School fundraising is financial burden for parents

Dear Editor,

To begin, school pictures, a package including an 8x10, starts at about $60. A 5x7 and a dozen wallets are over $30. A couple of kids, plus soccer pictures [and] this really added up this month. This same photography company even goes to my baby's daycare! The people running this business have to be laughing all the way to the bank. They are going to every elementary, middle and high school in Chesterfield County, plus area daycare centers! Donald Trump isn't this smart.

But, hold on - each child has a fundraiser, which they are so excited to participate in, because they've been pumped up at school to receive bonuses of chocolate bars if they sell four magazine subscriptions. Fundraisers are banned from many places of business. The neighbor's kids are selling the same thing, so that isn't an option. That leaves the parents to incur the cost for the fundraisers. The PTA is $10, plus $5 for each additional school. The yearbooks are $35, plus for an extra $4, you can now buy a charm to put on it. And, today is the book fair - please mom, can we have $20 each to buy books? NO!!! Enough is enough.

The irony is that the goal of the school is to provide the best education for our children, yet at the same time, hoping their parents are dumb enough to incur these ludicrous expenses. I worked in a school district in another state - I know things have to go out to bid, and I cannot believe that this photography company, which I've been financing for the last seven years, has received the contract year after year. Why can't the county find a less expensive company? To add insult to injury, they have them back again in the spring, only this time, they offer the class picture for $10. I'm not talking about high school graduation pictures. Most parents want to be supportive of our schools; however, the school board members have to do a better job finding ways to finance. School pictures are important, but this feels like price gouging. You cannot compare this cost to a private photographer, because the county volume is enormous.

I'm all for supporting the school, the school dances, the sprit wear clothes, school supplies, selling hotdogs at the spring festival, the PTA - fine, but be fair, most of these other expenses are so ridiculously overpriced, the community is totally exploited and taken advantage of. The fundraisers are probably the most important financial benefit for the students, but added into everything else, most parents have to say yes to some things and no to others. My bet is that most folks forgo the fundraisers because of the expense of the pictures and yearbooks. Can't you at least give parents a month in between all of these costs, so we don't have to pick and choose? All of the above expenses in the first five weeks of school? We balked about paying $60 to fill our gas tanks over the summer, why wouldn't we balk when we're writing checks for $60 each week?

The good thing to come out of this is that all of our children should be learning a lesson about price gouging and exploitation as their parents gasp at every cost. My children agree that this is ridiculous, books are cheaper in Barnes and Noble, pictures are cheaper everywhere, and if they want yearbooks, they forego fundraisers and book fairs. I think every family in Chesterfield should just say no to some of these outlandish expenses. According to my children, "everyone does it," but my kids just got smarter and now know "everyone is getting ripped off." Supporting the schools is necessary. I encourage everyone to do so, but to pay these prices for basic services, I ask that parents say no, and start becoming as smart as we would like our children to be.

C. Frey Chesterfield