Raising Money For Schools

Once again Tillicum school is raising money for its needs through a Scholastic Book Fair.

Last week we had the Entertainment books for sale. Then there is sales of chocolates, plants and more.

It seems that the thinking about school fundraising goes as far as find something you have to flog to friends and family or something you have to buy yourself.

The book fair bugs me because it is encouraging the kids to buy because it is there, not because it is selling something that they want. My boys come home and ask me to buy them this or that book, something that they had no interest in a few hours early, but because of the book fair they suddenly want it. This is in my mind a rather mindless consumerism and not something we should be encouraging in the youth.

The schools should be encouraging use of the school library and the public library. The schools should be teaching awareness about budgets and thrift.

All these selling fundraising things also means that that most of the money does not go towards supporting the school, but is lost in the commercial transaction.

I would be much happier if the schools had a simple and easy way for me to donate money to the school. If I had a direct debit once a month for $20 would mean a $240 donation over a year and this would then get me a tax receipt. This would mean the school gets a full $240 and I would have to pay about $100 a year less in taxes.

To get $240 dollars from me through sales of stuff, I estimate I would have to spent about $600 to $800. This costs my bottomline $360 to $560 a year - more than I can afford.

The current system means I buy about $150 work of stuff I do not need and the school gets about $65. The cost to me is the same as a donation of $240 but the school gets $175 less than if I gave a donation.