A Back-to-School Ritual That Drains the Pocketbook

Spread out on our dining room table for well over a week, the many color-coded sheets of 8 1/2-by-11-inch paper were a nagging reminder of yet another back-to-school ritual that needed tending to--and soon.

The papers arrived as efficiently packaged missives from the schools my kids will enter in a week and a half. There were the usual emergency cards to be filled out, “home language” surveys to be completed, bell schedules to post, and pages of dress codes and student-conduct rules to be read and digested.

But there were also picture sign-up forms, P.E. uniform cost notices, order blanks for yearbooks and student activity cards, instructions for paying in advance for school lunches, and several donation appeals for assorted worthy educational causes. All were evidence--as if any parent of a child between the ages of 5 and 18 needed any more--that back-to-school time is also dig-into-the-wallet-and-open-the-checkbook time.

It also marked the start of what seems like a nonstop September-to-June Fund-Raising Season. Our local elementary school’s Parent Teacher Organization invariably turns its first meeting of the school year into one big solicitation session, with the various fund-raising “chairs” rising one by one to tout their particular moneymaking scheme.

One mom I know, feeling increasingly guilty about her two youngsters constantly asking tapped-out neighbors and relatives to buy wrapping paper, raffle tickets, magazine subscriptions, T-shirts and candy, hollered “uncle!” last September by writing the PTO a check. In an accompanying letter, she explained that this donation was how her family would fulfill its duty from now on; her children would not be returning any more sales packets to school.

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It’s not that we parents resent helping out; quite the contrary. Most I know are well aware that the public schools need and deserve our help, as contributions to education foundations attest. We know all about tight school budgets and how, despite the hefty uptick in state education funding, California remains below the national average in the amount it spends per pupil. We know that an investment in our children’s schools is a good bet for securing their futures. We know that good public schools help keep our communities viable and our property values climbing.

And we certainly can see that whatever we may shell out for art programs, libraries or new computers pales in comparison to the tuitions we would be paying at private schools.

So, aside from some mild grumbling about how lab fees and field trip charges don’t seem to jibe with that part of the state Education Code that stipulates a “free” education, we unhesitatingly spring for the paper, pens, calculators, scissors, glue sticks, earthquake preparedness kits and other items on the “need lists” that arrive in late summer with the school registration packets.

It’s just that it all adds up.

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When I finally get around to dealing with that pile of papers on the dining room table, I will be writing checks in the following amounts: $17 for a P.E. uniform, $65 for my budding athlete’s bus transportation to cross-country meets, $55 for a yearbook (a real bargain, I am told by a friend who lives in another district), $35 for a student activity sticker and day-planner, $10 for a science-lab fee.

I’ll probably also pony up $20 or so for a Mira Costa Mustangs sweatshirt to help my freshman get into the spirit of things, make a deposit to his prepaid lunch fund, fork over $20 for a card that provides a donation to the school while entitling my son to discounts on pretzels and hamburgers, and spend at least $25 on school pictures.

I’ll also want to do my part with at least a little something to the Parent Teacher Student Assn. (on top of the modest membership dues) and the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation. And how could I turn a deaf ear to that plaintive plea (“We need just a little to make our vision a reality”) from the library, which is looking to beef up its CD-ROM supply?

And that’s just for my son. I expect I’ll be matching those sums for his twin sister, who is heading to Redondo Union High School in the neighboring district. (For you parents who want more “choice” among public schools, know that there is a downside.)

On behalf of parents like me, who did not factor back-to-school expenses into the household budget, I have a suggestion for the folks who run districts: Set up a savings program, just like those Christmas Clubs that credit unions are so fond of, in which parents can deposit small sums throughout the year.

That way we’ll not be caught with empty pockets in the fall.

Hey, the schools could even take their cut of the interest fee.

Voila! Another fund-raiser!