Inequity

Mayor Bloomberg announced that in these trying times more money needs to be cut from the already meager budget of NYC Public Schools.
I am scratching my head trying to figure out just where my school that is underfunded as it is will be cutting this money from. I guess we could get rid of a teacher or two or three. You see where that is going. Our class sizes are not big enough yet. Wee one has 28 children in his class. I guess that is a good size compared to other schools so I should really just shut it.
Now parents, educators, administrators need to start writing more grants to beg for money for their schools since programs are going to have to go.
Last night there was a fundraiser for the Susan and Tony Bennett Exploring the Arts
for Public Schools a whopping $1.2 million was raised. Bravo to them for seeing the need for Public Schools having an arts program. Now let me get to the inequity of having to beg for this money. My school in the "Elite" District has had a hard time trying to receive this money. I used to be one of the grant beggars umm I mean liaison for the school. I would call great programs asking what the criteria was for attaining certain art programs to come to our school. The answer I would inevitably get was "I am sorry but your school is not needy enough." I would always say but we are a public school funded the same way as the other NYC Public Schools. The response I would ALWAYS get was we were not impoverished enough. We did not receive Title 1 monies etc.
So then you wonder why we as a PTA have to raise money to purchase a teacher for an art program, or an extra aide, or text books or whatever our Principal can not get out of her meager budget.
Are our children not as eligible for the same art programs? They are after all in a Public School and we do pay the same taxes as other Public School parents.