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Pencils and textbooks just won’t suffice.
To reach and inspire today’s students, the best school teachers yearn for so much more – a science kit, an iPad, a field trip and other “wish-list” tools and experiences that can complement day-to-day classroom lessons.
Thanks to school foundations, including the area’s newly started Wyoming Valley West Education Foundation, you can equip your alma mater or another deserving institution with more of the material things its faculty craves to help students thrive. Kind of like a sports booster club, only focused on academic activities, not athletic ones.
Admittedly, certain people will scoff at the idea. I pay taxes for public education, their thinking goes, so why contribute a penny more?
Most of us recognize, however, that for many reasons teachers sometimes find classroom supplies and “extras” out of reach financially. Foundations exist to allow school advocates to fill that gap.
Find out if a nonprofit foundation has been set up to benefit your local school district. If not, consider what you and like-minded residents can do to create one. The National School Foundation Association, based in Illinois, offers advice on its website, at www.schoolfoundations.org.
Valley West alumnus Michael Plaksin, organizer of the startup foundation, said its backers aim to raise an initial $40,000 to $50,000. Donations are anticipated from Spartan alumni spread across the nation.
The foundation’s board members, who will review funding requests from faculty and staff, likely will try to support at least one project each year in the high school, middle school and elementaries.
Beyond philanthropy of this sort, you can find other ways to “invest” in area schools’ mission of encouraging students to succeed. Attend the district’s school board meetings. Participate in a Parent Teacher Organization. Tutor. Or volunteer with one of the region’s many child-focused organizations, such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bridge, Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeastern Pennsylvania or the McGlynn Center.
No matter where you stand on divisive matters like school taxes and standardized tests, you probably will agree every child should be afforded a good education.
After all, isn’t that how you got your start?