Schools Sell Blood, Day Care, Dr. Pepper

May 14, 2003 -- Concerned parents have always been ready to give a little of their time and energy to help their kids' schools, but it may be a sign of the times when people are offering to give up their summer — or even their blood.

The parents of children at a Eugene, Ore., school who tried to raise $30,000 to save a teacher's job by selling their blood plasma may be an extreme case, but parents, educators, school administrators and activists across the country say that it is indicative of what public schools, and the communities they serve, are facing.

"I don't want to say the house is on fire, but clearly states' budget problems and the proposed federal cuts pose an unprecedented problem," said Brenda Welburn of the National Association of State Boards of Education. "States have had problems before, but this is unprecedented because it is so pervasive across so many states."

According to a National Conference of State Legislatures study, states will have to close a $21.5 billion budget gap in the final two months of fiscal year 2003 to meet balanced budget requirements, and 41 states face a cumulative $78.4 billion budget gap in 2004.

That means cuts, and Welburn said schools will not be exempt. What she and others find most disturbing is that the ax is already falling on core programs, and that is a trend likely to continue. She said 21 states say they will cut or at least freeze some aspect of the pre-kindergarten through grade 12 curriculum.

Among the hardest-hit states next year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures study, could be Massachusetts, where schools could see cuts in state aid of up to 20 percent; Vermont, which is considering a $20 million reduction in general funds for schools; Connecticut, where the governor has recommended cuts totaling more than $200 million; and Georgia, where $156 million has been cut.

"This is a bigger budget crisis than we've faced in the past," said Howard Schaffer of the Public Education Network, a nonprofit organization that helps parents form groups to be more effective at fund raising and becoming involved in school affairs. "We've faced budget crises in the past that have affected schools' abilities to go from being good to being great, but this time it is affecting fundamental core instruction areas."

Volunteers, Blood and Dr. Pepper

That means that bake sales to buy band uniforms or car washes to cover the cost of new football helmets won't be enough anymore.

The parents in Oregon, one of the states facing the most serious budget problems, were hoping to save the job of one of the five teachers at the tiny Family School, a K-5 alternative school in which children of different age groups are taught in the same classroom.

In Charleston, S.C., the group Communities in Schools has been trying to round up volunteers to teach summer school for elementary students who need it to be promoted to the next grade — a program the district could not afford to offer.

In Grapevine, Texas, where the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District has long had a sponsorship deal with Dr. Pepper that puts a billboard on the roof of a school, educators are going as far as hiring a marketing director to come up with new ways to raise money. The district is also offering day-care services and summer-camp-style programs to raise money, and charging students up to $150 to join sports teams.

"Every school district is trying to save money and cut back," said Verone Travis, a Grapevine-Colleville district spokeswoman. "They [districts] are only just now looking at ways to bring money in. Everybody has cut and cut and cut — you can only go so far that way."

Federal Standards Complicate Picture

The problem has been complicated by what Schaffer called "the minefield of No Child Left Behind," the federal program that sets standards for schools to improve, and the Bush administration is proposing massive cuts in federal support for schools.

According to a General Accounting Office report, even before any cuts, federal aid is already insufficient to help schools meet the testing requirements of No Child Left Behind.

No Child Left Behind requires that states test all students in math and reading each year in grades 3 through 8 and at least once during high school, by the 2005-2006 school year. Students must be tested in science at least once in elementary, middle and high school by 2007-08.

The GAO report estimates that states could have to spend as much as $5.3 billion on the tests over the next six years, while No Child Left Behind guarantees $4 billion over the same time period.

The GAO report has been criticized by the U.S. Department of Education, which says it does not provide a complete picture of the federal funds available to schools.

A ‘Virtual March’

In Washington on Tuesday, Arnold Schwarzenegger was among advocates testifying before the Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education of the Committee on Appropriations about the importance of funding for after-school programs. The Bush administration is proposing a budget that would cut the allocation of $1.75 billion promised by No Child Left Behind for after-school programs to $600 million.

According to the Afterschool Alliance, a Washington, D.C.,-based nonprofit organization founded by the U.S. Department of Education in cooperation with several private foundations and corporations, that cut would leave 1.6 million children without after-school programs.

Today, MoveOn.org, which was founded in 1998 by two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to try "to bring ordinary people back into politics," is calling for a "virtual march on Washington," asking people to "bombard Senate phone lines" with opposition to the tax cuts Bush is proposing.

MoveOn.org is also airing an advertisement this week based on what the parents at the Family School in Oregon did, to encourage opposition to federal tax cuts.

Beyond the Bake Sale

For years, parents' and community groups that wanted to help their schools, and school boards themselves, have been turning more and more attention to more lucrative ways of raising extra money.

At Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Fla., corporate sponsorships have helped the school afford an athletic scoreboard and laptop computers; the Sherwood School District in Oregon will receive roughly $28,000 next year from an exclusive deal with Coca-Cola; and the Rapides Parish school system in Louisiana is considering selling some of its 600 acres of unused land.

In Oregon, California, and Nevada, districts are considering pay-to-play programs to keep athletic programs alive, with the potential costs as high as more than $850 for a boy to play basketball at one school.

Raising money to help with the cost of sports, drama or debating clubs or other extra curricular activities is one thing, many advocates for involvement in schools say, but they believe it is not the right approach for parents and community leaders to try to pitch in when cuts threaten core instructional areas.

"When you do that, that lets the Legislature off the hook," said Jacque Coe of Alliance for Education, a Seattle group that received a five-year, $25 million grant from the Bill Gates Foundation to work with the city school district to promote systematic change.

"They say, 'They're doing OK, they don't need our suport.' If it happens once, it's really hard to go back to the Legislature and say, 'Now we need your help.' "

Jane Riley, the director of Communities in Schools, which is organizing the summer school volunteers in Charleston, doesn't agree, and said that anything that gets more of the community involved in public education can only help in the long run.

"There are many people who have not paid attention to the financial situation that schools are in," she said. "If we are making more people aware of the problems that schools are having and they lobby state legislators, then we've done something else that's good for schools."