Of course, based on true Judeo-Christian principles, these communities would raise that money for LOW-income communities rather than bestowing it on their own already-privileged kids — well, never mind, we’d better not go there.

Ignore that last paragraph. I’ve been wanting to know, here in San Francisco, why we don’t have that same kind of high-visibility foundation — in your face all the time, and always in sight, with stickers in every retailer and restaurant window announcing that they support the community schools — for our kids. It’s not like we don’t have plenty of rich people in town, at least here in San Francisco!

I know Oakland has a lot of poverty, but I’ve been in those hill neighborhoods too — it also has wealth. So why not? Why haven’t urban communities emulated the high-end suburbs with ubiquitous foundations supporting their schools, a cause no one would dare ignore?

It gets complicated in Oakland because you have so much Broad “rhymes with toad” and other outside “philanthropic” funding (and I guess inside too, from that ice cream family) attempting to turn your district into a privatization paradise. We’ve had just a little dabbling from those folks on our side of the bay, but they seem to prefer yours — maybe they don’t like the fog.

About school funding, I think too many people are complacent in the state of California. They accept school funding while griping about it at the same time, and if they are families of public school children, they cough up money because they know if they sent their kids to private school, they’d be coughing up a lot more. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In states where education funding is a priority, such as NY and NJ, they still have school nurses, librarians, art and music teachers paid for by the districts. They have smaller class sizes, and they pay their teachers good salaries and benefits. I have many friends and family members who teach public school in NJ and also have kids attending schools in NJ and NY, and it just is so different there. Here’s a prime example: one of my brothers teaches 8th grade history in a NJ public school. Last year, his smallest class had 15 students and his largest, 23. I, on the other hand, also an 8th grade teacher, struggled with an average of 34 students in my classes. If we want a quality educational system in CA, we must demand it from our elected officials. And we need to repeal Prop. 13, because it is the source of our funding problems. It is this law that sets the bar for imposing new taxes at the supermajority level. We end up with the tyranny of the minority, because a school district might lose a bond measure because they got 66% of the vote and not the required 67%.

Parent involvement is crucial at all levels and in whatever ways a parent can be involved with their children and their schools. For more affluent parents who also bring certain skills to the table, such as computer or fundraising skills, it is easy to figure out how to plug oneself into the existing parent involvement structure. But for families who are struggling financially, whose skill levels in English are limited, or who, for whatever reason, don’t feel like they can offer something, it is much harder to figure out how to volunteer. Still, I believe Glenview Elementary and the Glenview PTA does a pretty good job inviting parents to volunteer and participate at whatever level they feel comfortable with. This is why we have volunteers show up for our Halloween Carnival, the twice yearly bookfair, and many other events. Many parents don’t want to attend meetings and don’t want to take on leadership roles on a project, but they are willing to lend a necessary hand.

Schools shouldn’t be expected to go without, but a handful of dedicated parents shouldn’t be expected to carry the load for all in a district.

The foundation works well in Mill Valley because most everyone there is affluent and can afford to give, and many live there specifically for the schools. Not so in Oakland. The foundation works in Orinda for many of the same reasons, and because it’s a small community where a parent is hounded to give with multiple phone calls until they pony up $550 per child to the education foundation, while being encouraged to give more at school auctions, fundraisers, etc. This is not our financial reality in Oakland. It IS a sad reality that our Oakland school has to fundraise in order to pay workers to adequately supervise children at school, not to mention paying for things like art or music class.