Rising cost of public school

[Deleted]

For City Parents, Frustration Over Rising Cost of Public School


Michael Nagle for The New York TimesEllen Goldstein, walking her 7-year-old sons, Nathaniel, left, and Peter, to P.S. 130 in Brooklyn, spent about $700 this school year.

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June 25, 2012, 9:24 p.m.

By Kyle Spencer


School budget cuts, rising expenses and grander ambitions for student activities have driven up the cost of sending a child to a New York City public school. Earlier this spring, SchoolBook asked parents to tell us about their school-related spending. Journalists followed up on the hundreds of responses we received, resulting in a series of reports on SchoolBook, in The New York Times and on WNYC. You can find previous reports here.

Ellen Goldstein, the mother of first-grade twins at Public School 130 in Brooklyn, recalls with a twinge of nostalgia certain items that came home from school this year. There was the all-about-fish book, the Popsicle picture frames and two tissue-paper roses for Mother’s Day — all made by her sons.

What Ms. Goldstein, 46, will not miss plucking from her children’s backpacks are the seemingly endless requests for money and supplies that also came home from their small school on the border of Kensington and Windsor Terrace.

It began in September, Ms. Goldstein said, when she and her 6-year-olds lugged in $300 worth of construction paper, index cards, markers and crayons requested by their teachers. Soon, she was regularly receiving Scholastic booklets and permission slips for trips to bowling alleys and pizza parlors that required $5, $6 and $7 to be stuffed into envelopes. The school also organized two photo drives, including one in which she was sent key chains and bookmarks with images of her children on them.

Unable to say no, she spent close to $90 — and that was in addition to the $90 for the first drive.

All told, Ms. Goldstein expects to have spent around $700 by the time the school year ends on Wednesday.

“I am completely sympathetic to why they have to do this,” she said. “But it really is surprising that we are being asked to give so much.”

New York City public school parents disagree on many things: the benefits of charter schools, the merits of gifted and talented programs, and what to do with failing schools. But as another academic year comes to a close, there is one thing many seem to agree on. As a result of several years of budget cuts, increasingly ambitious PTA’s and shifting ideas about who should foot the bill for public education, having a child in public school now involves a staggering amount of wallet-opening, with every year seeming to bring more by way of financial demands.

According to dozens of interviews and submissions from more than 400 public school parents to SchoolBook, the education blog of The New York Times, classroom supplies can cost $400. Fifth-grade graduation dues can be $95. Elementary-school yearbooks go for $30. At some Manhattan schools, it is no longer deemed excessive for a class parent to hand a teacher a $1,000 gift card as an end-of-year thank you, even though Education Department regulations prohibit teachers from accepting personal gifts.

And the days of the free class trip are more or less over: a third-grade overnight to a nearby campsite can cost $120, and for internationally minded high school students wishing to join classmates and a teacher in far-flung locales, $3,500 is not unusual.

Tina Manis, the mother of a sixth grader at New Voices School of Academic and Creative Arts in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, who spent $400 on school supplies this year, called the need for so much parental aid “criminal.”

“This is public school,” she said of New Voices. “They didn’t even have rulers or tape.”

An Education Department spokeswoman, Deidrea Miller, said that public school parents had paid for many of these items for years, and that assistance was available for those who could not.

But parents said that in recent years, they had noticed an increase in the sheer number of demands and the dollar amounts expected of them.

Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of education and history at New York University, said that by demanding more financial support from parents, the city’s PTAs, teachers and administrators were inadvertently altering long-held ideals about public education being free. “I don’t begrudge the people who are doing this,” he said. “But what they now have is a kind of suggested tuition.”

To raise money, many schools no longer make do with just one photo drive, but host two or three during the school year. Some, like Public School 41 in Greenwich Village, solicit the services of expensive professional photographers and ask them to do family portraits as a fund-raiser for $150 apiece.

And Naomi Cohn, the mother of a senior at Hunter College High School on the Upper East Side, has spent, along with her daughter, more than $580 on senior-year expenses — including $112 for the gift seniors gave to the school; $230 for the cap, gown, yearbook and diploma; $140 for a prom ticket; and $100 for a bus to cart her daughter and her friends around on the night of the event. When it came time for Ms. Cohn, a lawyer who was recently unemployed for two years, to respond to the PTA’s $1,200 suggested donation, she gave far less, with only a little bit of guilt.

“I might be more sensitive than other people,” she said. “But when I received those letters, it made me feel bad.”

[Deleted]

I feel like I could have written this article. Every week there was a stupid fundraiser (dinner at chick-fil-a or any other restaurant), requests for paper, etc... and I live in an affluent district. One school in our district the PTO is buildilng a concession stand/bathroom for the athletic fields. The middle school we are zoned for raised $300k+ this year for things that other schools in our district already have like white boards.

