What is our role in the West Seattle Public Schools Equity Fund (WSPSE)?
As inequities in funding sources for our area public schools remain, our Pathfinder PTSA has committed the past two years to partnering with other well-resourced public West Seattle schools by contributing a portion of our budget to a shared fund, known as the West Seattle Public Schools Equity Fund (WSPSE). The funds are then distributed annually to historically under-resourced public elementary (and K8) West Seattle schools, also called “fundshifting.” Want to know more about WSPSE and what we are trying to accomplish to help our community schools?
What is fundshifting?
Great question! In the traditional, charitable model of giving, we didn’t acknowledge the impacts of centuries of racism, sexism and ableism on our economic, health and educational systems. The move toward shifting resources is an intentional redistribution of wealth from those who have benefited from centuries of wealth accumulation to those who have suffered generations of systemic racism. So, when we shift PTA funds, we are acknowledging, for example, the historical impact redlining had on Black families’ ability to create generational wealth, and the challenges schools in these redlined neighborhoods continue to face because of this. Fundshifting asks us to question why we have such an extreme division of wealth between our neighboring PTAs and examine the positive actions we can take toward disrupting systems of oppression.
Can I make a personal contribution? Do you need business sponsorships?
Although we welcome donations of any size and from any donor, our main mission is to shift funding that is already coming through PTAs. However, you can certainly make a donation, which will be used to help support our minimal annual operating costs. To make a donation or to get details about sponsorship, please contact us. We’d love to talk with you.
We’d also encourage you to be an advocate at Pathfinder for greater funding transparency and share why shifting PTA funds is important to you. Thank you for your passion for making our public schools more equitable!
Is the West Seattle Public School Equity Fund a 501(c)3 nonprofit?
Alliance for Education is the WSPSEF fiscal sponsor and receives a 6% fee of the fund for important oversight and services including: accountability & stability, tax deductibility, giving options, efficient and secure donation handling, timely & accurate accounting & payables processing, and submission of donated funds. All contributions and distributions are managed by their staff and board. For more information about their fiscal services and how they partner with WSPSEF, please see their Fiscal Services page.
How are the funds split?
The formula to determine who is eligible to receive funds and how the funds will be split is set by the Advisory Committee on an annual basis. The Advisory Committee includes 1-2 representatives from every contributing and recipient school, which included Concord, Gatewood, Genesee Hill, Highland Park, Lafayette, Pathfinder, Roxhill Sanislo and West Seattle for the inaugural year. Each school chose their Advisory Committee representatives. For the 2022/23 school year the Advisory Committee used OSPI’s Washington State Report Card data on Enrollment of Underserved Groups and SPS Equity Tiers to make their determination. Gatewood, Genesee Hill, Lafayette, and Pathfinder shifted funds to Concord ($4,646), Highland Park ($4,366), Roxhill ($4,130), Sanislo ($2,507) and West Seattle ($5,266).
How will the money be spent at each school once it’s received?
The funds can be spent just like PTA funds. They are unrestricted and to be used to support whatever the school community needs as directed by the school community.
Doesn’t Title 1 funding cover this gap already? Our PTA needs to raise money at our school to cover what Title 1 schools already get!
Title 1 school is not the same as being a fully funded school. The easiest way to understand Title 1 funding is to imagine two big buckets of funding:
- Funding for education (that’s the direct support of learning stuff, and all schools receive an equitable baseline per student) and
- Funding for access (that’s the stuff that makes it possible for everyone to equitably receive their education, some with more need than others).
Our public education system is designed pretty narrowly for middle-class, fully-abled, native English speaking students (and their families). The workarounds needed to make the education system equitably accessible to those who don’t show up this way are expensive, and additional Title 1 funding provides students at these schools with a roughly similar experience to what most kids in non-Title 1 schools already have without additional supports. In other words, Title 1 funding brings kids in Title 1 schools to the starting line, while the kids at non-Title 1 schools are already there.
When PTAs at well-resourced schools raise additional funds (that are unrestricted and can be directed by the families who raise the money) this contributes to a widening gap between students at different schools.
More questions? Feel free to contact the WSPSEF and the board will be happy to speak with you!
“What I love about the pooled fund is that it brings together the West Seattle community to support each other through a shared goal of our children’s education. Seldom do schools share resources and this gives the opportunity to do that in a respectful, non-patronizing way. By pooling and shifting our fundraising, we’re in partnership together. It’s a reminder that those schools don’t need us – we need each other.” ANDY WOO, PATHFINDER PARENT, WSPSEF ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBER
Source: West Seattle Public School Equity Fund Website 2022-2023
