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Kindergarten forced to back down after proposing to charge parents $2,200 for their own children’s art (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 4 days ago by Zocha@lemmy.world to c/mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world

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[-] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 127 points 4 days ago

Before everyone piles on, it's probably worth understanding the context.

Yes, this was a daft idea, doomed to generate outrage, and outrage is an appropriate response.

However, as the article says, this non-profit was insolvent. This type of non-profit is not flying a CEO around in a private jet. Their entire budget for the year was $400k. Enough for rent, several staff, snacks and art supplies for kids.

The budget was very likely prepared by a volunteer, with limited skills and experience.

It's often also unclear what an organisation's total debts are. It's not at all uncommon to realise an error has been made in understanding an award or something and suddenly the centre owes 5 years back pay for underpaid over time or some such.

Suddenly the centre is insolvent and is required by law to cease it's activities.

At this point someone has had the misguided notion that the problem can be fixed by coercing parents to contribute towards the debts.

Explaining the problem to parents and asking for donations would've been fine, but obviously they wouldn't have received $40k in donations so it would've been unsuccessful.

Tying the request to the kids "art" is just poor taste all the way up and down.

So yeah, it's offensive, but it's not nefarious, and while it's really daft I can at least understand how it happened.

[-] wjrii@lemmy.world 21 points 4 days ago

I did particularly like this:

“We did not make this organisation insolvent, it was already insolvent,” the management committee said on Sunday.

Saying that in an indignant Australian accent makes it feel like it came straight out of some antipodean cringe-humor sitcom (FYI "Fisk" is pretty good!).

[-] Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 4 days ago

Maybe but it sounds like the current management committee inherited the problem. I'm dealing with that right now.

[-] wjrii@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I certainly didn't mean to imply they're actually incorrect, just that presumably working to fix it was part of their mandate, and the frank admission that they didn't magically fix everything is kinda darkly funny.

[-] Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 4 days ago

Oh me neither. My wife liked Fisk I should give it a watch

[-] sanguinepar@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

To add to that, it's in Australia and AU$2200 is about U$1500 / £1100 / €1250.

[-] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 4 days ago

Average full time weekly wage is about $1,700 AUD before tax.

[-] Quokka@quokk.au 2 points 4 days ago

And due to higher living expenses we end up with less disposable income than Americans.

[-] Soggy@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

Considering how little disposable income most Americans I know have, you must be truly fucked.

[-] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

So it was a fundraiser? Hm, I actually don't have a problem with that and I think it's a nicer (more creative if you will) option than - idk, simply asking for money.

I work in this area and underfunding is a constant companion. Add to that the abysmally low pay and the disregard for all the extra work educators do, I get positively pissed off that they get in trouble for trying to fix a bad situation. Probably, as you said, brought up as unpaid labor by someone who had no nefarious thought at all about the whole thing, just wanted to help. Apparently they were unaware of rules and regulations, is the worst I can say here.

Did parents step up and donate money anyhow? That is the real question.

[-] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 days ago

Yeah. I feel like a little bit of finesse could've averted this disaster.

$40k debts is pretty manageable. If that's owed to the ATO for example, as soon as you get a payment arrangement (easy to obtain) then you're no longer "insolvent". Pay it off over 2 years, so you get 3x of this type of fundraiser.

Given the staff "walk out", it's possible that the money is owed to employees, which muddies the waters.

Instead of saying "everyone has to pay $2,200", they should have said...

we have this structural financial problem and to keep the centre open we need to raise $40k in the next 2 years.
we will just give you whatever individual art works you want for your kid
however, for $1,000 we'll assemble a nice scrap book. You get your photo on the wall and in this pdf we're going to email to everyone, and you can include your business details if you wish.
finally approach local council, show that they've done all these things but only raised $10k this year, they need a grant of another $10k to keep the doors open for another year.

It's still a long shot, but it's a better chance than trying to guilt every parent into paying $2,200.

[-] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 3 points 3 days ago

Given the staff “walk out”, it’s possible that the money is owed to employees, which muddies the waters.

Possibly. From experience, I can almost guarantee you that there's way more drama behind the story than the numbers show.

trying to guilt every parent into paying $2,200.

That's the read I got from the article too, but again I'm pretty sure the whole thing had a long prelude that also involved parents, so it didn't exactly come as a shock.

[-] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago

Yeah. Nothing like solvency issues to drag out a bit of drama is there.

Sadly, everyone involved in this fiasco is at best underpaid but more likely a volunteer.

[-] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Yeah. Nothing like solvency issues to drag out a bit of drama is there.

That's only half of what I meant. Working with children & their parents, it tends to get very emotional. Or maybe I didn't get your phrasing; I'm not a native speaker.

Sadly, everyone involved in this fiasco is at best underpaid but more likely a volunteer.

Underpaid for sure.

[-] tal@olio.cafe 20 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Eh. It sounds like the thing is likely going out of business, and people are just batting around ideas to try to bring it back. Probably good odds that it won't happen.

Craigslea community kindergarten, a local childcare centre in Chermside West in Brisbane’s north, made national headlines this week after a series of emails to parents. The centre has been in turmoil for weeks and was closed after a mass exodus of staff before the school holidays.

On Sunday, the management committee sent parents a 1,000-word email claiming the centre was “insolvent”, owing more than $40,314 to the tax office and employees. It proposed to “wind up” the centre, which has been placed into voluntary administration.

The next day, in a second email the management committee proposed to charge $2,200 for a scrapbook of artwork produced by their children and photographs of them to help pay off the debt.

[-] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 5 points 4 days ago

Maybe the outrage from the story will help bring some attention to the issue, even

[-] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 7 points 4 days ago

You're a glass half full kinda person, I like it.

this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2025

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