[IIOY]

This isn't purely a public school phenomenon. My DD attends a not-inexpensive private school and we were were deluged with requests for money all year long. By January I was fit to be tied over the volume of requests.

Interestingly, when I questioned some of my friends whose children attend public school in our district how often they were asked for money, they said it was infrequent. At least our exorbitant taxes are doing some good.

[Deleted]

When we lived in Cambridge we were never asked for anything. Not even pencils, here it is a different story. I don't know if it is because the city was spending $18k/per pupil in cambridge and it was a Title 1 school vs here where we spend about $8/k per pupil.

[tacokick]

When have field trips ever been free?

[Deleted]

Jun 26, 2012 6:21:28 GMT -5 tacokick said:

When have field trips ever been free?

i don't remember paying for them in Cambridge.

I do remember having plenty of field trips in elementary school where we walked to a historic house or museum, etc.

[lys]

Parents need to practice the word "NO" since that is part of the problem.

[IIOY]

Jun 26, 2012 7:04:11 GMT -5 lys said:

Parents need to practice the word "NO" since that is part of the problem.

Easier said than done, especially if "no" means your child can't participate in activities with the other students.

With that said, why would a school take kids on field trips to bowling alleys and pizza joints? My DD's field trips were educational endeavors.

[tacokick]

Jun 26, 2012 6:31:13 GMT -5 @septimus said:

Jun 26, 2012 6:21:28 GMT -5 tacokick said:

When have field trips ever been free?

i don't remember paying for them in Cambridge.

I do remember having plenty of field trips in elementary school where we walked to a historic house or museum, etc.

Weird. As a kid we always paid, at least for transportation if it was to a free zoo or something.

[Deleted]

Jun 26, 2012 6:13:36 GMT -5 IIOY said:

This isn't purely a public school phenomenon. My DD attends a not-inexpensive private school and we were were deluged with requests for money all year long. By January I was fit to be tied over the volume of requests.

Ditto. My son is going to a catholic preschool two mornings a week this fall and I was amazed at the lengthy school supply list we are expected to provide on top of the tuition and I know the school does a ton of fundraisers as well.

[BNL2]

The schools ask because they know parents will pay. Poorer schools typically don't have as many fundraisers because they know the parents can't afford to contribute. Of course, poorer schools also don't have the fun activities that the affluent schools do, so there is a trade off.

A co-worker and I were recently talking about this. Our job requires us to work in many schools across our district so we get to see the differences in school cultures. We also will be allowed to enroll our kids in any school in the district because we live out of district and don't have a "home school." Anyway, we were discussing how our measly salaries wouldn't allow us to keep up with the fundraisers in the affluent schools, but we wouldn't want our kids to miss out on all the fun stuff those students get have. At the same time, we admitted that bowling parties and clown visits aren't exactly educational needs. We ended the discussion still in limbo on what we would do with any future children.

I believe it will take parents as a collective group to say " these activities are not important and we won't contribute to them" for the donation requests to stop. If most parent keep giving, the schools will continue to assume that the parents see these activities as worthwhile.

ETA: I don't mean to imply that schools are being wasteful with money given by parents. If they don't have to pay for things like paper and crayons, they can provide things like educational software and games for classrooms. I don't think the answer is to stop all parental contributions, but there should be a line drawn.

[terpsfan]

"And Naomi Cohn, the mother of a senior at Hunter College High School on the Upper East Side, has spent, along with her daughter, more than $580 on senior-year expenses — including $112 for the gift seniors gave to the school; $230 for the cap, gown, yearbook and diploma; $140 for a prom ticket; and $100 for a bus to cart her daughter and her friends around on the night of the event."

This doesn't sound all that crazy for senior year. That probably as much as I remember spending almost 20 years ago. Senior year is an expensive year, and she's not even adding in college application fees, etc.

[sunshine608]

Jun 26, 2012 6:21:28 GMT -5 tacokick said:

When have field trips ever been free?

When we moved to GA we were tolf field trips were free but we were given a "suggested donation" amount. Students who did not pay were still allowed to go on the trip- they just asked the parents who did pay to pay more.

I don't know if it was district or state rules, but they said they couldn't prevent a student from going on a field trip because they didn't pay.

[Deleted]

Jun 26, 2012 8:04:14 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

When my kid attended Goddard School, there were always a ton of fundraising things and a classroom fee.

Aren't Goddard's a for-profit chain?

[Melissa W.]

Jun 26, 2012 7:04:11 GMT -5 lys said:

Parents need to practice the word "NO" since that is part of the problem.

Exactly. If you value the field trips then put your money towards that and skip the other fund raisiers. Scholastic comes home every month. You don't have to buy from them. The fundraisers for bread/yankee candle/etc. are all optional. You don't have to do them.

[UMaineTeach]

I think of it more as the school providing a variety of options to take your money. Cut across demographics and interest groups with your fundraising to hit the most people. Candles, books, frozen pizza, school supplies, playground equipment, and bottle drives can all be different people.

