Crowdfunding school lunch

A couple weeks ago, Neerav Kingsland asked, "why aren't more people crowdfunding schools?" The argument was primarily financial in nature; using back-of-the-envelope math, he estimated that a family considering private school could save $150k over a child's lifetime by financing the startup costs of a public charter school.

It's been a busy September. Here are my belated thoughts -

Call me pessimistic, but I see ideas like this potentially widening the achievement gap, not closing it. I'll let Matt Candler take the "yes, and" approach. I'm feeling very "hey, wait a second" about this question.

For starters, it makes me think a LOT about whose money we're taking at the charter school whose board I sit on, the inevitable influence of those donors, and the power dynamics between those who give financially and those who give in other ways or not at all. I agree with Neerav's premise that we should be innovating with respect to the way schools are funded, but also need to be mindful of how direct/crowd funding can unlevel the playing field. 

A friend who runs a charter school mused, "What if we did a 100% anonymous crowdfunding (anonymous even to us at the school site)?  Might that be able to get at the ends that Neerav and Matt suggest while still side-stepping the implied consequences of money as influence?"

To which I replied, "Would seem to me that in order to make philanthropic contributions completely anonymous, you'd have to set up a separate 'holding' 501c3/fund, that takes in individual contributions, documents them for tax purposes, and then allocates the aggregate funding to the school in one lump sum. I really like the idea of making all contributions - from a parent's $10 donation to a Walton grant - anonymous, so that no one donor gets special privileges like information rights, etc. Except how realistic is this? Seems pretty idealistic. Would Walton ever agree? Worth thinking through further though."

Ok, so whether this is even a good idea aside, to Neerav's main question of why aren't more families doing this? A couple quick thoughts.

Startups are risky, most parents don't want to experiment with their child, even if the financial cost is lower than private school tuition, there are indirect and non-financial costs associated with finding a school leader worth "investing in." Not to mention the argument that private school families are paying for access to an exclusive network, not just a good education.

All that to say, allow me to riff on Neerav's question for a moment. As back-to-school season is now in full swing, I'm noticing how involved the process of packing your child's school lunch has become. I can't help but ask, why aren't more people crowd funding better school lunch programs? The ROI on paying a local caterer (or here in New Orleans, a program like Liberty's Kitchen) to provide an alternative to the cafeteria-provided mystery meat surely has to be worth all the time spent packing those trendy kid-sized bento boxes.

P.S. In the "also came across this post around the time of writing" category: DesignMom on choosing to send her children to the local public high school in Oakland, CA. Good food for thought.