© AP / Matt RourkeKindergarten school teacher, Shannon Raftery raised funds through crowdfunding to supplement the money she took out of each paycheck to pay for classroom supplies.
Contributions to education campaigns have climbed on GoFundMe and DonorsChoose, collectively, from just more than $31.2 million in 2010 to nearly $140 million in 2015, the do-it-yourself fundraising sites report. Both sites are on pace to eclipse that in 2016.
GoFundMe has collected $58 million in just the last 12 months, and DonorsChoose saw more than 50,000 campaigns live on the site for the first time this back-to-school season.
In her first year as an elementary school teacher in Kingman, Arizona, Shannon Raftery raised $340 through crowdfunding to supplement the money she took out of each paycheck to pay for classroom supplies. Now in Philadelphia, she's looking to raise $500 for her new kindergarten classroom at Roosevelt Elementary School.
She has a supportive principal, she said, but there is just not enough money in the notoriously cash-strapped Philadelphia district to equip her classroom the way she'd like.
Comment: While the defense budget balloons, cutbacks to school funding have forced teachers to provide items that used to be provided by school districts. Data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found more than 30 states actually paid less per student in school funding in 2014 than they did in 2008. But none of this is surprising as the PTB have no interest in creating a generation of intelligent, creative problem solvers, but rather a compliant, brainwashed populace that won't question the established authorities.