Taking a closer glance at Brooklyn gentrification this week, the New York Times tackled the seemingly wholesome PTA bake sale. Apparently, jacking up the price of a fundraising cupcake from $.50 to $1 (which "blindsided" at least one parent) led to a vicious culture divide at PS 295 in Sunset Park "pitting cash-short parents against volunteer bakers, and dividing a flummoxed PTA executive board."
The culprit? "Mild-mannered freelance copywriter" Dan Janzen, who came up with the price change, which has now ultimately been resolved as a $1 "suggested donation," or 1/20th of the suggested donation for enterting the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The group also issues fundraising notices in Spanish, and plans events that are mindful towards lower-income families. But "it's never just about the cupcake," as Jeffrey Henig, a professor at Teachers College, points out.
Indeed, the article reveals to those unburdened by children just how much money, time, and public drinking these well-meaning parents put towards their children's well-being (which may include lunch money to pay for slimeburgers). PS 11 in Clinton Hill holds an annual auction that raised more than $10,000 last year (!), but was rife with "elitism, racism and defeatism" over serving all you can drink rum-punch versus fancy bottled wine—additionally, there were folks who ate from the buffet despite paying for only the $25 pauper's ticket—the nerve!
Similarly, the East Village Community School Parent Association took a page from Barack Obama and sent out a second asking letter that stated "We can do better," in reference to the $20,000 (!!) they had already raised that year. Apparently those twenty G's are small potatoes compared to "fancier schools," where parents will donate five figures (!!!) for auction items, which could include tours of the Metropolitan Opera or weekend getaways. Needless to say, some parents were less than happy with the second email.
In the end, the whole story can be summarized in one sentence: "Parents in class-divded neighborhoods will pick a fight over the minutia of a school-related activity with the cause of maintaining the well-being of their children, unless they can't make it because of a 12-hour babysitting job shift they're still working at while other people bake cupcakes."
