Reference Publications

Should students sell products or collect money for schools?

NEA Today, Nov 2003 by Robison, Becky, Wood, Georgia, Allen, Susan, Woods, Susan, Morse-McNeely, Pat

[YES]

Due to extreme budget cuts, we lost nearly 20 teaching assistants in our district. There is no money for classroom budgets or field trips, let alone basic materials. Also, allowing students to raise money for events, special projects, and books gives them a sense of ownership. I have had students raise money for book clubs so we can have appropriate-level books in our classroom. I have a range of reading levels from 0.0 to 12.3. There is no way I can afford to buy books for all of them. Some of them gripe, as do their parents, but it is a fact of life, nothing is free.

BECKY ROBISON Fifth-grade teacher, Fort Morgan, Colorado

Should there be more funding for schools? Absolutely. But, today I need books and paper and pens and pencils for my kids.

[NO]

A resounding NO! Making kids sell pizza, magazines, or wrapping paper is like large corporations (the district) moving their business to Mexico for cheap labor (the kids). I'm not sending my children to school to learn how to be little entrepreneurs.

Too many groups have jumped on this money-making bandwagon. Not only is the child expected to sell items for school but for sports, scouts, and church as well. It's just too much.

My parents had six children and had their fill of each of us pushing something. So I grew up despising fund-raisers.

I suggest a buy-out of sorts. Each quarter I could send the district a donation in the amount of my choosing; this way, they get 100 percent of the money.

GEORGIA WOOD Special needs aide/licensed teacher, North Prairie, Wisconsin

Kids should not sell door to door. Selling should be limited to family and friends. And the reward should not be just a popsicle party, but things like musical instruments or books for the library. They will value those items more if they helped buy them.

Fund-raisers can help kids see the value of recycling and reusing-printer ink cartridges or bags of clothing and household goods. The students at my high school will participate in both this year. A field trip to Romeo and Juliet will be funded by the clothing and household goods drive. They will own that trip. And families that are strapped for cash can still participate.

There's no reason we can't make this a positive learning experience. That's what we do all day long anyway, isn't it?

SUSAN ALLEN High school English teacher, Oak Park, California

When my daughter was in first grade, the school brought in a salesman to explain to the students how to sell candy bars and make money for their school. He explained that each bar cost $1. He did not explain that they could give someone change for $5 or $10.

My daughter would not sell one man a candy bar because he tried to give her a $5 bill. She said they were $1 and she couldn't take anything else.

She was also embarrassed not to sell all of her candy because she would be ridiculed or left out of a party at school if she didn't.

This is wrong. We shouldn't allow our schools to use elementary children to raise money.

SUSAN WOODS High school Spanish teacher and elementary school parent, Miami, Oklahoma

[MAYBE]

On the plus side, fund-raising sometimes teaches children to be responsible. Sometimes it teaches them to deal well with refusals. It can teach the importance of good record keeping and meeting timelines.

But kids are kids. Forgetting is a good bet with a lot of them; losing something is another good bet. Fundraising tasks have to be done over a period of time, enthusiasm becomes boredom toward the end of the cycle, and this is when funds have a way of evaporating because they are lost, stolen, or never collected.

I also saw disruption of classes with kids trying to sell to classmates and teachers, or asking for a pass to go collect money or deliver goods. Some, with candy, ate their merchandise in class!

I am more in favor of perhaps having a school bazaar or fair where the kids work at stations to sell the objects contracted for and their sponsor is on hand to oversee the activity and collect the money.