School Committee

What taxes don't cover
February 25, 2007

Parents of public schoolchildren are using their own money to pay for extras

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

When Canton parents learned their children's preschool was moving to the old high school this fall, they quickly pledged to pitch in with the redecorating. They collected a wish list of books, toys, furniture, and electronics from teachers, then went shopping on their own dime.

Now the parents are launching an even more ambitious campaign -- raising as much as $100,000 for a handicapped-accessible playground for the preschool, which includes many autistic children.

In the suburbs south of Boston, active, education-focused parents frustrated with tight school budgets have taken matters into their own hands, accelerating fund-raising efforts that make car washes and bake sales look quaint. Where parents once opened up their checkbooks for team uniforms and field trips, today they help build computer labs, reinstate extracurricular clubs, and revive academic programs lost in budget cuts.

"The $2,000 bake sale, that's just not enough anymore," said Jon Carson , the CEO of cMarket , a Cambridge-based Internet auction company whose largest and fastest-growing segment is K-12 education. The convenience and novelty of on line auctions, coupled with collectible and recreational bid items, often make them far more lucrative than live events, he said.

In December, the Sharon High School PTSO turned to cMarket to host an Internet auction that brought in $32,000, more than triple the event's average yield. It was a windfall for a school whose budget has been stretched past the point of asking for educational frills.

"You would think new dictionaries for Spanish classes are a basic," said Dianne Needle , who organized the event. "Well, they're not."

Darlene Borre , who is spearheading the Canton effort, said private donations are an increasingly necessary supplement to crimped public school budgets.

"If it's just the school doing it, that's one thing," Borre said. "If the parents are involved, too, that's another. We want the playground to be something the whole community can be proud of."

Education foundations still primarily award grants for enrichment programs that fall outside of the school budget, but more are financing core programs threatened by cutbacks and other educational nuts and bolts.

"Extra has taken on a different meaning," said Carol Rosner , a Milton parent active in PTOs and the Milton Foundation for Education , which raises as much as $300,000 a year. "What once was extra is now a necessity."

For example, parents two years ago revived the Cohasset Education Foundation , which had fallen inactive, after a failed override vote. Believing they could no longer rely on residents to consistently support higher school budgets, they decided to pass the hat among themselves. In December, they raised $100,000 for a new computer lab.

But school officials' requests for items previously covered in the budget can put education foundations and parents in an awkward position. Rosner said the Milton foundation, which has established an endowment and raises some $300,000 annually, has denied requests for defibrillators and an emergency phone system.

Mary Masi-Phelps , president of the Westwood Educational Foundation , said the group is receiving more requests for basics, but is generally steering clear in favor of programs that will enhance the school experience.

"It's something we've struggled with," she said. "But in budget times like these, it's hard enough to provide the body of education. We try to take care of the soul."

Foundation organizers say that donations have risen in step with the increase in need. For parents who have the means, it seems, donating to their children's education is money well spent, and few complain over disproportionately bearing the expense of public schools.

"To me it's short money," Rosner said.

When Easton approved a $3.4 million tax increase in June, the first budget override to pass in 16 years, Tom Keegan of the Foundation for Excellence in Education in Easton assumed his fund-raising would suffer. Instead, the group's dinner and auction in December raised $110,000 for new computers and other technology, a record amount.

Keegan said he had underestimated parents' willingness to contribute directly to causes they believe in.

"I anticipated people would push back, say "Enough's enough,' " Keegan said. "But people like knowing where the money is going."

Indeed, schools and other nonprofits across the country netted some $1.7 billion in donations three years ago, according to the latest survey by the Association of Fund-Raising Distributors and Suppliers . Schools and school-related groups made up about 83 percent of fund-raising sales, according to the survey. And James Martinez of the National Parent Teacher Association said parent groups are seeking more creative ways to raise money as the urgency for additional funds rises.

But some education specialists say public schools' increasing reliance on private donations dilutes efforts to increase school funding and widens the gap between schools in wealthy and poor communities. Arnold Fege , director of public engagement and advocacy for the Washington, D.C.-based Public Education Network, which tracks private fund-raising efforts for public schools, said budget pressures brought on by the advent of high-stakes testing under the federal No Child Left Behind law has pushed parent groups and education foundations to intensify their fund-raising.

"It's a surrogate form of tax revenue that creates huge equity problems," he said. "Schools become a charity rather than a public service," he said.

But many parents said that while property taxes and state aid would ideally fund schools sufficiently, they are not about to put principle before practical concerns about something as important as their children's learning.

"They can only do so much with the budget they have," Keegan said. "I don't want to argue that point at the expense of the kids."

Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com.