In Portland, school fundraising greatly varies from school to school. At Lincoln High School, parent-led fundraising efforts help students go on trips and have access to events. But other schools in the district might only see a fraction of the funds available. Lincoln’s student-run news outlet, The Cardinal Times, recently published an editorial opposing how the current system works and calling for the establishment of a district-wide general fund.

In a response to the piece, Friends of Lincoln, the fundraising arm for the high school, noted that Portland Public Schools requires fundraising organizations to share some of what they raise with the district. Currently, schools can keep the first $10,000 that they raise. But for funds beyond that, a third of their totals must be shared with the district-wide Fund for Portland Public Schools.

The organization wrote, “Friends of Lincoln would love a world where schools receive all the funding students deserve and equity is optimized, but that is not the world as it exists today.” It added, “eliminating foundations like Friends of Lincoln, we believe, would make things worse, not better.”

We hear more from Issac Coltman, an opinions editor for The Cardinal Times and Mary Carney, a managing print editor for the outlet. They’re both juniors at the high school and join to tell us more about what they’d like to see change.