Yes

by M. Akened

Created on: January 22, 2010   Last Updated: January 24, 2010

Those of you with children in school are most likely familiar with a little something called “fundraising.” Children go door to door taking orders from their neighbors for everything ranging from cookies and pizza dough to magazines and wrapping paper. A few weeks later, the delivery is made and the school profits from the sale. I remember coming home from school many times, my backpack stuffed with thick product catalogs and order pads, ready to put my flourishing entrepreneurial skills to the test. It was a service to the community, a rite of passage, and a good source of income for our poorly-funded public schools.

The most obvious benefit of this sort of fundraising is just that - it raises funds. With the exception of schools located in very affluent areas, American public schools are generally underfunded. They rely solely on taxes - which in poorer areas is a meager source of income - and “equalizing” laws that attempt to spread the wealth out over a state but that are filled with loopholes. Walk into almost any public school and you will see shortages: children unable to bring their books home with them since there aren’t enough to go around, outdated equipment in science and computer labs, schools having to cancel due to heat since they can’t afford fans. My senior year of high school, one could get extra credit in a course by bringing in boxes of tissues, as teachers were expected to provide them themselves since there wasn’t room in the budget. Tissues and fans should not be the teachers’ responsibility - they’re underpaid enough as it is, and with recent budget cuts face further income reductions or job loss. Hiring the cheapest teachers instead of the best should not have to be the policy for educating our children. If fundraising can alleviate these budget concerns, why not utilize it?

Some, however, may make the claim that using children as door to door salesmen is child labor or that it is dangerous. These claims are entirely unjustified. Child labor laws were meant to prevent children from working long and dangerous hours to the detriment of their education, not to prevent them from smiling pretty at their next door neighbor and asking if they’d like to buy a chocolate bar. It is no more illegal to use children in school fundraising than it is to allow them to open a lemonade stand or to sell Girl Scout cookies. And every time I was given fundraising packets as a child, we were clearly instructed not to go door to door alone; children are well educated on “stranger danger” to the point of almost over-vigilance. If a parent allows their child to knock on strangers’ doors unattended, it is not the fault of the school - it is poor parenting.

In fact, I would go so far as to make the claim that not only is this practice not harmful to children, but it is actually beneficial to them. It can be a child’s first experience with the financial system: they see effort going in and money coming out, and it is done in a positive environment. They learn early the value of work, while having the lesson taught to them by people who have their best interests at heart - parents, neighbors, and teachers. Isn’t this far better than to allow children to live pampered and unaware of where money comes from or to have their first experience be a thankless one flipping hamburgers?

Lastly, school fundraising is often beneficial to the community. While, granted, products are sometimes overpriced, most of the times they are things that someone would be buying anyway: renewing magazine subscriptions, buying wrapping paper or boxes of candy come Christmas time. I, for one, would rather pay a little bit extra for my wrapping paper knowing that the profits are going to the local school rather than buying it from a store where the profits go into the hands of some rich CEO. Coupons to local restaurants or businesses - another popular form of fundraising - serve to stimulate the local economy, indirectly benefiting the school further and benefiting the owners of small businesses at the same time.

It is clear to see, then, that children doing door to door fundraising for their schools is a beneficial practice for all involved. It is a time-honored tradition that should not be done away with because of overhyped claims of danger or child labor; with the American economy facing the tough times it is, we need it more than ever. Our children deserve better than a second rate education, and fundraising can help us avoid that.

Learn more about this author, M. Akened.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.