Can't imagine how thrilled everyome will be to donate knowing their money for their children's education may instead be "funelled" into "equity funds".

Another thing to consider is that SPS deliberately underfunds some schools knowing that the PTA can be counted on to make up the difference. If SPS wants to cut PTAs from supporting staff, then they need to make sure that the staff required to run the school are there in the first place. I don't really object to stopping PTAs from funding staff, but that second part of the equation is hard to get commitments on.

Agree to “follow the money” here, but in the bigger picture, this is a distraction. If you zoom out, you see a school system segregated by housing, and abandoned by parents with means to head to private school (who are never held to account in these conversations). You’ll also see a terribly mismanaged district that spends darn near the same amount per student that private schools do. At the very least the District could have said up front to expect the October class compositions - that’s free! (These October “surprises” mysteriously don’t happen at any other district and could have been predicted last spring). But if it helps you to feel better to go back to class grudges with the school down the street over .0033 of the budget, do that. All schools serve a range of students from different backgrounds, and all students deserve a good school experience.

Thanks for reporting on this - SPS needs all the accountability it can get.

Will not be surprised if the end result is that less money is raised.
Parents aren’t going to be as motivated to put in the time and effort if a chunk of those funds are taken away.
I wouldn’t blame them either.

@2 Let's keep in mind no parent needs to be "held to account" for choosing a different school/removing their child from a failing government school.

@5, not judging those parents, but the task of managing public schools should be shared with a wider citizenry than the poor families left in the system. I’m not talking just funds here, we need voters who care, taxpayers who show up at board meetings, journalists who report on the abysmal numbers (enrollment, academic outcomes, funding), the usual ecosystem of running a functional system.

@1 @4 Yep, watch PTSA donations die when folks discover they aren't going to their kid's school.

@6 Ironically, the parents who bail for private schools are helping. They remove the expense of their kid from the system while continuing to pay the property taxes to the district. They also subsidize the overall public school funding by continuing to pay the various taxes to the state that get sent to the public school budgets.

@i don’t think donations would try up as parents still want their kids to excel but you’d see organizations set up outside the school system to funnel money where needed. Think booster groups who provide kickbacks to coaches/athletes. It would force it underground.

Let’s not forget that the private school parents are still paying their school (property) taxes. It’s not like they’re not contributing something.

@9, everyone (mostly those without school age children) is paying property taxes. It’s not the magic bullet you think it is, the district needs accountability.

I know. I have no kids and have always paid the taxes. I’ve never voted “No” on a school levy, either. My point is that even people without kids in public school are supporting them. To argue that parents who don’t have kids in public school should somehow be “held to account” is ridiculous. They’ve done nothing wrong, not any more than those of us who didn’t breed.