PTSAs: Money shouldn't be everything

It is difficult to contain dismay over the disparity of resources for public schools. In some affluent neighborhoods, parents handily raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for educational extras while schools with less well-off parents raise close to nil.

It'd be delusional to think these gaps in fundraising don't exacerbate educational inequities. A school that can afford extra teachers and academic offerings gives its students greater opportunities to learn.

As outlined in a Times report by Emily Heffter, some area schools, such as View Ridge Elementary in Seattle, raise copious amounts through Parent Teacher Student Association efforts. View Ridge raised $325,000 in 2005-06. Another Seattle school, Bryant Elementary, has an extra $200,000 to spend on field trips, music and artists-in-residence programs, thanks to its PTSA.

The picture changes dramatically at schools with a larger share of poor families. Thurgood Marshall Elementary in South Seattle raised just $2,046 during the 2005-06 academic year.

Such fundraising gaps bolster the perception of public schools as a system marked by haves and have-nots. Many parents buy into the notion that educational opportunity is something they must pay for.

Fault lies not with PTSAs, which are well-intentioned in their efforts to support learning, but with our state government, which has been only too willing to cede support of public education.

Whether hawking wrapping paper, candy or entertainment books, schools have had to sing for their supper for generations. Money raised pays for field trips and the arts, but it also pays for easing overcrowding in classrooms or keeping a much-needed teacher on the payroll.

Parents have become a de facto line item in school budgets. Raising money is as entrenched in school culture — and as zealously protected — as sports.

Gov. Christine Gregoire's proposed budget increases in education spending should begin an easing of the pressure on PTSAs to supplement school needs.

More money is not the magic cure all. However, the paramount duty of funding education falls to the state. Once lawmakers fully take on this responsibility, PTSAs can return to being organizations that encourage true involvement in the schools, only a fraction of which includes writing a check.