Parents’ Aid Is Crucial to Schools

In a perfect world, parents would not have to raise funds for public schools to do their job. But fiscal crises have forced cuts in school budgets, and parents have been pressed into service to raise or donate money to maintain programs.

The increased reliance on parental fundraising has confronted school administrators in Santa Monica-Malibu, Capistrano Unified and other districts with a vexing dilemma: Is it fair to permit parents at one school to pay for an educational program for their children if parents at another school in the district cannot afford to do the same?

The issue is not black-and-white. On the one hand, public schools are indeed “public trusts,” and we would all like to see districts provide the same quality education to all of their community’s children, rich or poor. Yet how can school officials say no to parents who step forward and raise money when state funding is clearly inadequate to do all that is required? And if we do say no, what’s to stop those parents from leaving the system?

Parents have always supported their local schools financially. Bake sales, silent auctions and magazine drives have been a traditional part of the public school landscape. But fundraising has recently taken on new proportions. Parent support can now be the difference between life and death for a threatened educational program. In Capistrano Unified, we came face to face with this dilemma late last spring after our board of education voted to save $1 million by not participating in the third-grade component of the state’s voluntary class-size reduction program for grades K-3.

In response, a PTA leader from one of our 36 elementary schools asked whether she and other parents could attempt to raise money to save the program at her school. Our attorney said such an initiative was legal, but we were nevertheless troubled because we knew that parents in less affluent schools in our district would face a far more difficult challenge to raise funds.

Reluctantly, I decided to permit the parents to undertake a voluntary effort, fully aware that I might have to face the issue of explaining to our community why third-grade class-size reduction would occur at only some of our schools in 2003-2004. Much to my relief, parents districtwide came up with just enough money to keep the program running for this year in all schools.

However, knowing that a similar parent effort for 2004-2005 could fall short and bring the equity question front and center, our trustees decided to address the issue proactively. In September 2003, the school board said it would accept money from parents to pay for a core academic program only if the funds were pooled and distributed districtwide. Trustees declared we were a single school district with educational responsibilities for all of our students. Funds raised at individual schools that create significant disparity among district schools violate the principle of fairness.

Most parents responded positively to the board’s direction. Parents have raised almost the amount needed to cover the program districtwide for the next school year. The feared reaction -- that wealthier parents would cease being interested in fundraising if proceeds did not solely benefit their own children’s school -- has been limited.

Some now ask: Why stop at district boundaries? Doesn’t the principle of equity require that we spread the wealth from rich districts to poor ones as well? No, because it won’t work. Parents generally donate to help their children -- not to help the school system as a whole. If their gifts are diluted to that degree, they’ll stop giving. In any event, the gifts amount to only about 1% of a typical district’s operating budget.

Instead of discouraging parent participation, we should be pressing the governor and Legislature to equalize basic funding among districts, where per-pupil allocations from the state can vary as much as $1,000 a student. And we should face the fact that California remains mired in 44th place among all states in the per-pupil assistance it provides. The real issue is proper public support of public education.

James A. Fleming is superintendent of the Capistrano Unified School District.