I also kind of see the book orders as more a benefit to the home to get cheap books, rather than for the teacher to make money.

[Melissa W.]

Don't the teachers get points for books if you order? It isn't like they make anything off the Scholastic order.

[UMaineTeach]

yes, they get points for free books and I think there is other bigger stuff if you save points forever.

[noonecareswhoiam]

One of the Chicago public schools in a wealthy neighborhood has a $2,500 "suggested donation" that I hear is pretty much mandatory. I believe it pays for electives (language and art). So the school-supplies shopping list isn't included.

[laurenpetro]

here's an idea: don't buy the shit they send home. grace had 2 picture sessions (we bought one) and about 12 fundraisers. we participated in 2. i got my Yankee Candle fix and bought the art project stuff (which is my favorite fund raiser i've ever seen). done.

and up here "real" class trips have never been free. we haven't paid for one yet because all grace's trips have been to either the park or the library which they walk to, but beyond that you have to pay.

[NitaX]

Jun 26, 2012 9:11:21 GMT -5 Melissa W. said:

Jun 26, 2012 7:04:11 GMT -5 lys said:

Parents need to practice the word "NO" since that is part of the problem.

Exactly. If you value the field trips then put your money towards that and skip the other fund raisiers. Scholastic comes home every month. You don't have to buy from them. The fundraisers for bread/yankee candle/etc. are all optional. You don't have to do them.

The problem is that the fundraisers themselves are too frequent. Our city school district previously had a policy where the schools were allowed to only do two fundraisers a year. I don't think it is the policy anymore and I know it's not the policy for the county school system. The fundraisers go for so many things - new play equipment, new gym equipment, new library books - all things that honestly the district should pay for, not the parents.

Let me also add the fraud component, you have a PTA/PTO/Athletic Booster raising funds and then you hear that so and so lined his/her pockets with the money. Those funds should be well accounted for, but sometimes they aren't. And how do you the parent know? You don't until you hear about it on the local news.

Don't get me started on the Cap and Gown fees because we just went through this at my office. TN law states that school fees can be asked for but not required for certain things - so if the field trip is directly tied to a class lesson or curriculum, the parents are not obligated to pay for the field trip. The schools can pay for the trips via Title 1 funds or some other funding set aside. But, it's very complicated to the principals and every year we have to go over this crap again. My colleagues had a fun time with the cap and gown madness.

[NitaX]

Jun 26, 2012 9:21:52 GMT -5 Melissa W. said:

Don't the teachers get points for books if you order? It isn't like they make anything off the Scholastic order.

It typically benefits the library. If you order the Scholastic books, then the schools gets so many points toward the purchase of new books for the school's library.

[mominatrix]

It's a huge frustration here, the imbalances in PTA funding.

So... here's what we're looking at.

When the girl starts kindergarten in the fall, because we aren't Free/Reduced Lunch Eligible, and because the school where she goes isn't >55% Free/Reduced Lunch Eligible kids, we'll be paying $270/month for full day kindergarten. That's to the district. For public school.

On top of that, there's the PTA stuff.

Now, there are schools in our neighborhood where the PTA funds crazy amounts of stuff. We aren't talking about $ for a field trip, we're talking about money for teacher salaries (because they want art or music or a foreign language that isn't funded by the district) or the purchase of curriculum materials (i.e. one of our area school's PTA's buys Singapore Math for the kids in the school, because they don't like the regular public school math curriculum).

So... even in public school, even in the same city, even in the same neighborhood, there are schools with vastly different educational experiences, funded entirely by parental / PTA "contributions". At some schools in the city, the AVERAGE PTA contribution per family is in the thousands of dollars a year.

...nobody really wants to talk about the kids at schools without that kind of PTA funding. Some of them are the poorest schools in the district, and as such are eligible for outside money (grants, federal funds, etc), but many more are simply caught in the middle.


The school where the girl will be going in the fall is brand new, so we have no sense at all of how much we'll be expected to shell out for "contributions"... my guess is it won't be small, given the fact that we're trying to gear up a new school.

[scorpio72]

Jun 26, 2012 9:11:21 GMT -5 Melissa W. said:

Jun 26, 2012 7:04:11 GMT -5 lys said:

Parents need to practice the word "NO" since that is part of the problem.

Exactly. If you value the field trips then put your money towards that and skip the other fund raisiers. Scholastic comes home every month. You don't have to buy from them. The fundraisers for bread/yankee candle/etc. are all optional. You don't have to do them.

Totally agree. Field trips are a tiny piece of the $ equation. I think I've spent less than $20 on field trips for my 2 oldest kids this year.

Parents need to learn to say no to the fundraising stuff that they don't want/need.

I have no problem saying no to Scholastic and picture on mug type fundraising. Just because it comes home doesn't mean that you have to buy it.