Reply to YY switches 5th grade trip from China to NYC

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The stratification is already there because not all kids are able to attend. The fundraising is only covering a third of the students' costs this year. [/quote]

Please get your facts straight - I have always understood the school to commit 100% to making sure all students who want to go can go.  So whatever fundraising has happened so far, my understanding always was - and the school's been clear I feel - that all kids who want to go will go.

The stratification comes in with regard to parents attending too.  Most of us (our family included) wouldn't feel comfortable sending our 5th grader on their own, even with chaperones.  So the stratification comes in with regard to parents who don't have the money/haven't raised the money to also send a parent, which the school understandably won't pay for.[/quote]

Man, charters are such a private, segregated school system. I thought the hurdles and logistics to even apply and attend an OOB/charter school was enough to discourage low-SES families, but this.takes.the.cake.  Talk about tale of two cities.

Out of curiosity, for those students on free and reduced lunches, the school would pony up the entire cost of the trip for the student? Or was it on them to peddle fundraising schlock in their low-income neighborhood  :roll: [/quote]

No schlock. All fundraising was done as a class (wine raffle, parent's night out, etc.) or school (gala). The cost for every needy kid was covered.[/quote]

Furthermore, the school guaranteed the cost coverage for any FARMS students.  So no, they were not out of luck just because they couldn't raise that money on their own or in fundraisers.  [/quote]

Another YY parent here.

If the school guaranteed coverage of costs for any students at all, this is the first I'm hearing of it. If a family made under a certain threshold (I believe the same threshold as is required for free and reduced lunches), there is a scholarship available totaling a few hundred dollars, and that's available through the educational travel organization that hosted the trip. Also, the fundraising did not cover the entire cost of the student trip. While the school has stated that every student who wants to go should be able to go, the school did not provide additional scholarship to supplement the fundraising and that minimal scholarship through the travel organization. It's possible that most of the stratification or all of the stratification is in fact centered at the cost of the parent trip. It's just hard to know for sure given the obvious privacy concerns and sensitivity about family finances. [/quote]

Basically it all boils down to this:  In the first 2 years of the trip (because this is the 3rd year, correct?), did any low income families who were willing to send their child without a parent NOT receive adequate funding to go?  Maybe I've misunderstood, but my understanding was that a family that could show financial hardship for sending their child would have their child's trip covered.  The big issue was families not wanting the child to go alone, although a couple of kids have gone without a parent (but of course with chaperones).  So has any child in the 1st 2 years had their family say "We can't afford to send our child" and the school didn't pay for that child's trip?[/quote]

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