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

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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][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]

If you asked the school directly whether there was additional funding for low income families beyond the scholarship and fundraising, the answer was no. Not necessarily criticizing the school for that -- there were a number of reasons for it, I think -- but I don't want to assume that everyone who did not go on the trip did so because they couldn't afford the cost of the parent trip.

Also, in response to another post above, the size of the trip this year meant less funds raised per student. It's also not clear what the fundraising total will be until many payments have already been required.

Finally, there are other costs and challenges related to getting a passport, visa, travel vaccines, etc. that may be challenging for low income families.

I'm not against the trip, by the way. Just think it's important to be clear about the financial picture. [/quote]

Wow.  I guess at this stage, after this year, the trip will be a thing of the past anyway... but if what you say is true, it rings huge huge alarms about stratification that I hadn't been aware of on this issue before.  I thought all low income students were guaranteed to be able to go.  If that was not the case, wow, I dunno that just seems horrifically unfair to low income students when pretty much even middle-income parents were struggling to raise all the money.  The model you are describing pretty much guarantees everyone in the lowest SES groups at the school will not be able to go - how else do they raise the money to go?

I'm not happy the trip is gone, but if it was this unfair, I understand that it's more fair for all if it's not a school-supported event.[/quote]

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