Parents Divided Over Proposal to Pool Fundraising

Parents at Webster Elementary School in Malibu amassed about $300,000 in donations last year to pay for such extras as classroom aides and art, computer and gardening teachers.

The PTA at Will Rogers Elementary School in Santa Monica was lucky to raise about $85,000 to pay for storytellers and other enrichment -- and to cover the unpaid cafeteria bills of children from poor immigrant families.

Though both schools are part of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, a demographic gulf divides them. A proposal to narrow that divide has sharply split parents in the two seaside communities.

At a school board meeting today, Supt. John Deasy plans to propose an “equity fund.” Under the plan, 15% of private cash gifts to individual schools -- or 15% of the value of non-cash gifts, such as computers -- would be put into a common pot. The proposal is being closely watched by education officials statewide because unlike some voluntary efforts to redistribute donations, this program would be mandatory.

The money would be distributed annually to the district’s 16 schools, under a formula that would be weighted toward lower-performing schools, including four elementary schools that receive federal Title I funds because of high percentages of low-income families. Deasy’s plan is being applauded by some parents and derided by others.

“It smells like a tax and it acts like a tax,” said Susan Holley, an attorney with two children at Juan Cabrillo Elementary School in Malibu. “He’s basically saying we have to become unpaid workers for the district to raise money because they can’t get enough from the state.”

In his proposal, Deasy calls the equity fund “a proposed solution to one of the most vexing issues we face: the inequitable distribution of resources available to the school community.”

“Some schools [raise] more than $1,000 per pupil extra, and some have $17 per pupil,” Deasy said. “When it comes to private donations, those enhance opportunities for kids in a nonequal way.”

The equity fund concept is backed by Jose Escarce, the school board president, although he says the policy almost certainly “will be tweaked.”

Like other economically diverse districts, Santa Monica-Malibu, with nearly 12,900 students, has been grappling with equity issues for years. About a year ago, Deasy said, when the district faced the first round of serious cuts in state funding, the board decided that if a program were cut districtwide, it would not be restored in one school until it was restored in all. That was intended to bar parents in more affluent areas from privately restoring programs for some students while pupils elsewhere went without.

The equity fund would further restrict donors, many parents said.

“We don’t think the district is entitled to private funds,” said Sandy Thacker, co-president of Webster’s PTA. “We feel ... this will decrease fund-raising across the district by alienating parents or driving some out of the district.”

She and other equity fund opponents said they would rather see a voluntary effort, with all schools engaging in direct-donation drives. Escarce said he was open to a combined approach to district fund-raising that would include voluntary efforts.

Maureen Bradford, principal of Will Rogers Elementary, said she had attended meetings about the proposal where parents from more affluent schools had offered to provide fund-raising tips to her school’s parents, many of whom were working more than one job to keep food on the table.

The parents quoted the old saying: “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” Bradford said, “We know how to fish; we don’t have any water here.”

At Franklin Elementary School on Santa Monica’s tony Montana Avenue, parents have engaged in heated debates over the equity fund idea.

“There is quite a bit of opposition at Franklin,” said Rebecca Soladay Kennerly, who has a kindergartner and a third-grader at the school. “Frankly, it annoys me. Santa Monica is a very diverse community. People don’t think of it that way, but it is. The students who go to the Title I schools ... deserve the exact opportunities that my children have, and I would like to be able to contribute to that.”

Monique Normandin, a fourth-grade teacher at Franklin, said parents have raised more than $200,000 a year through carnivals, silent auctions and family events. Much of the money was used for classroom aides, a cost covered for Title I schools like Will Rogers, but not for Franklin.

If the school board were to approve the equity fund, Normandin said, “it means we’ll have to push more to stay where we’re at.” Under the weighted formula, the school would expect to get back about a quarter of its 15% contribution to the fund.

Few districts have established programs to redistribute parent-raised funds. In 1995, Portland established such a policy after Oregon schools had suffered years of steep cutbacks. One-third of any donations that schools earmark to buy teacher time gets pooled. The nonprofit Portland Schools Foundation distributes the funds as challenge grants.

“We’ve seen great results,” said Cynthia Guyer, the foundation’s executive director, with many schools showing marked improvement in literacy and math scores.

Jeannie Oakes, a UCLA professor who is an authority on educational equity, said the district’s dissension “is a very sad thing.”

“The only serious solution to this problem,” she said, “is a revamping of the California funding system.”