<p>No matter how equal you make a school, there are still going to be some students that excel and others that do not. Having access to the extras, or not, is not going to change that at all. There are kids from the worst schools in the nation that rise above and get into very good schools and there are PLENTY of kids in these top schools that do NOTHING. And for fear of sounding like a broken record, until you deal with the underlying issues, nothing is going to change in any school.</p>
<p>I assumed this thread was going to be about individual parents who contribute a lot to a school and attempt to buy influence in the school as a result. That’s the real problem in our area – including a wealthy doctor’s wife who hosts lots of fundraisers at her extremely large house and who has way too much influence in the school as a result. Not everyone likes her and some people are a bit afraid of her, but so far, no one’s been able to figure out what to do about it.</p>
<p>Nope, not that at all.</p>
<p>As mathmom and charlieshm noted, it is a “dance”. It will never be equal and all people will never have the same learning capacity or drive or initiative. Outcomes for every kid will not be the same. However, I know from seeing it that there is a curve of sharing resources of time, money, foundation vounteering, mentoring etc. where everyone in the district does better without draining those who have more. It doesn’t mean that private funds are pooled and completely flat across a district or that parents are “forced” to read nightime stories to the kids whose parents work swing shift and can’t be there. The point is, to have a thriving community where all or most neighborhoods and schools have some baseline standard helps the whole community. My housing values are higher, my streets are safer, my kids have a better highschool experience with more academic options and my quality of life is better in my community with some degree of pulling together.
We are very fortunate that our district funds band and orchestra for all 5th graders at all schools. When budgets were being cut the district sent out a great survey where you were not allowed to submit unless your cuts equalled the needed amount. Parents voted to save music for everyone. What that means when you get to highschool is that you still have enough participants to have a marching band, jazz bands, orchestras etc. That common good approach makes it richer for everyone. There are still kids who work harder and do better. There are still the soloists and drum majors and the kids who just barely show up. But . . . if there wasn’t a band at all my kid couldn’t be a drum major.</p>
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<p>Curious as to what the parents voted to cut?</p>
<p>The easiest cuts were turning the heat down and consolidating bus routes to save money. They raised sports fees to $100 from $25 with a yearly cap per family and scholarships for those who are free and reduced lunch. They increased class size by 1-2 students at the high school level to save smaller classes at the elementary level. I don’t remember the rest off the top of my head. I’ll have to try to go back and check. It was a great exercise, though.</p>
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<p>What I see in our public school district, which is also the public school district that I attended decades ago, is that back in the day state funding for schools meant that every public school, rich or poor, started with a great bottom line of resources. The bathrooms were mostly clean and at least always had paper towels and toilet paper. There were school buses, which was helpful both for students who would otherwise have to walk through gang territory and for students who lived in remote wealthy areas with no public transportation. There were music classes, starting in elementary school, and choir and art. And there were supplies for all of these things. Teachers didn’t have to spend their own money to buy paper and pencils. There were district-wide pullout programs for gifted children and for children with special needs. Each school had a full-time nurse. High school class sizes were between 30 and 40, and everyone had a chair to sit at and a desk to sit at. </p>
<p>And so on. Your experience and your own district may vary.</p>
<p>So when we talk about “fabulous” resources, I’m talking about how I now make donations in order to pay for things that were once part and parcel of education in my area. I’m not talking about how wealthy schools can more easily afford smartboards and swimming pools.</p>
<p>My own high school had dirty bathrooms, classes of 30+, no gifted programs, we bought our own school supplies (pencils and paper), don’t remember nurse, and we all walked, drove or took the public bus. This was considered a pretty good school back then, at least in that state. Maybe we think we need more than we do.</p>
<p>*The poorer schools here operate on almost DOUBLE what our per pupil spending is in our district—and they still have a 45% graduation rate… *</p>
<p>Right…because you really can’t “level the playing field” with dollars. These kids will still have the same parents.</p>
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<p>True. But when you take a playing field that’s already tilted, because of the socioeconomic and educational background of the parents, and then tilt it still farther, with unequal resources, then your make it even harder for a kid to overcome the obstacles.</p>
<p>Money isn’t the solution to the problem but it does help. In my non-scientific observation, schools that “do” better have parents and adults in the community that are willing to give time to help students do better. Time spent helping with homework, reading to them, giving the kids whose parents aren’t present (for whatever) reason get the kind of support that most of children have had.</p>
<p>I volunteer twice a week with my high school daughter at an after-school program in an extremely poor disadvantaged area. A lot of these kids are crack-babies, parents are in prison or dead or dying. Its a sad state of affairs but I have to tell you these kids are not dumb, they just need the extra time and caring to let them know that they can make it. Some of them unfortunately will never make it out of the “hood” but for the few who do its worth the time spent. Money will never replace what caring individuals can do, it takes a village.</p>
<p>Having interacted with the students and teachers at a low socioeconomic-area urban school, in the capacity as a volunteer tutor, I can tell you first hand that more “stuff” donated by fundraising is not going to solve the problems in these schools.</p>
<p>As for the involved parents in middle-class schools who resent that the neighboring school has parents with deeper pockets: sour grapes.</p>