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Booster Clubs for Academics

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July 2, 2009

We have booster clubs for high school baseball, basketball, football, girls softball, golf, band, etc All these groups of parents work their rumps off to help their children's extracurricular activities. The booster clubs hold golf tournaments, bake sales, bingo events, anything to raise money to pay for uniforms, score boards and fields of play and gear. Local businesses donate all kinds of items for sale or outright donations of money. This is great for the teams and band.

I have a novel idea, why don't we start academic booster clubs. We've all read how teachers have to fund items for their classrooms. Well... that's total crap. There are not enough text books for our kids to bring home to study. Not enough computers for the classrooms. The air conditioners don't work in the spring and early summer and heating doesn't work well in the winter. All these lead to poor learning environments.

Instead of our heating and air conditioning repair companies donating cash to various clubs, how about donating manpower and parts to repairing our school infrastructure?

Instead of plumbing companies donating cash to various clubs, fix the plumbing.

Other companies can donate money to buy additional math and science textbooks. Buy beakers and computers. Local businesses could donate TV monitors to view online and cable educational activities. Buy art supplies and how about landscaping companies supplying trees and other green plants for outdoor classrooms.

Our Latin American businesses could donate money to Spanish language classes. Car dealers to automotive classes. Etc, Etc, and more Etc.

Please don't say we already pay school taxes, I know we do but it is not enough. I'm not against the extracurricular activities at all, my children participated in many of them but our children are being deprived of educational opportunities and these academic booster clubs could be a great solution for their academic achievement.

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5.	Posted by realdeal July 2, 2009
	Cowbell, if I'm not mistaken, you said you double space your posts to make them easier to read. Well, it actually just makes them look extremely long, when what you're really trying to say could be condensed about halway of what it appears. Plus, and I cannot speak for all posters here, most people can easily read single spaced sentences, unless of course you're on a 2nd grade reading level and what not. Then, all the extra space might prove helpful. That's all, just had to get that off my chest.

4.	Posted by more_cowbell . July 2, 2009
	Why not support the further gambling at horse tracks to fund this instead? Here is why. Taxes are normally levied on an item or real estate that has value.. can we agree on that point? Gambling has no real value. It provides no service to the community. It also causes societal problems I bet many of you in favor of gambling, dont even gamble youselves. I'm calling for better money mgt as a solution. Look at KACO. How much money is wasted there. Schools are no exception. My wife is a teacher and she has to buy supplies. I personally think a lot of money that is supposed to go to edu gets rerouted. I mean, where is all the lottery money>>>????

3.	Posted by trying July 2, 2009
	It's a great idea. One 'booster' club is the PTA btw. They buy all the stuff and depend greatly on fundraisers and donations. A year+ ago, when the decision was made to eliminate the literacy aid positions for the county schools because there just wasn't enough money, people formed a 'booster' club so to speak to raise the money to save those position. Early literacy work is so important. Buecker decided not to take them up on the offer because although apparently enough funding was available to pay for the positions for at least a year further funding was not yet ensured at the time of decision. She wanted a secure source of continuous funding not just a bridge until the district had enough money again to pay for stuff like that. Lesson learned, you can try but the district might not take it. As it is, they rely on the PTA and parent volunteers/donors. There are the odd one time donations. The automotive classes gut a motor or something from Montaplast. There was something about that in the paper. I think donations also made archery lessons possible at Westridge. Yes, it would be nice to have such a 'booster' club. But the PTA is a good start. Unfortunately, few parents find their way to the meetings and actively participate.

2.	Posted by drwhit July 2, 2009
	Why not support the further gambling at horse tracks to fund this instead?

1.	Posted by NotFromHere July 2, 2009
	Getting my popcorn ready....

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