Originally Posted by Wren
In NYC, it is bottom up. Parents do amazing fundraising. Now that we are in Toronto, in a similar gifted/gen ed combo school, I felt like she was in private school in NYC.

But there was $700 raised per student each year, plus grants to add a computer room, or redo the library.

The money paid for Spanish teacher, a really good music room and teacher, chess teacher, technology, computer teacher. But if you don't have organized parents, it doesn't happen.

In the interests of closing achievement gap, our school district specifically forbid using fundraising to hire additional teachers. And the county board of education is considered a stepping stone to a more important political position. It is very hard to change anything in a big school district like ours.