If the PTA were to come to the parents and say, “We need $100 per family to do all of the programs we did last year,” very few people would write a check for $100. On the other hand, selling the items provides a kick-back to the school, and the “donation” is actually made by the friends and family. The people selling enough stuff for their kid to get the limo or Hummer ride are actually making up for the kids that don’t sell any or enough.
The magazine sales program at one school my children attended was brilliant. The kids got these weepuls for every magazine subscription they sold. The kids wore uniforms, and the weepuls had elastic loops so they could be attached to a belt or in girl’s hair. It became quite the status thing in the lower grades to have the most weepuls. So there was the daily pressure. Then there was the limo ride to McDonalds. Kids who sold over x amount got to go to McDonald’s by limo for lunch. And if the whole class sold X number of magazines each, there was a pizza party.
Fortunately, the magazines were reasonably priced, and allowed for renewals, so it was not difficult to renew our subscriptions and give magazines as a christmas gift in order to hit the quotas. But the pressure was unbelievable. Not from the school, but from your own children. And the quotas were per child, so with two kids, it meant selling twice as much.
In all fairness, the PTA did really great things with the money, and provided technology, library books, cultural enrichment, etc. that never would have been possible without the PTA.