Excerpts from the report:
Ontario school boards report their schools raise over half a billion dollars in "school-generated funds", a combination of fundraising, fees, corporate donations, and things like vending machines and cafeterias.
Despite schools' reliance on this extra funding, the province currently has no policy covering fees, fundraising or corporate involvement in schools.
In 2009/10 surveys, the majority of school councils report fundraising as the activity on which they spend the most time. Councils report raising money to cover the costs of everything from field trips to building upgrades. Councils report raising money to cover the costs of everything from field trips to building upgrades, and there is a substantial gap between the top and the bottom fundraising schools. This year, individual schools report fundraising from a low of $0 to a high of $200,000.