Barry Cooper’s Post

Research this week has revolved around school tuition. I found an interesting dissertation written by Allen Aulick. He did a survey of accredited private secondary schools to discover what their main revenue sources were. One (of the many) interesting parts was this: Small schools account for almost 15% of their operating income through fund-raising; medium-sized schools receive 11.11% of their operating income from fund-raising: large schools receive slightly more than 7% from fund-raising. The amount of income received through fund-raising activities appears to vary in inverse proportion to the size of the school. The larger the school, the less income is attributable to fund-raising activities. If you work at a school, does this hold true for your organization? What percentage of your budget is fundraising? For religious schools in particular, how much should we rely on fundraising? Any thoughts would be helpful to share.

I am a non-profit entity. I don't do ads or commercials on any of my media platforms. My goal is to provide teachers and parents with the knowledge and pedagogical tools they need to enable their children to reach their full literacy potential. The video below is a recording of a recent educational webinar examining the research behind LETRS professional development. LETRS is published by Lexia, which is owned by Cambium Learning.  Don't let the pictures of happy smiling children on their website fool you.  It is abundantly clear that they are much more interested in $ than in children. Lexia has blocked the promotion of this video on YouTube.  If you can't win the argument in an academic setting, you bully, threaten, and silence those who disagree.  It is sad that this type of suppression by those with money and influence has become normalized. Please push back against the influence of Cambium Learning and Lexia.  Send the video below to people you know.  If you have access to a media platform, please consider posting it. https://lnkd.in/gCrNuSbg We must continue to call out the blatant hypocrisy of the profiteers and their minions.

Network - what do we think about the ethical problems with "for-profit" universities? I am trying to find the objective problem with them, other than that excess funding is not ALWAYS re-distributed into educational quality. One particular example of this that I have found is that for-profit colleges oftentimes do not have the same library resources that public or private non-profit universities have (databases, mostly). It seems like certain people want to villainize this sector of higher education without much merit to the arguments. Maybe I am wrong - however, I would love to discuss this with anyone who has more information than I.

Under the Education Act 1994, the University of Bradford has a statutory duty to ensure that UBU operates in a fair and democratic manner and is held to proper account for its finances. UBU therefore works alongside the University of Bradford in ensuring that the affairs of UBU are properly conducted and that the educational and welfare needs of UBU Members are met. At the core of our success lies good governance, important for any charitable organisation that sets students' unions apart is our unwavering focus on incorporating the real-life experiences of our members at every organisational level, including our Trustee Board. Comprised of both students and external trustees, our Board ensures a diverse range of perspectives. Moreover, three student trustees are democratically elected each year to lead the organisation. Alongside this, our small staff team of approximately 15 members works tirelessly to support officers in achieving their objectives, focusing on community building and representation activities. We are actively seeking trustees possessing expertise in one or more of the following areas: - Charity Sector & Strategic reporting – someone who can help us to better demonstrate our impact, value for money and ROI. - Campaigning or representation background – someone who can help us to stick to our core purpose of representing students effectively. - IT transformational change – someone with Public, Private and preferably consulting background that can support implementation of UBU’s new strategy. - Organisational change – Someone with strong organisational change background who will be able to support the new CEO’s strategy to bring UBU into the 21st century. Click here for more information : https://lnkd.in/eZafmK9v

Teaching children about financial responsibility and wise money management from a young age is crucial, and the tradition of Eidi during Eid al-Fitr presents an excellent opportunity for Muslim parents to impart valuable financial lessons to their children. Here are some ways Muslims can teach their children to use Eidi money as a tool for financial learning: Set financial goals: Encourage children to save for toys, gadgets, or charitable causes. Budgeting basics: Help them create a budget for spending, saving, and giving. Saving for the future: Teach the importance of saving for long-term goals or emergencies. Investment education: Introduce the concept of investing wisely to achieve financial goals faster. Charitable giving: Instill empathy by donating a portion of Eidi money to those in need. Opportunities for earning: Encourage them to explore ways to earn additional money. Learning from mistakes: Allow them to make mistakes and use them as learning experiences. Lead by example: Be a positive role model in financial behavior and involve them in family discussions about finances.

