Topic: Schools -- turning a profit? (Read 5420 times)

Hazard · « **on:** November 06, 2003, 03:53:35 PM »

Alright, this is kind of an add-on to Chris's public school system post.

My sister goes to a public school. I went there four years ago. This school is by no means non-profit. We pay for the school system through our taxes. My sister's school is charging the students so much in extra costs, they are making a massive profit. No, it does not go towards extra curriculars, because guess what? Students have to pay for those, too!

-60 dollars for every team you're on. What does this cover? Use of the jersey for one season.
-My sister is going on a 3-day Quebec City trip this year. When I went, it cost me 250 dollars. Her trip does less than mine did, and the trip cost is 395 dollars.
-The school does cheese sales for a "fundraiser", but they tack on an extra 2 dollars per order, ONTOP of the profit the Cheese Company gives them. (I know the cheese company pays them, because it's a very popular school fund raiser around here.)
-They also do Regal orders. Again, they tack on five dollars to your order.
-Students are expected to by all of their own art supplies. Paint brushes, etc.
-Students are expected to bring all of their own books, binders, pencils, etc. Every other school in the district SUPPLIES them.
-They do a school clothing program. They're selling 20 dollar hoodies (I know this because my Mom works for the company that supplies them) for 40 dollars. 10 dollar t-shirts for 25. At my highschool the hoodies were 25, the shirst 15.
-My sister volenteered to help with the cross country running team. She still had to pay 30 dollars, plus 5 dollars for every road race they went on, for the bus. She was a freaking VOLENTEER.

They also have MANY ladies VOLENTEERING for these things. The teachers don't do this stuff. The teachers don't even do the extra curricular sports and clubs 90% of the time. They have volenteers doing them for free! Not like she's even getting a better education than she would at other schools. I went in to highschool from this school without knowing HALF of the concepts the other kids knew.

So where -is- this money going?

Law · « **Reply #1 on:** November 06, 2003, 06:47:17 PM »

Are public schools in Canada supposed to be non-profit? Sounds like they're running a pretty well functioning business there...

Anonymous · « **Reply #2 on:** November 06, 2003, 10:49:23 PM »

I doubt the taxes the community pays can cover all of the costs running the school. I know the school system by me can barely make do with what they have. Maybe the taxes can just barely cover the costs, and the government will not let them have any more money, so their solution to the problem was to charge for certain things.

In theory, since many colleges look for sports and clubs in high school, the poor people of your community that cannot afford 60 dollars per sport are put at a disadvantage in getting into any college. I thought one of the aspect of the public school system was to put everyone on the same level, regardless of their wealth.

Sounds to me like they are doing some messed up stuff up there, Hazard. I know I wonder about the rules my school system makes up. I especailly like the rule about cellphones and other devices in school. Sure, I can see if someone is using it in the middle of the class, or it is ringing, but if a teacher sees it in your pocket or on your belt clip, they should not be allowed to take it. I considder it as stolen property once they take it. You don't see public libraries trying to TAKE people's cellphones away when they go off, quite simply because they know adults will not put up with such complete and utter bullshit. Heck, they aren't even going off in schools and they go nuts.

This just goes to show you that they can make any rule that they want, and everyone within the confines of the school has to follow them because they know anyone outside doesn't give a damn and anyone inside won't do anything about it.

Hazard · « **Reply #3 on:** November 06, 2003, 11:10:05 PM »

I never realized how bad it was until I started highschool. At our school, we fund raised for EVERYTHING. If everybody in the school throws a dollar or two in to every fundraiser we have, all of the trips, and everything, are very cheap for EVERYBODY.

Our trips regularly had their prices halved (for the more expensive ones), and our smaller 5-10 dollar trips were usually free, from all the money we raised. Schools teams were covered by Student Council fundraising. What does THAT cover? Your own jersey, waterbottle, and bussing to and from -every- away game. At my sister's school? They rely on stay-at-home mom's to drive. No busses.

The school's cheerleading team raised over TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS to cover their 5 day out of province competition. Nobody had to pay more than 200 dollars. At my sister's school, they would have made every person on the team cough up a thousand bucks for a trip like that. That's what disgusts me.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS are not suppose to turn a fucking profit! We pay our taxes to them (and a hell of a lot of them) every year, to pay teachers, pay for supplies, etc.

I wouldn't mind as much if the school was getting something extra from all that money. But they aren't. They aren't getting a damn thing extra. Their teachers suck. The school needs new textbooks, even though it's only 15 years old. So what happens? They keep kids using the books until they fall apart, then the unfortunate kid that ends up with that book when it completely falls apart has to pay 100 bucks for it.

