I stopped in at my public school'd child's school. I could hear a big loud rally going on. I asked if i could go in and see. Of course, as usual, I ws told no, parents are not allowed. So I was not even allowed to see what they were saying to my child at this rally or what was going on or anything. This is also a huge reason to homeschool. You really truely have no clue what is being said to your child at school or what goes on with these rallys or other programs they have. SO...my son comes home from school with something around his neck with a CD in it and a pledge form. Apparently, they are going to run around a track and we are supposed to find 10 donors to sponsor him per lap. He also got to hear about all the toys he can win if he raises enough money. No mention at all of what this money will be used for or what it will go to. Daily, kids who turn in forms with donations will have their names put in to a bowl and drawn from, one from each grade. This is done with a grand announcement (they did it from the office and I was there one day when they did it) over the intercom and the children who are drawn get to come to the office where the entire office staff including the principal and vice principal and nurse and secretaries and school counselors all congratulate them and give them their toys and send them back to class with enough time to show their prizes off. SO..I am sitting here thinking, tax money alone puts our district at about $10,000 a year per child. The bond money and fund raising money goes above and beyond that. More than half the bond money is going toward football and about 10% of our yearly budget goes toward football. Our district has about a 1/3 drop out rate (football players never drop out, they don't even have to take finals and are given forgiveness on undone assignments and such). Now I have no clue what this most recent fundraiser is, but there will be likely 4-5 fundraisers throughout the year. Now my son wants to call all his aunts and uncles and grandparents for money! Yet, we cannot even tell what the money will be used for. And it is not like everyone is rolling in money and can toss it out like that. Did I mention that despite how well funded the football teams are, the district will not buy paper for the schools so all the students have to bring tons of paper up to the school for copier machines and everything? I had to supply several reams of paper and things of manilla and construction paper and white art paper this year. I also had to supply dry erase markers and correcting pens, even paperclips. So I am not letting my son call anyone to try to get money out of them. Now he has to go to school and watch all the other kids get toys during the school day and huge deals made of it and so on.
The schools here do something called Project Aces, which is a phys. ed. thing. They want the kids active a certain amount of time each day, to try and fight childhood obesity. There's another program called STARS, too, but I'm not sure what that stands for. I wish our homeschool gym class had such an initiative.
Since you weren't allowed to attend the ralley and you have no idea what the money is funding, I think it is a good idea to not allow your son participate.
I hated that kind of carp when my oldest was in ps! Oh it used to make me soooo mad! And for all the reasons you mentioned. And another thing that bugs me to no end........ My neighbor was over last night and she was telling me that this year she spent $450 on school supplies for her two kids! She couldn't believe the all the stuff that was required. And ya know nowadays you can't even choose your own items. All supplies go in a big bin and get redistributed to all kids so nobody feels left out.
I have to say, if my son's ps was having an assembly or program or whatever and they told me I could not go in...I would pull him so fast thier heads would spin. AND I would write a letter to the editor. The PS here is very open door. They ask that you sign in at the office and wear a visitor tag...(safety) but you can go into the classroom at ANY time, for as long as you like. Some individual teachers have asked parents not to come 5 or 10 min before school is out, but to wait until after the bell...just because that is such a hectic time. (they probably save all the really insiduous indoctrination for then! :lol The school cannot restrict your access to your child. For a while our school was doing a hourlong reading thing that the entire school was doing at the same time every day, they did ask that you come prior to that if you wanted to stay and to stay the entire hour...just to decrease inturruptions...but again they were pretty open about it and sent home notices and all.
I don't even want to start on what the school district has been doing in my county!!! Talk about the irony! They told us that children were going to school hungry, so the government began to provide breakfasts before school, but now we have a serious obesity problem... it seems to me that whenever the government steps in, it only causes more problems than it solves. No doubt, the extra exercise is going to take away time from studying so tests scores will drop. :roll: Sorry for getting off topic.
I don't see it as dramatic as all that, lol. Whenever I hear of a new thing they're doing I think 'How are they fitting t all in???' Lol.
LOL..yes..there are pictures of prizes..but it only includes the info to pledge and how the pledges work. I did finally call a PTA rep and ask what it was for. Found out they are raising money for playground stuff. Thing about this is our taxes just went up after a bond election for over $40 million dollars for a new football stadium. The playground covering costs in the thousands. But the football team is getting an NFL style state of the art stadium. It goes well with the other 2 stadiums exactly like them at the other 2 high schools within a 3 mile radius. The high schools do not have games on the same nights/days so that has never been and never will be an issue. But hey..at least I am paying more in taxes for this new football stadium when they cannot even afford proper padding under the playground equipment at the grade schools.
I meant to say..the pictures of the prizes are what is causing all the troubles. I could ignore the whole thing, and all the time DS has spent on this, but it is difficult to ignore his constant requests to call everyone under the sun to donate money so he can win one of these prizes.
The individual clubs or teams who want to earn extra money for a field trip (To wherever the Finals are) is one thing.... But BACK DOOR taxation is quite another, And I for one cannot afford to send my kids to public school.
When my dd was in a Christian school, we participate in all fundraising as we were always aware of where the money was spent. For the six months that we dealt with p.s., I refused to participate in any fundraisers. Until the schools show the public where every penny is spent and how come they are always broke, they don't need my money. Perhaps the ps system needs a course in money management. One way we did deal with the prize issue during those six months was to point out how poorly made the "toys" were and than allow our daughter to choose a book or small toy of her own. Must agree with other comments, though. If I had not been allowed to observe what all the hoopla was at the rally, I would have made such a stink that I'd drown out the noise from the rally. "My kid! - NOT YOURS!"
I agree totally...if I wasn't allowed to know what was going on in the public school system...I'd be suspicious of the motivation behind the rally and the money being raised. Can we say "Accountablity"?
