Debate: Has student fundraising gone too far?

NEA Today, Feb 1998 by Neff, Mary, Graziano, Clorinda

I know student fundraising is getting out of hand when: I cover a class for a fellow teacher, and, as her students enter my room, they immediately ask me if I sell anything to eat.

Anxious teenagers plead with me to please buy a cookbook, candy bar, ham, fruit box, posters, even manure to fertilize my lawn.

Students go beyond raising money for an academic competition across the state and, instead, raise funds to go to Disneyland.

One of my seniors takes a school-sponsored cruise to the Bahamas. On the day they are to explore the islands, the student can't find his boarding pass and has to remain on the ship. For this, he misses three days of school.

An 11-year-old New Jersey boy, last seen going door-to-door selling wrapping paper for a school fundraiser, is found murdered.

These events-and particularly this recent tragedy-should give us all pause. What are we really asking children to do when they're handed the "opportunity" to raise money for extras? What are we really selling?

Some say the real-world experience students gain from fundraising -and the travel it buys-builds character and broadens horizons.

But I often wonder if the students in Japan are out selling stationary and smoked sausage in the evenings. Are we. in America, so bereft of character-building opportunities that we must ask our children to go door-todoor?

My fantasy is a complete school year without fundraisers. Who would miss the bags of candy. brochures full of merchandise, lost or stolen collection envelopes, and teachers-turnedbill collectors?

I would welcome back the lost time and energy spent raising money. My time is better spent preparing for instruction. Students' time is better spent in the classroom and in afterschool clubs that pursue interests, not dollars.

We should rely more on booster clubs made up of parents and patrons who raise money to supplement the activities that are important to them. And we should establish clearer priorities for our school systems and the communities that fund them.

Asking a community to finance any and all activities and materials that are not covered by the school budget is grossly unfair to everyone. We need to accept the simple fact that if it's not in the budget, perhaps we won't get it.

And perhaps we don't need it. Maybe we shouldn't raise money for unlimited student travel and laptops to keep athletic statistics, while at the same time issuing paperback books held together with rubber bands.

When we tell taxpayers they have to pay an additional $25 in property taxes, maybe we can understand why they rebel.

After all the fruit cakes, greeting cards. and bumper stickers they've already bought, why should they have a clear picture of what the public schools are trying to accomplish?

Let's face it: We are slowly bleeding money out of our communities to finance frills and dubious endeavors.

If you ask our school patrons what their goals for our schools are, I don't think a trip to Never-Never Land would be high on the list.

I have fond memories of selling Girl Scout cookies when I was in the third grade and going door-to-door with my mother raising money for various charities.

My biggest fundraising education came in high school, helping raise money for band and chorus annual trips. It's amazing to me, as I think back now, how much I learned from those experiences.

I learned about bookkeeping, banking, ordering, marketing, dealing with salespeople, budgeting, responsibility, working as a group, goal-setting, and achievement-all "real-life" skills.

If we didn't raise the money, we didn't go-that was the bottom line. That was a tremendous lesson to learn at a young age.

All the skills I learned as a student fundraiser have helped me immensely as a music instructor. Our schools always needs money for something that's outside the spectrum of what the school district can provide.

Almost all of the handbell and handchime sets at individual schools are paid for through music student or PTA fundraisers. Students' summer music camp tuitions are routinely funded by candy sales.

By far the biggest fundraising project I've been involved in was our effort to send I04 junior high band students and chaperones to London to march in last year's New Year's Day Parade.

Each student and chaperone had to earn $1,525 to go. With more than 70 percent of our students on free or reduced-price lunch, there aren't a lot of families with extra money to shell out every time their children want something. We either help them earn their own way, or they can't go.

So we helped. We set up individual accounts for each student. What they raised was credited toward their own trip. Students sold candy, washed cars, held carnivals, sponsored volleyball tournaments, and more.

It paid off. Going to London was a great experience for all of us.

I know the students took the trip more seriously because they worked so hard to go, and because so many people had cared enough about them to send them on the trip of a lifetime.

I was amazed to hear so many parents tell me how much the fundraising had brought their families together. That unexpected benefit really boosted students' self-esteem.