In my observation, the primary ways parents are “involved” in government schooling are raising money (fundraising) or writing cheques (school fees).
How much in Alberta is raised for government schooling by parent fundraising? It is hard to know. Nobody seems to count. We can perhaps hazard a guess.
A survey of largely rural government schools conducted by a provincial parents association in recent years suggested parents fundraise an average of $15,000 per school. I strongly suspect that the schools in the large cities raise more money, not less, than rural schools. Perhaps we could reasonably guess that if these schools were factored in the overall average parent fundraising per school in Alberta might rise to $20,000 per school.
There are approximately 2,000 government schools in Alberta. At $20,000 each, that totals to approximately $40 million in parent fundraising each year in Alberta, making the Alberta Government (with its multi-billion dollar finances) a large-scale beneficiary of community philanthropy via its Education department.
The really significant manner parents are involved in government schooling is by way of writing cheques for school fees (under various names and guises). What does that add up to? Again, it is hard to know. The billing and payment is a little more haphazard than, say, the gas company or your electric bill. Let’s maybe throw around some numbers and see what “feels right”. As a parent, do I write cheques over the course of the year to my kids’ schools totalling $100? (Feels way too low.) How about $1,000? (Feels a little closer, once you remember bussing charges, band fees, swimming lessons, lunchroom supervision, resource fees, rentals,…). You pick your number, but mine feels ballparkishly like $1,000. Other parents might feel their’s is lower or higher. But let’s imagine that $1,000 is a not-unreasonable guess - what does that total up to across the province?
There are approximately 600,000 students in the province. That suggests the total paid in school fees could be $600 million. Wow! Even if we’re way out on the $1,000, and it only averages nearer $500… that would still be over a quarter billion dollars of contribution by parents in cold, hard cash to government schooling in Alberta. Golly.
One observation about that quarter-billion to half-billion dollars in school fees might be that if parents already PAY that much, why on Earth do parents bother fundraising for a “measly” $40 million more? Whose idea was that? Knowing how much time and energy fundraising takes away from the “parent teaching force’s” quality contribution time, wouldn’t students be better served by parents doing NO fundraising and directing their time and energy toward doing other jobs in furthering their children’s government schooling?
Second observation is that relative to the government’s $6 billion annual budget for K-12 government education, parents appear to supplement that revenue by something like a further 5 - 10%. In other words, for every $100 of taxpayer money funding K-12 government schooling, parents kick in an additional $5-$10 in fees (and an additional 50 cents in fundraising). That, I believe, is evidence that parents are sharing very well with their partners in public education.
How well do their partners share with parents in return? How much of the overall education budget goes to serve parents in their role as educators and education partners, aimed at facilitating their involvement in their children’s schooling?
I can find about $3 million per year across the province. And mostly I’m estimating, by interpolation of programs that I know notionally (if not actually) are intended to serve parents in their role as educators.
$3 million per year out of $6 billion per year government K-12 budget is one-half of one-tenth of one-percent, or equal to a nickel out of every $100. A nickel. Out of every $100. For parents. As partners. In government schooling.
Parents contribute, financially, $5 - $10 out of every $100 in fees of various definitions to supplement government school budgets, and give an additional $0.50 in fundraising. In exchange, parents are shared a nickel back to encourage their involvement in other ways actually aimed at partnering in their children’s learning (as opposed to “community building”, “spirit” or “traffic control”).
Which possibly explains why relatively few parents are involved in other ways.
GLO
P.S. Along with this nickel, parents are served regular reminders of their duties as educators of their children and reminded that mathematically between birth and age 18 children spend 85% of their time outside of school and only 15% of their time in school. And those same government schools who remind parents of these duties then allocate $99.95 of every $100 to their 15%, and a nickel toward parents for their 85%. Huh?
Parents are sometimes criticized for their non-involvement in their children’s schooling and for their alleged share of responsibility for such things as results of provincial achievement tests. The response to such criticism is simple, I believe. Parents should unhesitatingly and honourably accept a nickel’s worth of responsibility for performance of the government schooling system that reserves the other $99.95 of its funding for itself. You get what you pay for in this world, and if public education chooses to only share a nickel to facilitate parent involvement, then I believe that’s all the accountability parents should share in return.
P.P.S. Community organizations looking to engage parents with their children’s activities increasingly invite parents to “earn back” the fees charged them by contributing hours of meaningful volunteer time in furtherance of the program. This serves to genuinely involve those parents who genuinely wish to be involved, while incenting them financially for their contribution. Perhaps this approach could be incorporated into government schooling. Unless government schools would really rather just have the money….
