From state budget cuts to federal tax reform, school funding faces real constraints from all sides. But school budgets go beyond public dollars. A hidden piece of the school finance equation is private money raised by parent organizations, funds that give schools flexibility to pay for additional supplies, field trips, and classroom teachers.

The richest PTAs raise and spend more than $43 million a year for the country’s wealthiest schools. But schools serving low-income students, unable to match these dollars, are left without.

Some districts are addressing this problem in creative ways. Portland Public Schools in Oregon, for example, redistributes a portion of parent donations through an equity fund. Other districts, like Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, limit how parent donations can be spent. In theory, this puts the responsibility on the district to provide schools with equitable core resources, particularly around staffing. Neither policy appears to significantly affect the level of parent contributions. But they have not always gone over well, with some more affluent communities advocating to keep donations in their own schools.

Another approach districts use is to encourage schools to use PTA donations to fund enrichment programs that benefit multiple schools. One way to do this is to partner with a community organization or districtwide nonprofit to create programming for the entire district.

Read the full article by Samantha Batel about parent-teacher associations at low-income schools from The 74