Well just a side note, from the other side of the fence. Those who get paid well pay so much in tax it's not funny, and through our tax have probably contributed far more to public schools than the voluntary payment anyway. I get annoyed at having to pay for something two or three times over. I am taxed heavy enough as it is.
I'm really glad you get something out of volunteering Beatrix, and that's great that your kids love you doing it. I get nothing out of it, honestly it is just a horrible chore to me. But I know heaps of mums who are glad they do it for a variety of reasons, from enjoying being with their children, to an insight into how the school works, to a chance to build up their CV. But activities like that need to remain voluntary otherwise they will become a much bigger chore for those staff members who have to organise a bunch of reluctant volunteers.
there was a similar thread a while back about fundraising ...
the thing I don't understand, and am wondering whether someone can explain, is why daycare, playgroup, kindergarten and school budgets seem to assume a base fee, a voluntary contribution, and fundraising ...
can someone explain why you don't just get told at the start that it costs $x per annum? rather than hedging bets about how many families will make voluntary contributions, and then parents (happily or otherwise) being asked to fundraise, join in on working bees, make extra donations, etc?
Peanutter, to partly answer your question, in Vic, they are not allowed by law to force payment, hence they are 'voluntary'. (I am talking about primary school).
However the schools really need this money so they sometimes 'downplay' the voluntary bit...
I remember back from when I was at PS we paid a "book fee" and we all sat a class at a time in the corridow and would get our exercise books and pencils and so forth item by item - and two boy from my class were excluded from the process because (according to the teacher) their parents were stingy and got them "crummy" books from the newsagency ... But text books were class sets - we didn't have our own - and our exercise books etc were kept in our tubs, and then our desks.
But from grade 6 onwards, we just had a book list and a stationery list, which our parents had to buy us before the start of the school year ...
I guess it's just another thing which has changed since I was at school!
Ness your idea would be similar to what our kinder does with the maintenance fee - you pay $50 at the start of the year and if we go to at least 2 working bees you get it back at the end of the year - don't go because you don't have time etc. then you pay the $50. Suited us as we only went to one working bee.
Another one here who dislikes volunteering at school. I do volunteer for other things, just the school/kinder stuff I can't deal with, well if they wanted me to dress as a Viking and do a presentation, I would be there in a heartbeat I respect that others love it and I hope in return they respect that I don't.
It's to provide a benefit to both parent and school since the "voluntary" component is usually tax deductible.
ETA peanutter I too remember scenes like that from my childhood except at the (obviously somewhat feral) school I was up some children had NO books at all. So for that reason I didn't mind my child's stationery going into a shared cupboard. I didn't however anticipate that such a large proportion would not be contributing in a reasonably affluent middleclassy type suburb so that my own child would miss out. That was the last year I donated supplies to the classroom cupboard.
Last edited by AnyDream; January 9th, 2012 at 05:07 PM.
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I respect that others love it and I hope in return they respect that I don't.
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