When Public Education Is No Longer Free
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GooglePublic education, which is a free service guaranteed by the California Constitution, is no longer free. According to the Los Angeles Times, various school districts are asking parents to fork over cash in an effort to hold onto teachers after proposed budget cuts by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"South Orange County families are being urged to donate $400 per student to save the jobs of 266 teachers in the Capistrano Unified School District.
Parents at Long Beach's Longfellow Elementary are among countless statewide who are launching fundraising foundations.
Bay Area parents launched a campaign featuring children standing in trash cans; the theme is 'Public Education Is Too Valuable to Waste...'
'Public education is free, but an excellent public education is not free at this point,' said Janet Berry, president of the Davis Schools Foundation, which recently launched the Dollar-a-Day campaign, urging citizens of the city near Sacramento to donate $365 per child, grandchild or student acquaintance."
Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting about $4.8 billion in education this year and next. In the meantime, about 20,000 teachers, librarians, nurses and other school positions have been alerted that they will be fired.
In an effort to save money, school districts are looking at increasing class sizes, closing down some schools and eliminating programs such as International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement. Don't worry, sports will also be eliminated so this budget crisis affects everyone. Everyone except those who live in wealthy school districts and can raise the funds to keep their programs. More from the Los Angeles Times:
"In the Anaheim City School District, four of every five students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, a poverty indicator. A district volunteer-led foundation raises about $50,000 annually through employee contributions and fundraisers to send all sixth-graders to overnight science camp in the San Bernardino Mountains.
The Anaheim parents are never asked to do more than volunteer for small fundraisers, such as bake sales or selling gift wrap or entertainment books.
'It's not even a consideration to be able to ask them for money,' said district spokeswoman Suzi Brown. "When we look at what other districts are doing, they've got foundations that have paid staff. We don't compete with that at all. We are in a completely different league.'"
Once again we are short-changing our children to make up for budget shortfalls. How are your school districts dealing with this crisis?
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Public Education Has Never Been Free
I understand the frustration for parents dealing with poor public education. However, we as a society and especially as (local) communities need to remember that public education has never been "free". Public education is financed by public tax dollars. Every working person in this country paying taxes (whether they have children in the public schools or not) should be outraged at our local, state, and federal leaders for the horrible decisions and actions they are taking that cost us, our children, and the future of this country. Rather than donating more money to save jobs, schools, and local programs, people need to protest these "budget cuts," poor spending, and the misallocation of funds by not electing officials who don't value our children as much as we do. As parents, we need to prioritize. That is, what's more important-nice cars, big houses, and flatscreen tvs, or our children? We need to start redistributing our "budgets"-put our children in private schools or home school.
We also need to be outraged at the type of education American children receive in our public schools. We are paying for their educations and we have no real control over what they are taught, how they are taught, or who teaches them. As a country, we have been throwing money at public education for years. We need to take action and start making real demands on our political leaders at the local, state, and federal levels as well as the education administrators and teachers. The answer is not just putting more money in. The administrators and local leaders will mis-spend this raised money and the people will still lose their jobs, and our children will still receive poor educations.
Teachers & Parents are Martyrs
I also think we need to stop accepting these budget cuts. Everyone from the teachers to the PTA to the CTA (at times, not this time), has been much too accommodating re: budget cuts.
These days we need more staff on the yards, PE programs, nutrition programs, better science programs, music, art, and foreign languages as well as math and English. NCLB, in addition to many harmful effects, has diverted way too many funds to just math and English. All the politicians *say* they want to improve education to "compete in the global economy," but the Republican rhetoric is "blame the teachers/give money to charter schools." (And so much of the public sucks this message up like honey. "Of course *bad* teachers are to blame for low test scores and the achievement gap! How true!") A number of Bush cronies have made a mint this way. The Democrats, not having a back bone and afraid of being called tax-happy, let the Republican view dominate.
It is we, the people, who must stand up and fight for our rights--in this case, the right to high-quality public education. The Republican-Democratic political machine isn't going to change until we make them change.
I personally am getting tired of all the fund raising.
When Public Education Is No Longer Free
Education here has never been free if you paid your taxes. Part of the problem is the constant decrease in taxes being collected and the distribution of those tax dollars to defense rather than our kids. We need to wake up voters to the fact that we have always paid for our children's education and until we increase taxes and tell the government how we want those dollars spent, education like most other social services, will continue to be paid for with bake sales and by PTG staff and principals with their hands out.
My daughters school is always asking for money and we constantly make donations to hers and other schools in our area. What we also do is make our voices heard to our local representatives. Revoke Prop 13 and watch our schools improve.
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