words by chris faraone and arielle ozery | photos by arielle ozery
Despite the recent announcements of countless development projects and other municipal expenditures, school budgets are again on the chopping block. It’s allegedly everyone’s fault–the federal government, the state, you name it–and as usual, kids bear the brunt of it.
So with traditional BPS parents arguing that charter schools and poor management are draining money from the budgets of the institutions their children attend, this week a group of them held a bake sale on City Hall Plaza with the metaphorical goal of raising $61 million.
The Dig arrived at the start, and was excited to see that, despite the theater of it all, there was actually a sweet sale afoot. In fact parents were running around frantically to get treats on the table, and to wrangle all their kids in at the same time.
Hardly sitting on the sidelines, some young participants were even pitching to potential customers, “Buy a yummy cupcake and help save my school please!” The parents weren’t too shy either. “Before this shit started,” one father told the Dig while kids were out of earshot … “I knew nothing about charter schools. I was just a happy parent … and now …”
After only 10 minutes, they’d already made $100. If their goals weren’t so lofty, they’d probably be able to do relatively well. “Yeah, we’ve made $100 so far,” one parent told us, “but we’ve got a hell of a long way to go.”
