Schooling

Hubby and I went to a fundraiser last night for Aidan's school. It was interesting to talk to other parents about the plight of our schools.

We were indoctrinated to attend fundraisers for schools while Aidan was an infant. The school he went to was a non profit and there were a few centers sprinkled throughout the Bay Area. All the schools got together to throw a big party at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco, and of course, we were curious. That year, we were the only parents from his class who attended the party, and easily won the silent auction for his class project, a little wooden bench. (We still have it, and we love how Aidan's thumb was used to make the art on it.) That fundraiser, and all the subsequent ones were very fun. The food was always fantastic and this mama loves any chance to dress up.

If you are a long time reader here, you probably remember how I went crazy after losing the auction to some parents that bid via the PHONE in 2008- dude, that was NOT cool. (I will try to stay calm and not rehash the whole story.) You will also remember how in 2009 I essentially gave away our planned annual gift to my alma mater in order to win a wind chime.

Well, Zoe transferred schools, while still at the same kind of school, her school went through a transition and is no longer a non profit and thus, not legally allowed to have fundraisers. We will be sad to not attend a fabulous party at the Ritz this year...

Thus, it was with great expectations that we eagerly bought our tickets. Hubby had done a photo project for Aidan's teacher to raise funds within the classroom, and we were eager to see what else was there. Then life took place, I got my #4 cold of the year. Seriously?! What happened to my immune system? None of these colds had been awful, just annoying. I tried to get rid of the tickets last week, to no avail. Defeatedly, I booked ourselves a sitter and got ready to go fundraiser for a public school, the irony...

My main observation: For a very Asian school (if you saw the video, you would know what I mean), there were very, very few Asians there. Hubby and I joked that the only way to get masses of Asian parents to go was to have auctions on promises of "I will not ignore your child" or "I will get your child to Harvard." Asian parents, in general, would not be interested in a $49 coupon to Massage Envy. Asian parents probably go to the massage factories in China Town for $10.

We were pleased, however, that we 'won' the auction for Aidan to have lunch with his teacher. We 'won' it, because we were the only parents from his class. We 'won' by default. That suited my competitive spirit, but wasn't all that great for the fund raising purpose. While we were excited to tell Aidan about his upcoming date with Mrs. S, he said, "Well, I don't want to go to Red Robin, I want to go to sushi. Who is going to pay? Will other children be there?" It will be interesting to arrange this, no doubt.

As for the poor health of our educational system, I am utterly disgusted. For my faithful readers, you know how much I write/rant about taxes here, yet last Monday, Hubby and I voted to tax ourselves in the form of a parcel tax for schools. We either are not that convinced we shouldn't have to pay more in taxes, or we are totally concerned about our schools. It is definitely the latter.

For now, we have decided to not put Aidan in independent schools- we want him to know our neighborhood kids, to be exposed to different kinds of people (I fully realize that this is kind of a joke, given that I think the families are very, very much the same socioeconomically, educationally...etc.) Besides, I don't have $26,000 (post tax money) for him to go to school. That $26,000 will actually be at least $40,000 in terms of gross income (about 30% federal tax and 10% CA tax.) Instead, we have opted to buy more educational experiences for him, in forms of soccer, Kumon, swimming...etc. (So I am not completely adhering to my no-more-than-two activities at a time plan, and I realize the cost of these activities still require my post tax money...)

I have no idea what the right thing is terms of education reform, or even healthcare reform, since we are talking about reforms. What I know is this: The government, clearly, can't mange them well, or even manage them. Maybe it is time to just make them all charter schools, privatize everything, and give that a go. Forget tiered tax system, forget income tax, and instead, charge 100% sales tax, those who can afford it will still buy things. Vote out the incumbents, let's go crazy. =)