Prada Shoes or Public Schools
The dollar bill was on the sidewalk and in one swoop I grabbed it and pocketed it for our school annual fund. Every dollar counts.Our annual fund committee is comprised of parents and we count the dollars and cents carefully and often. We think of clever ways to raise money.
Money is scarce, or is it?
It surprises me how hard it is to raise money for a public school. We live in a school district in a city with no parcel tax to support our public schools. (A parcel tax was on the ballot in 2010 that would have assessed each home $120 per year to support our public schools. It didn't pass.)
Our annual fund is brand new and when we initially set our goal of $50,000 I felt a lump in my throat, "Can we make it?"
The answer is yes, we are halfway there.
I am happy that our committee never stops working. We have school-wide efforts, we make food to sell, we ask parents and community members for monthly contributions and we create interesting events where we can charge $5 a ticket.
The day I spied that lonely dollar I knew it had a home in my public school. It was a lucky day.
I often ask myself why it's so difficult to raise money for a public school. Of course we all know there are many reasons but one particular issue has been made clear to me: income inequality.
I have three specific stories to share.
The first involves recent gossip about the married billionaire Jeff Bezos who has been having an affair with Lauren Sanchez, a television anchor and helicopter pilot who is married to the talent agent Patrick Whitesell, a multi-millionaire.
In one of the many tabloid articles capitalizing on their supposed affair I read a story about Sanchez who had been on a shopping trip with a friend. Sanchez was about to buy $12,000 worth of shoes when the friend asked if she should first ask her husband.
According to the article Sanchez called him and he approved. It was definitely her lucky day if shoes are your thing.
The second story hits closer to home. One of the charter schools situated in our Altadena community has almost reached $100,000 for their annual fund. Wow, it's not even the end of the academic year.
And the third scenario involves a wall. Trump wanted $5.7 billion dollars for a border wall that we the people would have paid for.
There are days when at least one of these stories enters my mind and when they do I am troubled. Why? The public school is in the public sector, a place where democracy is continually invigorated by our participation. Every person counts.
Raising money for one is a unique experience for me because when I went to public school in the 1970s there were no annual funds, we had tax money.
During the Vietnam war, there was a ubiquitous bumper sticker that illustrated income inequality:
"It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber."
At a deep level I understand that we aren't just raising money for a public school, we are supporting one of our democratic institutions. Our public schools (not charter, not private) are places where we all come together and learn how to be in a democratic republic.
Every public school counts on us and it will be a lucky day when our public schools get all the money they need.
I remember someone was really offended when I referred to the effect Prop 13 had. They just knew it as something their parents had voted for to stave off having to sell their house. I said it had the effect of causing parcel taxes to come into being so that people could pay more for their children and less for poor folks’ children, which are in urban areas likely Black and brown children.
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