Beyond the Bake Sales-Public schools hiring professionals to find funding in rough times

NEW YORK (AP) — For years, public schools sponsored car washes, dances and raffles to raise extra cash. Now, in increasing numbers, they are hiring professionals to solicit donations from rich people, corporations and foundations.

Associated Press Coeur d’Alene Press

"Fund-raising for America’s schools has gone way beyond the bake sale," said Howie Schaffer, managing editor of Public Education Network, a Washington group that supports increased government funding of public schools. "You can’t bake enough cookies to give America’s schools the money they need."

New York City, for example, has launched a campaign to solicit private aid and hired Caroline Kennedy as its chief fund-raiser. Kennedy, a lawyer, author and daughter of President Kennedy, directs the system’s Office of Strategic Partnerships.

Schaffer said fund-raising "has increased tremendously" at public schools, especially with many cities facing deep budget cuts because of a sagging economy. New York City is facing a $3.4 billion projected deficit and may have to lay off nearly 2,000 teachers if state aid is reduced.

"Kennedy will provide the visibility for the needs of public schools at a time when they are asked to squeeze every last drop of a penny out of already limited resources," Schaffer said.

Ray Clements, vice president of the American Association of Fund-raising Counsel, said about 4,000 of the nation’s 15,000 school districts — or about 27 percent — have hired professional fund-raisers or established private fund-raising foundations.

Some fund-raising efforts are as ambitious and sophisticated as those found in colleges: The nation’s oldest public school, Boston Latin, is in the midst of a $50 million fund drive. Outside Akron, Ohio, Ravenna High School helped finance construction of its new athletic complex by selling people the right to put their names on seats.

In New York, Kennedy brokered her first deal last month, an agreement with the History Channel in which the cable network will donate $1 million in scholarships, materials and staff hours to city schools.

Still, Clement said, many school districts remain unaware of how to tap into the billions in philanthropic aid that is available. More than $212 billion was donated to charitable causes in 2001, 15 percent of that to education, according to the association.

"A lot of superintendents say, ‘I wasn’t hired to fund-raise. I was hired to run the district,"’ Clements said.
Some say public schools should not be in the business of fund-raising. The national Parent Teacher Association has expressed concerns that private fund raising is inequitable and does not address the needs of most public school students.

School choice supporter David Salisbury, director of the Center for Educational Freedom at Cato Institute, said donating to public schools is "throwing good money after bad." Private aid, he said, would be better spent providing alternatives such as school vouchers or charter schools.

And a 2000 study by the Thomas Fordham Foundation, titled "Can Philanthropy Save Our Schools," found that "while students in some schools surely benefited from this unprecedented private generosity, the system as a whole was largely unresponsive."

"Short-run innovation can be bought with money, but durable reform takes something more powerful," the study concluded.

Caren Austen, a parent volunteer who organizes bake sales, dances and fund drives at the public Manhattan School for Children, said donations at her school help pay for such things as field trips, supplies and books.

A dental hygienist with a sixth-grader and kindergartner, Austen said she was "thrilled" when Kennedy took over. Organizing fund-raising events, she said, is like having a second job.

"We are desperate for other sources of income," Austen said. "Public schools need to have someone like that in our corner, getting corporate funding."

Education consultant Stan Levenson, author of "How to Get Grants and Gifts for the Public Schools," said "nickel and dime" fundraising — such as bake sales and raffles — will always have a place. But, he said, schools will have to look to big donors in the future.

"Schools are recognizing they need to go beyond taxpayer dollars to do the job," he said.
——
On the Net:
New York City Department of Education: http://www.nycenet.edu
Public Education Network: http://www.publiceducation.org

http://www.cdapress.com/index.asp?Sec=Business&str=9798