Time Magazine Asks "How Many Bake Sales Does It Take To Save a Teacher's Job?"

An article in Time Magazine this week reports that school PTAs are raising money for essential services including teacher's salaries.

..as recession clouds hang ever lower and state budgets tighten, schools and districts are increasingly asking adults to help pay for essentials. Parents are under pressure to bring in big bucks for supplies, technology and even, in some cases, staff salaries. That's a lot of sugar cookies. Parent-teacher associations (PTAs), school foundations, independent community groups - the methods may vary, but the goal remains the same: to prevent public schools from losing more staff and services.

The article points out that public schools have always had to rely on private funds:

"School spending has been augmented by private sources for a long time," says Andy Rotherham, a co-founder of Education Sector, a Washington think tank. "But this money is now being looked at as a way to restore more core services that are being cut, rather than just to provide extra things."

According to the story in some states like California, budget cuts will leave 17,000 teachers out of work this Fall. Obviously the economic crisis hasn't hit Connecticut as hard, but we're seeing that even the BOE's relatively small cuts are having a negative impact on our schools.

Will parents have to take over some the activities normally performed by paid staff? Will Norwalk PTAs have to increase their fund raising efforts to pay for certain positions? Will the BOE start to expect this? What role will non-profits like the Norwalk Education Foundation play?

If you are with a PTA or a local foundation I would like to hear your thoughts.