held auctions and fundraisers were off base, too.

[Anonymous]

I attended an auction at a local pre-school, and I have to say that I was kind of shocked by the live auction part of the event. Parents ostentatiously flaunting their wealth by outbidding each other for some small item seemed to me the opposite of the values the school purports to teach. Those values, according to my understanding of them, would be more likely to encourage an anonymous donation to the school.