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[quote=Anonymous]To 23:10 - I am the poster who a day or two ago said she hoped her older kid forgot to turn in the scholarship auction check so she could tear it up.  I want to say this to you quite clearly:

You do not have to justify why you have aid and why your kid "deserves" it.

There is a four or so year cycle that plays out on DCUM where everyone comes out and complains about aid and who gets it (and who abuses it), followed the next year or so by some of this tax nonsense and complaining about tuition increases and how schools manage their costs, then things settle down for awhile, and then it starts all over again.  What bothers me are the posts (and this is completely a part of the cycle) when those whose children receive aid (actually, I am not sure that is true; maybe it is people who wish their kids would receive aid) attack the people like me who actually believe in aid and contribute to it.  Over the years it has been:  your kids are boring filler kids who add nothing; you lawyers and doctors are not the people they want just the ones whose money they grudgingly accept; your kids don't have as high of an IQ as ours, your kids will have no values or morals unless they go to school with children whose families earn less than $200K a year (that one always makes me laugh since I grew up in a family that makes less than my secretary at work makes), and so on.  My favorite this year:  four figure braggard.  That one is almost as good as the time I got accused of signing up to be an organ donor just so I could brag about it on DCUM.  I realize these people are really just one or two crackpots and not the view of the broader private school community.  By the way, for that poster, I would like to point out that building a wing doesn't actually do anything for the scholarship fund, but why confuse her with the facts?

Let me say this quite clearly.  I believe that part of being a member of a school community is to do what you can for that community.  That means we volunteer and give to the annual fund and support the auction.  The other thing it means is that I trust the same people to whom I send my children every day to make appropriate decisions and to be good stewards of the scholarship funds they raise.  I do not intend to put myself in that role - who has the time or the experience, really, to second guess aid decisions?  I sure don't even if I wanted to, which I don't.  I also like that, in the recent downturn, the focus on helping our community retain families already in it made me realize why relatively high earning families (otherwise known as the middle class on DCUM) might need aid.  If you are in the community, then you belong there.  That is my view.  I don't fly speck admissions decisions either, but maybe I don't have enough free time on my hands.

It doesn't sound like your family is at my children's school (it's not in DC) and that's too bad, in a way.  I would want you to know that there is somebody who gives money to the scholarship fund who is very glad that your child has it and doesn't begrudge it.  I am sure, though, that the donors at your school feel the same way I do, and that the community appreciates all you do to volunteer and for the annual fund.[/quote]

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