As Private Funds Pay for Public Schools, Inequality May Grow

A telethon in Oklahoma. A yard sale in Kansas. A foundation in Connecticut. These are only a few of the private fundraising efforts tried in the last several months by parents, teachers, and schools throughout the country. In a time of revenue shortfalls and widespread education cuts, parents and teachers do what they can to make up the difference, from funding art supplies to paying salaries. But all private fundraisers are not created equal. On one end of the spectrum, parents bring in school supplies such as paper and markers, while on the other, supporters attend $500-a-plate dinners to raise money for their schools.

And that, says San Francisco Chronicle columnist Joan Ryan, is precisely the problem. The estimated $2 billion dollars raised last year nationwide for school products and services disproportionately benefited affluent districts. Parents with hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars to spare are not likely to send their children to schools that need that money the most. State budget cuts, meanwhile, do not affect all schools uniformly. If parents accept that they, not the public, will be footing the bill for a large portion of school needs, Ryan argues, they are "enabling inequality."

That does not mean that creativity is unwelcome in these lean times. In fact, it is necessary to pay for an educational system that is often on the chopping block when hard times hit. There are ways, however, for innovative funding plans to benefit all schools, or to help the most resource-poor ones first. Governors Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and John Roland of Connecticut have proposed tax increases. Two South Carolina state legislators are working on a bill that would pay for public education with sales, rather than property, taxes. Large urban school districts such as Chicago and Cleveland are also looking for higher taxes. Governor Robert Ehrlich of Maryland announced at the beginning of December 2002 that he would protect education funding. In Florida, only 500 students use public money to attend private schools under the state voucher program, but 14, 520 are having their tuition bills paid by corporations that get tax breaks in return.

With little relief from present budget woes in sight, everyone from parents to governors will have to think of alternative education funding schemes. Those enacted at the state level, however, should be designed to ensure that they avoid the danger of perpetuating inequality, as local efforts targeting a school or even a single classroom often do.

Prepared January 2, 2003