PTA Inc.: Wealthy parents are picking up the tab at some New York City schools

ANDREW SAVULICH/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Central Harlem's Public School 200, the James McCune Smith School, where 90% of the kids qualify for free lunch receives, barely raises a few thousand dollars a year from parents to cover basic student needs like uniforms.

The quality of education — from extra teachers to after-school programs — often comes down to the depth of parents’ pockets.

Parent-teacher groups at some of the city's most well-off public schools have opened their checkbooks to up the ante on their children's education. Other groups raise money to supply uniforms for indigent students. Some organizations raise no money at all.

But quantifying the gap between the amount of money raised by parents in poor and wealthy districts is an exercise in guesswork due to city data riddled with errors.

The money raised by the more affluent parent-teacher groups goes to pay for items big and small — everything from specialized teachers to arts, science and after-school programs. Groups at some of the city's poorer schools, meanwhile, use what little they can scrape together to buy basics like school supplies for kids whose parents can't afford them.

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At the Brooklyn School of Inquiry, a citywide school for the gifted and talented, the parent-teacher organization raised $556,000 last year through direct appeals, bake sales and other programs. That allowed the organization to spend an estimated $2,077 per student, among the highest in the city, the Daily News found in an analysis of parent fund-raising data provided by city Department of Education.

The group used its haul to pay for arts, science and chess programs, and salaries for three specialty teachers — a science coach, math co-teacher and a library media/technology teacher — according to the PTO's website.

The website urges parents to give, saying “The Department of Education doesn't pay for these: your tax deductible contributions do.”

“I think the PTO is really the lifeblood of the school,” said Donna Taylor, who has been principal of the school, where 20% of students qualify for free lunch, since it opened in 2009. "It is a known fact that when families are involved, kids do better."

Under city guidelines, parent organizations must use fund-raising proceeds “to enhance the education, social and cultural programs of the school.” The money can’t be used to hire teachers for core subjects like math, science, English and history.

Hundreds of parent groups reported raising nothing last school year.

A more comprehensive analysis of parent fund-raising was not possible because of inaccurate records maintained by the DOE. Nearly 600 of the 1,635 groups in the city's data reported financial results that did not balance to zero — meaning there were errors in the calculations of the money raised and the amount spent. In some cases, the data was six or seven figures off the mark.

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In a glaring example, the numbers at Public School 110 on the Lower East Side, also known as Florence Nightingale, were off more than $10 million. The PTA's president, Arthur Shettle, said he wasn't sure how the DOE got it so wrong.

"I think they just put the decimal point in the wrong place," he laughed, adding that the school raised about $90,000 last year, which paid for things like music, dance and science enrichment programs.

TODD MAISEL/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

At the Brooklyn School of Inquiry, a citywide school for the gifted and talented, the parent-teacher organization raised $556,000 last year through direct appeals, bake sales and other programs.

A city spokesman said many of the financial reports may not balance out perfectly due to human error, but that the DOE is working with the parent groups to avoid repeatig those mistakes in the future.

“For the first time ever the DOE is now actively collecting PTA financial reports. These reports are the key to bringing transparency to our PTAs, something that had been sorely lacking in the past,” said DOE spokesman Harry Hartfield.

“Most PTAs submitted completed and accurate reports the first time around. Some will need more assistance with the new system. Going forward we will expect every single one of our PTAs to submit a completed report — this is not business as usual,” he added.

Education Department records also did not include any information for two parent organizations well-known for their prodigious fund-raising efforts — Brooklyn's Public School 29 John M. Harrigan and Manhattan's Public School 6 Lillie D. Blake, which raised $971,000 and $896,000, respectively, in the 2012-2013 school year.

And the DOE does not track the untold number of alumni foundations that also heap big money on their alma maters — such as ones benefitting Brooklyn Tech, which Mayor de Blasio’s son Dante attends, and LaGuardia High School.

The most recently available tax filings for the foundations tied to Brooklyn Tech and LaGuardia show annual revenue of $2 million and $765,000, respectively, that went toward things like state-of-the-art equipment, world-class guest lecturers, and scholarships for prestigious summer programs.

Even the city's budget watchdog, the Independent Budget Office, is in the dark about how much privately raised money is flowing into the public and charter schools.

"My general observation both in public and charter schools is that private money is very, very squishy," said Raymond Domanico, the agency's director of education research. "There's no specific place where you can look and say how much private money got into that school."

Central Harlem's Public School 200, the James McCune Smith School, where 90% of the kids qualify for free lunch, is one of the more than 700 schools — including 255 in the Bronx and 238 in Brooklyn — that the DOE's data showed raised zero dollars last year. Elementary school kids there are greeted each day with a sign that hangs in disrepair, some letters completely missing and others hanging askew.

P.S. 200 officials pegged their fund-raising at barely a few thousand dollars a year in the best of times, which goes to help meet the school and students’ basic needs — buying uniforms and coats for students who can't afford them and equipment for the gym.

The school has been dealt a hard hand — officials estimate a third of its students live in transitional housing situations where making ends meet is a struggle.

"We aren't fortunate enough to raise thousands and thousands," said PTA president Tinya Smith Campbell, who has three children at the school.

While needy schools do have access to additional government money through mechanisms like the federal Title 1 and the city Fair Student Funding programs, restrictions governing that money are far tighter than the rules governing parent organization funds.

Also, nonprofits such as New Visions and the Fund for Public Schools provide grants to high-needs schools.

Hartfield said PTA money “does not factor into how the DOE determines a school’s budget and would not lead to any resources being taken away from a school.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/pta-rich-parents-pick-tab-schools-article-1.2151322