Should public schools be in the business of selling off $10,000 handbags? Sure, school auctions have been an increasingly big thing over the years—not only as ways to raise money but also as social functions—but the prices at these things are getting a bit ridiculous when we are supposed to be coming out of a recession. Take, for instance, the current auction for Park Slope school P.S. 321's annual Spring Dance and Auction which this year includes a hideous $15,000 tiger-striped mink coat and a $10,000 Birkin bag (both donated by the same person).
Now, 321's auction isn't the most extravagant one we've heard about this year—that honor goes to Berkley Carroll, which sold a dinner for ten at Babbo for $62,500—but we're amused that a Brooklyn elementary school is boasting bigger ticket items than Manhattan's performing arts school LaGuardia where no less than Madonna's boots were up recently for bids.
Not to get all "when we were kids" on you, but when we were kids we swear the school auctions didn't get much fancier than pizza parties at Two Boots and cheap movie tickets!
Anyway, if you want to pitch in and help 321 out, the open to the public auction continues until May 28 (though parts of it end the 14). And it isn't all expensive handbags and fur (though there are a few more handbags up for grabs). There are also things like three weeks in a Connecticut cottage in July, backstage tours of Boardwalk Empire and "coffee with an editor to review your work."
