That’s easy for you to say! Indeed it is easy simply to say ban fundraising in schools, but who is going to plug the hole that is left from the lack of money given to schools to keep going? Who is going to fund the costs of teachers’ materials. Where is the money going to magically appear when a family can’t or won’t pay for their schoolbooks?
The answer to that is obvious in many ways and it’s already happening in the 9 Model Schools in Ireland where the DES cover all expenses. The schools simply send them the bills.
Obviously, this has potential to be a recipe for disaster if some schools go a little crazy and start looking to buy astroturf pitches or playground equipment or any other nice extras. This is where fundraising does come in handy.
However, rather than allowing this, schools should record a bit of a wishlist for non-essentials and rather than asking parents to fork out the money at cake sales or Who Wants to be a Thousadaire events, the list can be covered by private businesses as part of the community projects. Why beg parents to put blue tokens into a chute in Tesco for a share of €1,000 when Tesco can well afford the purchase of a 3D printer? Why ask teachers to dance the cha-cha with each other to fundraise for a set of iPads when Apple could simply donate them?
Let the government fund the essentials and let private businesses show that they really care by responding to schools’ wishlists.