It is obviously not that expensive. A big, HARDCOVER textbook runs 50 dollars. A softcover, textbook, like ones kids are SUPPOSE to right in (like "Language Power") are eight bucks! They charge you the same 100 dollar fee if you loose one of those, though.

And to put in perspective how fucking insane that is, I'll tell you about the schooling I do. When I started, I had to pay 20 dollars. Now, I can take as many courses and get as many credits as I want based on that 20 dollar fee. I could get 50 credits, or just 1, and still, the fee is the same. If I lost my textbook, what do they charge? 10 bucks. Workbooks? 5 bucks. They even photocopy the workbooks for a lot of subjects for me, so I can write RIGHT IN THEM.

I want to know where the hell that extra money my sister's school is making is going. I'd like a share of that, thankyou.

Anonymous · « **Reply #4 on:** November 06, 2003, 11:30:40 PM »

Since you are a part of the community, I think you have a right to know where the money they are getting is going to. I'm guessing the central office of the school district would have the best insight to the answer of that question.

Perhaps you could take a trip there one day, or write them a letter and find out. I for one would be interested to find out where all that money goes to for those trips. I didn't think getting a bus for an entire day would cost 5,000 dollars.

Binoboy · « **Reply #5 on:** November 08, 2003, 01:06:01 AM »

Remember the school district in Oregon or whatever that made a "Men of..." calendar for a fundraiser? Yeah, in most of the free world it seems, education is quite low on the pole (no pun intended), so the schools have to go as far as to whore themselves out.

HeavyJay · « **Reply #6 on:** November 08, 2003, 02:20:16 AM »

My school has a fund-raiser for everything. A week rarely goes by when cookie pushers and bagel fiends don't hound the entire student body. Every school dance has an outrageous cover charge that is going towards something besides shitty cardboard decorations and bagel bites. ($20 a kid for finger food and a strobe light...yeah, right.)

I buy more shit in school than I do out of it. Most of it's food, so it all adds up on MY student body. Hyuck hyuck.

SatannicA · « **Reply #7 on:** December 13, 2003, 01:16:03 AM »

Hazard, you live in Ontario? What part exactly? Our school also had a 3-day Quebec City trip costing that exact same amount (I didn't go of course, fucking waste of money)

SatannicA · « **Reply #8 on:** December 13, 2003, 01:20:56 AM »

Quote from: Hazard

-They do a school clothing program. They're selling 20 dollar hoodies (I know this because my Mom works for the company that supplies them) for 40 dollars. 10 dollar t-shirts for 25. At my highschool the hoodies were 25, the shirst 15.

What kind if IDIOT spends $40 on some fucking stupid SCHOOL hoodie or t-shirt? Hell they sell those expensive band shirts for the exact same price, and tell me, what would you rather have? Some gay monochromatic hoodie to show your "school spirit" or kick-ass AC/DC shirt with a white hot lightning bolt ripping through the middle to show all the people who bought a school hoodie/t-shirt what idiots they are.

SatannicA · « **Reply #9 on:** December 13, 2003, 01:26:35 AM »

If you do not participate in any of the out of school activities from the time you enter grade 1 to the time you graduate, you should have saved up enough money for a decent used car. I really gotta start reading the entire thing before replying...

SatannicA · « **Reply #10 on:** December 13, 2003, 01:38:16 AM »

OK, I've finally read everyone's posts, and now I will make my final comments...

Hazard's little thing on the textbook replacement thing is SO goddamn true, after all, why buy new books when your students can replace them for you? except, where I went, the textbooks were usually $50 if you lost them, which is pretty reasonable for a hardcover textbook. I remember this one idiot lost a violin and had to pay a smooth $500. As far as fundraising goes, it only works in highschools where the actual student body has the money to buy these snacks themselves, think about it, the parents of elementary school students don't give a fuck about Hershey's almond crisps, they're on a diet anyways and they wont give their kids money either, and if these kids come begging for money to buy the outrageously priced crap, their parents will just say no because they know they can just get the exact same chocolate from the store for half the price. But high school students, they have the money, they're impulse buyers, they're too lazy to go to the store, so high schools will prosper. My high school, they auctioned of members off the Student Counsel to be slaves (not sexually of course) for a week, bids went as high as $55.
As for your sister's school Hazard, I guess it's just because the school board didn't want to put in as much money into your school as they did with the others, seems like from your description, it's a pretty poor school, and a poor school will just create poor results, poor results discouraging school board officials from inscreasing funding... it's a vicious cycle.
Anywho, I think i've rambled enough for a night, this is my last post.