How much additional funding are mainstream schools in affluent areas getting? Since becoming a governor I've been asking for information on what additional 'soft' funding schools are getting. The hypothesis was that schools in richer areas are likelier to have PTAs that raise large sums of money. 🏫Funding schools🏫 Most mainstream school funding comes via the National Funding Formula, with schools receiving an agreed amount per pupil, a minimum of £4,655 per pupil for primary schools. Schools then try to raise any additional funds they can. This might be from renting out the school or trying to fundraise. If you have a child in school you have probably been asked to support the school financially. 🗺Mapping funding in Haringey🗺 I was keen to know what schools were raising across Haringey to test my hypotheses. For all 56 primary schools in Haringey, I researched who had a registered charity PTA and how much they raised for their school in the last three years. I then enlisted the support of Pete Tomlin MCIEEM to create the map below. I'm hoping it can spark a discussion on the impact of soft funding on our children's education and how we better support schools in more deprived areas. 🔎The funding divide in Haringey🔎 Like many London boroughs, there is a clear wealth divide. In Haringey, this is between the West and East of the borough and this matches who has a PTA that is a registered charity. This doesn't mean that schools without a charity PTA aren't raising money, it is just that this is more informal. Where they are doing more organised fundraising from the community they can't, for example, benefit from gift aid. There were 24 registered PTAs in Haringey and the amount raised ranged from £5k to £377k over the last three years. One school in a very affluent part of London has a PTA and a separate charity that raises money for the school. They raised £554k over three years for the school. That would be game-changing money for the school where I am Chair of Governors. 🌳How we can help schools in more deprived areas🌳 I've researched Haringey but this is a challenge across all London boroughs (and beyond.) Pupil Premium should close the outcome gap for children but it feels to me that this soft funding helps maintain the disparity of outcomes. I'm keen to hear ideas about how we address this funding divide. Here are two initial suggestions from me: 1. More support for parents/schools in setting up charity PTAs More support could be provided to schools in more deprived areas to set up a PTA that is a registered charity. This would open access to more funding streams for schools and could help close the funding gap. 2. Targetting fundraising support for schools Fundraising is hard. Local authorities could employ fundraisers that help schools in more deprived areas identify and bid for funding. Not all schools have parents with experience in fundraising or the contacts required to identify potential sources of income.

If I point out a problem, its only fair I offer a solution 😊 An organisation who does not generate any revenue and is reliant on volunteers and donations will always struggle to find a placement student who is willing to work for 9-12 months for no salary. The irony is these are the organisations that can really use a great placement student, and students would love the chance to contribute to them, but have a real need to pay rent and eat. Possible solution= Organisations with no obvious revenue source usually have a fundraiser that works with them, why not see if there is an existing donor- or perhaps a new one- that would fund a placement student for your organisation. ARU offers one of the most diverse student cohorts in the UK, students that would love to work for a non-profit organisation. Donors are often looking for a way to have a meaningful impact on an organisation, if they funded a placement student for 9-12 months they would be helping the host organisation and also helping a student gain valuable work experience, twice the impact for the one amount! If you would like to learn more about ARU placements, please email me, Guy.mills@aru.ac.uk

Do any of you have ties to a specific rural school in Gauteng that would potentially need a classroom to be built for them? Let me explain 😍 The Suits & Sneakers membership has grown to around 40 people and we've all been working on a particular project where we aim to find a rural school in Gauteng, raise some funds, and then use it to build a classroom for them. There's a bit more to it than that but I'll get into the detail later. For now, we have figured out who will build the classroom for us and which platform we will use to raise the funds in a transparent manner. My team from The Tryst will be documenting the process on camera. All we need to do is find the right school and get chatting to them about potentially building a classroom for them. With this in mind, do any of you have any suggestions in terms of a rural school in Gauteng that could do with our help? PS. We just want to keep it in Gauteng to start but will expand to other provinces later on.

United States higher education institutions, particularly Ivy League schools, resemble European luxury houses like Hermès and Louis Vuitton, cultivating an air of exclusivity for the ultra-wealthy and privileged offspring of influential Asian conglomerate families, all in pursuit of bolstering their prestigious alumni networks. This often includes enticing the middle class with dreams of upward mobility, leading them to bear significant debts. However, the emergence of AI may herald new avenues for self-education. Education should be affordable, avoiding exorbitant costs and the perpetuation of elitist networks akin to powerful fraternities.

Should Shaun Rein stopped and asked his succesful alumni this simple question: What Defines Talent? A clear definition that resonates for both literate and illiterate individuals. Moving on to the next topic that may emerge out a lack of such clarity: The Roots of Hubris and Hypocrisy. To explore the origins of hubris and hypocrisy, means understanding how a flawed meritocratic system hs negatively impacted not only the USA but every country that follows a hierarchical business /society design A crucial point is that humans overlooked how the lack of a universally accepted definition for talent and the absence of context, creates ambiguity that contributes to the problem. Understanding Talent Demands Humility. To accurately define and assess talent necessitates eliminating bias and judgment. Factors like education, qualifications, titles, and past performance shouldn't influence our evaluation. Some may find this direction unconventional, even absurd... some may even call it stupid. Questions is if it is stupid at all? However, it parallels the challenges faced while restructuring a legacy Saudi Arabian Construction company. Technological advancements demanded workforce reductions, mirroring the current impact of AI, automation, and robotics on tech-driven industries today. The key question: Is a $350,000 education justifiable when alternatives exist at $2,000 or even free? More importantly, how much of this expensive education remains relevant after 4-6 years? Perhaps a drastic approach is necessary. Perhaps we need to disrupt outdated thinking and remove those self-centred humans who holds up the evolution of how we understand and apply Leadership / Talent from influencers and leadership positions. What happens when experiences like ours in Saudi Arabia are applied domestically with a human-centric approach, acknowledging the complexities we face? Would you not also call such a system Humanixs? Perhaps all we need is to embrace our humanity, appreciate our complexity without judgment, and simply be human. But as we discovered, to be human is complex. They need a leg up to connect and keep all moving parts connected. If not, we cause stress and anxiety with our use of poor metrics that try to fit in humans not understand. them pushing them into distress and burnout, eventually even suicide. What are your thoughts?