The longer my kids are in school the more I realize there is some poor mismanagement going on regarding money and time. I can’t even count the number of activities each year that take our teachers and kids away from the task at hand. Off the top of my head there is the: “Fun Run,” wrapping paper sales, pictures twice a year, buying my kids art work on a magnet or framed, and I’m sure there are more. All of these activities take time, for both the teachers and kids. Every one of these is undertaken with the objective of raising money for the schools.
One of my kids is getting ready to enter high school, and now we are finding out that the entire football program, as we are told, is paid for by the parents joining a booster club. The annual budget is $250,000, but, as we've been told, not a dime from the gate receipts is used for football, nor are taxes.
There are at least six varsity home games, and similar JV/Freshman home games. At $7 a seat, and 4000 seats in some of these stadiums, that adds up, I’d say, pretty close to $250,000. I’ve not yet gotten an answer to where that money goes. And as I understand all the other sports and band suffer the same funding pressure on parents.
Also, if a student wants to drive to school, they have to pay $150 for a parking pass. Where does this money go? I can’t find that out either. It is off school board books, but my thought is I’m pretty sure I paid for that parking lot with my tax money. I didn’t know I was investing in a parking and stadium business with my taxes.
With all the time allocated to selling for private companies under the guise of fund raising, and all the time allocated to half days and training days, there is a lot of poorly used time.
Tighten up the usage of time; focus on the teaching. Couple this with proper allocation of revenues from event attendance, and we could go a long way toward working within the taxes collected.
David Bunten
Cumming
One of my kids is getting ready to enter high school, and now we are finding out that the entire football program, as we are told, is paid for by the parents joining a booster club. The annual budget is $250,000, but, as we've been told, not a dime from the gate receipts is used for football, nor are taxes.
There are at least six varsity home games, and similar JV/Freshman home games. At $7 a seat, and 4000 seats in some of these stadiums, that adds up, I’d say, pretty close to $250,000. I’ve not yet gotten an answer to where that money goes. And as I understand all the other sports and band suffer the same funding pressure on parents.
Also, if a student wants to drive to school, they have to pay $150 for a parking pass. Where does this money go? I can’t find that out either. It is off school board books, but my thought is I’m pretty sure I paid for that parking lot with my tax money. I didn’t know I was investing in a parking and stadium business with my taxes.
With all the time allocated to selling for private companies under the guise of fund raising, and all the time allocated to half days and training days, there is a lot of poorly used time.
Tighten up the usage of time; focus on the teaching. Couple this with proper allocation of revenues from event attendance, and we could go a long way toward working within the taxes collected.
David Bunten
Cumming