Desperation has a funny way of making a bad idea seem like the right thing to do. Such an idea has surfaced in the financially strapped Shoreline School District.
Parents at Highland Terrace Elementary School, faced with the prospect of an overcrowded fourth-grade class brought on by deep districtwide budget cuts, have offered to buy a teacher for their school with $77,000 in donations.
Now, the idea of private money funding public education isn’t new. The tax system is designed to accomplish that goal. And the concept of a particular donation funding a specific teaching position is used quite often in higher education.
But, as with most things, the devil is in the details.
It is unlikely that a million-dollar donor to a university-level academic chair will have a child in that professor’s class and lobby for a passing grade. It is one thing to rail at a public servant with, “My taxes pay your salary,” but quite another when the refrain is, “I wrote a check for your salary.”
Still, it is undeniable that for all the attempts at equity in public education, private funding is already enhancing the core product. Students at schools with active and well-funded PTA’s have wider opportunities. Districts with organized foundations benefit from the supplemental programs provided by such private fundraising arms.
And sometimes the things provided aren’t frilly extras for the financial elite. Are books, pencils, paper and perhaps a teacher’s aide enhancements or the central mission?
Key to these current private funding avenues is the degree of separation between donors and recipients. Attendees at the annual Shoreline School Foundation breakfast know their checks will help students and teachers, but have no expectation of which ones.
It is true that the situation facing Highland Terrace fourth-graders – a class of 33 students – should not be tolerated.
The first week or so of school often brings a shuffling of students and teachers to find equilibrium. This year could be especially difficult and district officials must pay extra attention to Highland Terrace.
The offer from the Highland Terrace parents is well-intended but district officials should use existing private funding mechanisms, such as the foundation, to accept the donation and insulate all sides from the dangerous pressures and precedent that could come with such a gift.
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