Last night this contest mercifully ended, and the twenty winning schools were announced. There was even one school here in Charlotte that won. A private school with 110 students. And yes, I voted for them.
One thing that struck me about this contest though, was how flawed it was. If you look at the winning schools, you’ll see that most of them are private. You’ll also notice that most of them are founded on religious principles, but that doesn’t bother me (no really it doesn't – so don't make this about religion). What bothers me is that Kohl’s just gave away 10 million dollars to schools that don’t need the money. Private schools are businesses. If you say you're going to use the money to make your school better, that's a great business move and one that will definitely affect people who can afford to pay your tuition. But don't think for a second that this contest was ever about helping educate children in this country.
Our children attend a public Montessori school with one of the longest wait lists in Charlotte. It’s a popular choice not just because of Maria Montessori’s brilliant and popular foundational curriculum, but because of an extremely close-knit school community that treats each other like family. Our annual fundraiser occurs when two major events take place at a convention center next to our campus and we charge patrons to park on our grounds. Parent volunteers facilitate this effort and it earns us about 20K a year – every penny of which is poured back into our school. Our school has over 300 students. And we are lucky. Trust me, I’m not complaining that we didn’t get the money from Kohl’s. We don’t really need it. In fact, had we jumped on this contest early and we were the ones in the hunt for the prize – I guarantee you we’d figure out a way to take only what we needed and give the rest to other public schools that really need it.
So when I see Kohl’s giving money hand over fist to the wealthiest schools in the educational system for no other reason than getting people to click on a Like button – it makes me wonder why Kohl’s didn’t turn this into a legitimate competition based on legitimate plans and legitimate needs rather than a popularity contest that begged you to click a button five times.
But why should Kohl’s care? This kind of money is nothing to them. So instead of anonymously stashing it into random NFPs to dodge taxes, they’ve just scored a public relations win while developing a massive database in what can only be called the biggest social media coup in history.
Congratulations to all the private schools who won this contest. You’re popular. And rich.
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Anonymous
Sep 27, 2010
I’m sorry but you are very wrong about the private schools being rich businesses. Many, if not all of the schools that I know of that were in this contest are non-profit organizations that are constantly struggling to survive. They rely on fundraising events and philanthropists to survive. With the economy going down the tubes the big philanthropists cannot support all of these schols anymore so they are in worse financial straights than ever. $500,000 can go a long way for these schools.
na
Oct 4, 2010
Really you should do alittle more research before you post sir, like the person above said I know that most of the “religious” schools that won struggle every year just to keep their doors open. Try to think before you type.
Jim Mitchem
Oct 4, 2010
Thanks for your concern, but since this is my blog and I feel strongly about this topic, I’ll say whatever the hell I damn well please thank you very much. Why do private schools exist to begin with? As a business. Every child has the opportunity to attend public school, but because of personal reasons some folks choose to pay for their children to attend private school. And that costs money. If these schools need money, raise tuition. It’s that simple. And if the student’s family isn’t able to pay this tuition – there’s always the public school option. I could go on a rant about how I think that private schools get over on their clients to begin with, but I’ll leave it at that. Like it or not, the majority of students in this country who stand to benefit most from such benevolence attend public schools. Despite your pointing out that many private school children are in desperate need.
Jim Mitchem
Oct 4, 2010
Why do private schools exist to begin with? As a business. Every child has the opportunity to attend public school, but because of personal reasons some folks choose to pay for their children to attend private school. And that costs money. If these schools need money, raise tuition. It’s that simple. And if the student’s family isn’t able to pay this tuition – there’s always the public school option. I could go on a rant about how I think that private schools get over on their clients to begin with, but I’ll leave it at that. Like it or not, the majority of students in this country who stand to benefit most from such benevolence attend public schools. Despite your pointing out that many private school children are in desperate need.
na
Oct 8, 2010
Some families that are religious IE Jewish dont have the option of public school. I agree that there are MANY public schools the good have benefited from this money, but they didnt win. As far as every private school being a business well thats just silly. Thats like saying every church is a buisness…
Jim Mitchem
Oct 8, 2010
So, it’s against some religions to go to public school? And for the record, all religions are businesses.
Also, poor children go to public school. Not private school. Poorer children have LESS access to the internet than kids who aren’t as poor. Let’s call those kids private school kids. Thus, this ‘contest’ that the public school kids didn’t ‘win’ was skewed to the rich religious kids in the first place.
This contest was a really bad idea. Sorry man.
My novel – Minor King
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