Edhat Reader
By the Teacher’s Fund
The non-profit Teacher’s Fund has launched its annual Back to School Supplies Drive with the goal of raising $75,000 to purchase educational supplies for Santa Barbara-area teachers and students.
This year’s fundraising drive launches August 20 and runs through September 20. Anyone interested in donating to the drive can do so here http://www.tfsuppliesdrive.com/. Donors can contribute to specific items requested by teachers or submit a general donation. Common teacher wish list items include STEM supplies, learning toys, art supplies, electronics, and classroom furniture.
Alternatively, individuals and organizations can sponsor the supplies drive. Sponsorship levels start at $250 and include social media mentions and entries for the chance to win one of numerous prizes and other recognitions.
All proceeds from the fundraising campaign go to help kindergarten through 12th grade teachers at Santa Barbara-area schools, from Carpinteria through to the Santa Ynez Valley. So far, each year’s drive has surpassed expectations, with the 2023 drive bringing in over $76,000.
“We are so thankful for all the generous support from the community over the years. Their contributions make a real difference for our hard-working Santa Barbara teachers and their students,” said Brianna Johnson, a realtor for Village Properties and supplies drive committee co-chair. “We’re optimistic that this year our wonderful community will once again step up and help us reach our fundraising goal.”
The Teacher’s Fund was created in 2002 by Renee Grubb, the owner of Village Properties, as a way for teachers to request much needed supplies for their classrooms. Since then, the Teacher’s Fund has donated more than $2.1 million to Santa Barbara-area schools. Over the years, as schools have faced increasing budget constraints, the Teacher’s Fund has stepped up its fundraising to provide ever greater support for teachers.
* To donate to the Teacher’s Fund Supplies Drive, visit www.TFSuppliesDrive.com between now and September 20.
* For more information or to donate directly to the Teacher’s Fund visit https://teachersfund.org/
* For information about Village Properties visit https://www.villagesite.com/
Committee members are: Renee Grubb, Brianna Johnson (co-chairs), Angel Speier, Alyssa Jones, Sheela Hunt, Dianne Johnson, Natalie Grubb, Marcy Bazanni, Vince Caballero.
Such a great program for our local teachers and students. Sad though, that as a “world leader,” like we boast to be, we still need community donations for basic school supplies. Education has got to be more of a priority in this country. We’re being far surpassed in this area by many, many other countries.
@ SACJON- Yet the State of California spends more per student then ANY other State… Close to $24,000 PER STUDENT for 180 days of school. (NOT including Free breakfasts and lunches for the student and the students family)
COAST, is that stat normalized by cost of living? If not, it’s a useless statistic.
ANON – don’t worry about that “statistic,” it’s false. The amount per student is closer to 22K and much lower depending on the year. COAST is once again just making things up out of thin air.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2022-08-26/which-states-invest-the-most-in-their-students
https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fr/eb/yr21ltr0811.asp#:~:text=The%20total%20overall%20funding%20(federal,of%20%2421%2C596%20in%202021%E2%80%9322.
https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statistics
Why not just just use SB Unified numbers?
They publish their budget, enrollment, sources of funds, etc. online
Majority of money goes to salaries $190,000,000 ($14,000 per student)
Supplies (include custodial) $11,078,000 ($816 per student)
The charity raised $76K which is great. SB Unified should double it by cutting $76K out of the communications and consultants in the budget item below.
“Services and Operating Objects 5000 – 5999 Agreements, travel and conferences, dues and memberships, insurance, operations and housekeeping, rentals, consulting, and communications.”
I’m not saying we scrimp on insurance ever, but consultants are usually overpriced
Anonymous-
The SB Unified school budget is driven by property taxes, which, driven by cost of living, are higher here than most places in the country and state. That is a stat or a $$$ amount that is higher than the most of the state and most of the country, so that $24K number is high because of the high cost of living, but is also fully funded by the high cost of living (property taxes on expensive real estate)
We are near the top of spending per student annually AROUND THE WORLD. Top 5. Easily-found stats, consistent over multiple studies. Meanwhile, we’re NOWHERE NEAR the top in student scores and overall quality of education, despite the big spending. Hmm. Spend more? That’s not the answer. I agree our education system isn’t performing well, at all. But throwing more money at it so the likes of the local District Admin. higher-ups can keep raking in heavy 6-figure salaries with sick lifetime pensions? Nah.
BASIC – The expenditure per student doesn’t accurately reflect how much is actually spent on that student’s supplies, classroom, etc. Just because we apparently spend a lot per student, doesn’t mean our teachers and students are adequately funded, that much is clearly obvious.
There are many teachers in this country working 2nd jobs just to pay the bills. They are having to buy their own school supplies for their classrooms. Something isn’t figuring out here. Yeah, Admins make a good chunk and perhaps they could reallocate those funds, but schools need Principals and staff, as do district offices. You can’t just do away with “admin.”
Something needs to be fixed in this country with education and the answer isn’t defunding public schools in favor of private school “vouchers.”
Remember, only one candidate wants to abolish the Department of Education. Vote wisely if you’re really concerned about this issue.
Great program! The funds/supplies go direct to the teacher & classroom.
The funding per student is money that goes towards administrative salaries, not to classrooms, not to maintenance & repairs, not to teachers salaries.
Just walk some school campuses and see windows that don’t open, peeling paint, termite droppings on kids back packs, etc…
Highly paid and large number of administrators.
True that. We just need to find a way to take over and redirect more of our tax back towards the students. Unfortunately, the trend around here is EXACTLY the opposite. Hilda and her predecessor have killed the budget with their purchase of the Armory (now a storage lot?) and adding highly-paid executive positions to sit around the table at meetings? F- that.
Cleaning house at the School Board level by voting in folks who have a sense of what the word education means and who they are accountable to (teachers, parents, students, taxpayers) is the best way forward. We’ll see. Fiscal-responsibility and accountability aren’t popular “talking points” amongst enough SB area voters. The DEI mantra and a bunch of other PC BS stuff are, and that’s a big part of how we got into this poor situation in educating our kids. It’s sad.
COAST – everything you said in your deleted comment is absolutely false.
Do you intentionally make things up or do you get your “facts” from memes on Truth Social? I’m genuinely curious.