It seems like the PTAs are “quietly quitting”. If we have a need at our school, I want to be able to directly contribute money to it without being told by someone (not even in my community!) if and when we can. I can tell you that I hear from many big fundraising school parents that they lack the same motivation to raise money, host buy-…
It seems like the PTAs are “quietly quitting”. If we have a need at our school, I want to be able to directly contribute money to it without being told by someone (not even in my community!) if and when we can. I can tell you that I hear from many big fundraising school parents that they lack the same motivation to raise money, host buy-in parties, or even participate in their schools’ PTAs at their pre-PEP levels. Communism is bad, people. It didn’t work in Eastern Europe and Russia, and it doesn’t work here. I wonder if there is a way for parents to form their own outside neighborhood organizations and raise funds that way? I always felt shitty that Oakton could barely raise 10k a year (back in my older kid’s day) and our school was routinely pulling in near $50k. But the answer isn’t “Dig deep, work your ass off on galas to raise big money, then give me all your money and maybe I’ll give you some back”. Needless to say, we pulled out of the d65 shit show when the schools would not reopen and have not looked back. I happily buy crap at my kid’s school, buy tickets to buy-in parties I don’t show up to, bid on crap I don’t need, contribute to the all-staff Christmas and EOY gift fund, and even raised money for our public crossing guard back when we had one. But that’s because I know where the money is going, and it all benefits my student one way or the other. I don’t like being told to whom I can make charitable contributions. And you know what just occurred to me? I see teachers in d65 ALL THE TIME posting up on Donors Choose for stuff for their classrooms. This is stuff that their PTA would previously have funded. So how can you tell me this PEP thing works? Clearly, accepting funds from Donors Choose is not against the rules for teachers, so maybe the answer is that school families get their teachers to post up needs and they crowdfund to pay for it.
What is the over/under on how many months will it be until the Equity Army tries to abolish the use of Donors Choice by teachers under the guise of it being ‘inequitable’?
Like .. the crazy thing about all this is like .. they do have a point that is in inequitable that some teachers are in wealthy areas and some are in poor areas, and the wealthy ones can do this to get additional supplies, etc. But they also *control the school board* so it's like, if there is something that teachers need, which they are not getting they *literally have the power to solve this*
This is my same complaint with 2 board members seeking PTA reserves to help people during the COVID crisis. Like, they *literally* are in a position as board members to solve the problem of helping families during COVID. I don't think there would be a single taxpayer complaining that the District helped provide routers or tablets or whatever for families in need during this time. But instead, it was like an opportunity to blow up something they didn't like for purely political or personal reasons.
They get their new secretly hired puppet to make a proclamation that no district employee can ask for publicly funded items because it’s not equitable as some teachers will get fully funded and others won’t so no employees can participate. I’m sorry I even mentioned it in case it spurs this very action.
Thanks for mentioning Donors Choose, which I think I had heard of but never before looked into. I see requests from only a few of the Evanston schools.
I can go back in our bank records and find all the ones we have contributed to. It has been many over the past two years. We have a friend who teaches at Walker. They had one, too.
It seems like the PTAs are “quietly quitting”. If we have a need at our school, I want to be able to directly contribute money to it without being told by someone (not even in my community!) if and when we can. I can tell you that I hear from many big fundraising school parents that they lack the same motivation to raise money, host buy-in parties, or even participate in their schools’ PTAs at their pre-PEP levels. Communism is bad, people. It didn’t work in Eastern Europe and Russia, and it doesn’t work here. I wonder if there is a way for parents to form their own outside neighborhood organizations and raise funds that way? I always felt shitty that Oakton could barely raise 10k a year (back in my older kid’s day) and our school was routinely pulling in near $50k. But the answer isn’t “Dig deep, work your ass off on galas to raise big money, then give me all your money and maybe I’ll give you some back”. Needless to say, we pulled out of the d65 shit show when the schools would not reopen and have not looked back. I happily buy crap at my kid’s school, buy tickets to buy-in parties I don’t show up to, bid on crap I don’t need, contribute to the all-staff Christmas and EOY gift fund, and even raised money for our public crossing guard back when we had one. But that’s because I know where the money is going, and it all benefits my student one way or the other. I don’t like being told to whom I can make charitable contributions. And you know what just occurred to me? I see teachers in d65 ALL THE TIME posting up on Donors Choose for stuff for their classrooms. This is stuff that their PTA would previously have funded. So how can you tell me this PEP thing works? Clearly, accepting funds from Donors Choose is not against the rules for teachers, so maybe the answer is that school families get their teachers to post up needs and they crowdfund to pay for it.
What is the over/under on how many months will it be until the Equity Army tries to abolish the use of Donors Choice by teachers under the guise of it being ‘inequitable’?
Like .. the crazy thing about all this is like .. they do have a point that is in inequitable that some teachers are in wealthy areas and some are in poor areas, and the wealthy ones can do this to get additional supplies, etc. But they also *control the school board* so it's like, if there is something that teachers need, which they are not getting they *literally have the power to solve this*
This is my same complaint with 2 board members seeking PTA reserves to help people during the COVID crisis. Like, they *literally* are in a position as board members to solve the problem of helping families during COVID. I don't think there would be a single taxpayer complaining that the District helped provide routers or tablets or whatever for families in need during this time. But instead, it was like an opportunity to blow up something they didn't like for purely political or personal reasons.
Yeah, I can see that happening!
How would they actually be able to actually do this? Isn’t Donors Choose independent? You don’t need to register with the PTA…
They get their new secretly hired puppet to make a proclamation that no district employee can ask for publicly funded items because it’s not equitable as some teachers will get fully funded and others won’t so no employees can participate. I’m sorry I even mentioned it in case it spurs this very action.
Thanks for mentioning Donors Choose, which I think I had heard of but never before looked into. I see requests from only a few of the Evanston schools.
I can go back in our bank records and find all the ones we have contributed to. It has been many over the past two years. We have a friend who teaches at Walker. They had one, too.
Looking further into Donors Choose, I see that they are 501/c/3 tax-deductible, which I don't know that PTA would be.
PTAs are 501c(3)s.