Schools in West Linn (elementary schools, property taxes, living in)

[mathgeek]

I am currently living in Orange County, CA and considering relocating to West Linn but I have a few questions regarding the schools in West Linn. Here, our elementary schools are requesting monetary donations to keep teachers, music programs, etc.. ranging in amounts from $60 to $400 per child at the school. I think this is outrageous considering I am paying high property taxes to go towards the schools. And not to mention asking a family with 2 children in an elementary school to pay $800 for a free education does not make any sense to me. Do the schools in West Linn ask for donations of this kind? I understand all schools seem to have supply lists, ours include copy paper, 2-3 reams per child, but are yours as extensive? Not everyone who lives in Orange County is wealthy and can afford these expenses every year.

[Steve97415]

Originally Posted by mathgeek

I am currently living in Orange County, CA and considering relocating to West Linn but I have a few questions regarding the schools in West Linn. Here, our elementary schools are requesting monetary donations to keep teachers, music programs, etc.. ranging in amounts from $60 to $400 per child at the school. I think this is outrageous considering I am paying high property taxes to go towards the schools. And not to mention asking a family with 2 children in an elementary school to pay $800 for a free education does not make any sense to me. Do the schools in West Linn ask for donations of this kind? I understand all schools seem to have supply lists, ours include copy paper, 2-3 reams per child, but are yours as extensive? Not everyone who lives in Orange County is wealthy and can afford these expenses every year.

I think that's crazy. I guess everyone in the OC has their hand out these days. The way that this extra support is supposed to be organized is through educational foundations. West Linn does a pretty good job supporting the schools. The community is likely to support bond measures if the district budget goes into crisis mode. There are also two educational foundations that operate as 501(c)(3) charities: MAP (Music and Arts Partners) works to ensure that students have resources for fine arts education. Teach the Children Foundation is dedicated to preserving reasonable class sizes so that teacher-to-pupil ratios don't get overwhelming. If you have kids in the district I'm sure that your participation in one of those foundations would be appreciated, but nobody's going to try and make you cough up extra cash at matriculation time.

[mathgeek]

Thank you very much for the information! This type of information is hard to find from afar and online so it helps to hear it from you. I realize all states are hurting education wise but I wanted to know that it wasn't all expected to come from families.