Janney PTA raised $1.4 million in one year

[Anonymous]

Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/study-parent-groups-in-northwest-dc-raise-thousands-for-schools/2017/04/12/22d42ef2-1f94-11e7-a0a7-8b2a45e3dc84_story.html

[Anonymous]

Not a fan of this practice. At all.

[Anonymous]

CAP is right. These PTA budgets do help perpetuate the achievement gap.

[Anonymous]

These funds, as we all know are doing more than paying for extras, like field trips. They are used to hire classroom aides. It is out of control.

[Anonymous]

Janney will ruin it for everyone.

[Anonymous]

This data is from 3 years ago. Imagine what it is now

[Anonymous]

A very misleading amount as I know for certain the PTA did not raise half, a third, a fourth that amount! This exorbitant amount includes the budget for enrichment and after school care operations. The actual money raised by PTA is way less tha $1.4million.

[Anonymous]

This year's budget is just shy of 500k
https://www.janneyschool.org/pta/pta-budget/

[Anonymous]

I dont begrudge those schools. Title 1 schools may raise significantly less but they also get more govt dollars. Either way, the real heart of this is the commitment from parents. You could throw 1 mil at the worst performin elem in DC and I am not sure the test scores are going to jump all that much. It all comes down to what the parents are giving to the kids OUTSIDE of school unfortunately. And 1 million dollars isn't going to help that much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A very misleading amount as I know for certain the PTA did not raise half, a third, a fourth that amount! This exorbitant amount includes the budget for enrichment and after school care operations. The actual money raised by PTA is way less tha $1.4million.

CAP's source for the Janney fundraising data is the Form 990 Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax. So if it wasn't $1.39M, then Janney PTA lied on its tax return.

[Anonymous]

I am familiar with how DC funds schools - no one is going to go to bat to even the playing field and close the gap in the disparity in allocations between what DC funds per child for Janney and other non-title 1 schools.

The parent base knows it and instead of pushing for their fair share of DCPS dollars, spends their energy in other areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I dont begrudge those schools. Title 1 schools may raise significantly less but they also get more govt dollars. Either way, the real heart of this is the commitment from parents. You could throw 1 mil at the worst performin elem in DC and I am not sure the test scores are going to jump all that much. It all comes down to what the parents are giving to the kids OUTSIDE of school unfortunately. And 1 million dollars isn't going to help that much.

This is the same argument as saying that political donations do not equal influence. If big donors—to schools or politicians—weren't getting a return on their investment, they wouldn't donate the money. You can argue about the degree to which they're getting a return, but saying the return is nonexistent is silly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A very misleading amount as I know for certain the PTA did not raise half, a third, a fourth that amount! This exorbitant amount includes the budget for enrichment and after school care operations. The actual money raised by PTA is way less tha $1.4million.

CAP's source for the Janney fundraising data is the Form 990 Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax. So if it wasn't $1.39M, then Janney PTA lied on its tax return.

The number includes the gross collected for aftercare and other after school programs that parents pay for which are organized by the PTA.

They didnt lie, rather the way the number is presented was intentionally misleading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am familiar with how DC funds schools - no one is going to go to bat to even the playing field and close the gap in the disparity in allocations between what DC funds per child for Janney and other non-title 1 schools.

The parent base knows it and instead of pushing for their fair share of DCPS dollars, spends their energy in other areas.

Agreed. These schools receive as little as half of what the poorest schools receive per student. The normal ward 3 PTA budgets barely make up for that difference, but it's a heck of a lot easier than trying to bang your head against City Hall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A very misleading amount as I know for certain the PTA did not raise half, a third, a fourth that amount! This exorbitant amount includes the budget for enrichment and after school care operations. The actual money raised by PTA is way less tha $1.4million.

CAP's source for the Janney fundraising data is the Form 990 Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax. So if it wasn't $1.39M, then Janney PTA lied on its tax return.

The number includes the gross collected for aftercare and other after school programs that parents pay for which are organized by the PTA.

They didnt lie, rather the way the number is presented was intentionally misleading.

Non Janney parent here, but that totally makes sense. PTAs are often a pass through for the aftercare programs.