To the Editor:
Your article about school fund raising through credit-, debit-, and club-card rebate programs (“New Fund-Raising Tactics Target Parent Purchases,” May 18, 2005) neglected one very important aspect of the concept: Schools in areas with more affluent parents can benefit much, much more than schools drawing from poorer areas.
As state legislatures and school boards continue to view programs like these as viable alternatives to intense budget pressures, we are likely to see schools in more affluent areas able to maintain their “extras”—computer labs, pools, instruments, uniforms, and supplemental breakfast programs—while poorer schools will have to continue to cut and phase out such programs. Obviously, this is a problem for any kind of fund-raising project, but the ability of affluent schools to raise six-figure amounts without door-to-door sales programs is a new threat to the legitimate, adequate, and consistent funding of schools across economic lines.
Cricket Hunter
State College, Pa.
