NYC’s school PTA fundraising gap is growing, mirroring broader racial disparities
Parent teacher associations may conjure images of read-a-thons and fun runs, where grandparents and relatives pledge to pay their grade schooler for every page they read or lap they jog. And of course, there’s the iconic PTA bake sale.
But in New York City, PTA fundraising efforts vary from hawking homemade muffins and pastries for a few hundred dollars to running sophisticated, self-sustaining nonprofits that operate like small businesses and take in millions in revenue.
P.S. 29 in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, raised about $2 million in donations and revenue, more than any other school last year, according to data from the Department of Education. In second place was P.S. 158 on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, which raised $1.7 million. Both schools enroll between 600 and 700 students. New Explorations into Science, Technology & Math, a K-12 school on the Lower East Side, which enrolls about 1,600 students, came in third, raising $1.4 million.
Each school in the city is required to have a parent association. In total, they reported nearly $70 million in revenue and savings in the 2024-25 academic year, which helped their schools pay for beneficial after-school enrichment programs, field trips, support staff and in some cases even building maintenance.
“We find evidence that PTA money above and beyond any public resources actually do boost achievement in reading and math,” said Brittany Murray, an education professor at Davidson College who researches PTAs. “But it tends to help those that are more affluent.”
