School Fundraisers Perceive Social Inequality

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Stephanie Medley-Rath breaks down an important issue when it comes to schools and fundraising. She makes a very valid point that school fundraisers can be expensive for most people depending on the community that you live in. Every year the school her kids go to have a fundraiser and she has to choose to either go ahead and sell the products or she just donates some money to the school. The town she resides in is considered to be a community of lower income status and only a few that are consider middle class. When fundraising, a school can choose a percentage of return in sales. Stephanie figures that if the school chooses to go with a 25% of sales and for example one person buys five boxes of chocolates for five dollars the total is $25.00 the school would earn $ 6.25. If the school chooses a 30% return and using the same scenario but the price of the chocolates would cost $ 7.00 a box, the total being $ 35.00, the school would earn $ 10.50. She examines the amount made by the majority of the community and figures that most of them cannot afford or would not want to spend $ 7.00 for a box of chocolates. She explains how she thought this was her own private issue but it is now becoming more of a public issue for her community by not being able to sell that price of chocolate to anyone.
Dig Deeper. Question 1: Describe the sociological imagination. Sociological Imagination is the ability to view society differently than your own personal thoughts and experience. Being able to look at this issue in a different way than since the “poorer” part of the community has jobs or is getting government aid than they sure can afford just a $ 7.00 box of chocolates. There may be a reason for this community to be lacking in income for exampl...

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...h it does bring out the side that most people do not think about. There are families in our communities who just cannot afford products that school fundraisers have available. I am sure they would love to help and maybe they could, but it would not be enough to create a difference in the funding. I think schools need to think about some other ways to do fundraising at a reasonable price. I would find it to be unfair if my child brought home a catalog and the prices were not fit for my budget. I would not be upset but it would make me feel bad about not being able to support the school. There could be those families who do not care about the price even though financially it is unrealistic and they still support the school which is great. I do agree that it does show some inequality depending on the prices the schools provide for their products that they are selling.

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