Hazard · « **Reply #11 on:** December 13, 2003, 02:46:11 AM »

Quote from: SatannicA

As for your sister's school Hazard, I guess it's just because the school board didn't want to put in as much money into your school as they did with the others, seems like from your description, it's a pretty poor school, and a poor school will just create poor results, poor results discouraging school board officials from inscreasing funding... it's a vicious cycle.
Anywho, I think i've rambled enough for a night, this is my last post.

No, this school has tons of money. It's brand new, and has the money to buy so much stuff. It gets TONS of funding from the schoolboard, because it's the second newest school in the district. They spend money re-planting the flower gardens outside of the school every summer, and laying new Sod in the play field, but they won't buy new textbooks, or new microscopes! They beg parents for money, and spend it on inane shit.

This school gets so much money, but I see NO sign of it being used. They have their little "Yay we raised 10000 dollars!" thing, but I never see that being spent on anything we need. We had to bring in TONS of money to use Acrylic paints in grade 8, whereas it was all supplied in highschool art. This school has SO much money, but it is not going towards making the school a better place. My friends went to schools that don't LOOK as nice as the one I went to, but they got better K-8 educations, THATS for fucking sure. I got to highschool and didn't know what the Periodic Table was, and people from other schools (and not over achivers) had half of it memorized already. Catching up stuff like that is HARD.

Schools in "poorer" areas -- you get a better education, and more bang for your buck. Those teachers want to make your money go a LONG way. Schools in "rich" areas? You put a ton of money in, and get nothing good in return. Sounds like kind of a crock, doesn' t it?

To add on: I'm not rich. My Mom works 2 jobs, and makes less than 35 grand a year. My parents divorced when I was 7, and my Dad died 2 years ago, so there's no child support, either. We cannot afford this obscenety. It's VERY difficult for my sister to get to do anything because of how much her stupid school charges for stuff. It's really frustrating to see.

(I live in Kingston Ontario, by the way.)

SatannicA · « **Reply #12 on:** December 13, 2003, 02:36:50 PM »

Im' sure you could have just enrolled in a different school (too late now). I'm positive spending 2 bucks on busfare a day beats having to pay for all the bullshit (plus you get an education). Well, it's too late now, have a good future.

Hazard · « **Reply #13 on:** December 14, 2003, 12:37:27 AM »

Quote from: SatannicA

Im' sure you could have just enrolled in a different school (too late now). I'm positive spending 2 bucks on busfare a day beats having to pay for all the bullshit (plus you get an education). Well, it's too late now, have a good future.

School Districts are extremely strict here. If you live 2 houses outside of that schools "area", they usally won't let you in. It's a massive series of appeals and schoolboard meetings to get the change, in elementary school. MUCH easier in highschool, since some programs are only offered at certain schools, and things like that. It's not worth it now -- I'm out, and my sister is half finished her last year.

Telsan · « **Reply #14 on:** January 24, 2004, 11:50:51 PM »

How's this for shocking? In australia, we have a public (government funded) school system, and a Private (government AND student funded) school system.

The private schools are disgustingly exspensive, and the public schools are falling apart from lack of funding. So what does the government do? Gives 8 MILLION dollars to the private school system (average yearly cost per student is around $20.000)

WHAT THE HELL do they need more money for??? If only I was Prime Minister, or someone ran over the moron doing it now. Several times. With a truck. With snowchains on.

Anonymous · « **Reply #15 on:** January 25, 2004, 08:21:06 AM »

Quote from: Telsan

With snowchains on.

There's snow in Australia?

Binoboy · « **Reply #16 on:** January 25, 2004, 11:56:38 AM »

Quote from: Telsan

How's this for shocking? In australia, we have a public (government funded) school system, and a Private (government AND student funded) school system.

The private schools are disgustingly exspensive, and the public schools are falling apart from lack of funding. So what does the government do? Gives 8 MILLION dollars to the private school system (average yearly cost per student is around $20.000)

WHAT THE HELL do they need more money for??? If only I was Prime Minister, or someone ran over the moron doing it now. Several times. With a truck. With snowchains on.

At least we're not the only countries.
Do you also have the idiots who, when you suggest maybe giving SOME money to public schools for... books/construction/what-have-you, sarcastically say "Oh, let's throw money and the problem and maybe it'll go away"? First ones to demand pumping up the defense budget though, aren't they?

JohnnyFive · « **Reply #17 on:** January 27, 2004, 04:40:12 PM »

I have a question, you say your sister's school is "making a profit". By whom do you define as the school? Who is making the profit? The principal? The teachers? Are they getting raises? It certainly sounds like you have some mis-management of money, but I don't see who you are pointing the finger at, you just seem to be pointing a finger at the school from 20 miles away and yelling that it's making money. What is? The building? Who?

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