Private Contributions and Public Education?
Fascinating op-ed piece in the September 4, 2013, New York Times about the alleged perfidy of voluntary contributions by parents (read: annual giving) to public school district foundations. To the author, Rob Reich from Stanford University, such contributions only serve to make rich districts richer and disproportionately disadvantage poorer districts.
To me, the article underscores the extent to which public schools are adopting more and more of the private, independent business model, and may portend interesting and challenging proposals for changes to the charitable donation income tax deduction in the U.S. (see Reich's ideas on this point). Anyway, one more thing to keep an eye on.