Once Dubbed ‘Anti-Santa,’ Klein Repeals Spending Limits on Gifts for Teachers

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The New York Sun

After being dubbed the “anti-Santa” last year for creating a $5 a student spending limit on gifts for teachers, the schools chancellor, Joel Klein, has quietly repealed the rule.


He now says the limit is “unnecessary” and that parents should use “common sense” when buying gifts. Mr. Klein revised the conflicts of interest section of the chancellor’s regulations last month to reflect the change, but no letter was sent to parents.


Intended to level the playing field for students whose parents could not afford to give expensive gifts, the spending limit irked teachers, who said it was another example of how the Department of Education was micromanaging them. Parents protested that they couldn’t buy anything nice for less than $5.


With parents preparing to purchase presents before the winter break, the change in rules has created confusion at some of the city’s public schools. At many, the class parent asks for a donation from every parent, and feuds have arisen over how much to give.


At P.S. 87 on the Upper West Side, though, it’s business as usual: Parents are ignoring the chancellor’s rules.


The second-grade class has pooled together enough money to buy a pair of Tiffany & Company earrings for the assistant teacher and a designer Longchamps backpack as well as a $150 Ann Taylor gift certificate for the head teacher.


A vice president of the Parents Association, which typically raises about $400,000 a year, said the parents did not heed the rule last year and that she was glad to hear the dollar limit was a thing of the past.


“You want to show them how grateful you are for teaching your kids,” the association leader, who asked not to be named, said.


American Express gift cards are among the most popular gifts in schools with wealthier parents. In poorer sections of the city, teachers reported receiving homemade cards or “trinkets from the 99-cent store.”


Under the policy, gifts should be “principally sentimental in nature” and teachers are still banned from accepting “gifts of value.” They are asked to report these gifts to a Department of Education ethics officer or the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board.


All families must be allowed to sign the card for a class gift even if they don’t contribute.


“The point of the rule is to ensure the gifts to teachers are not of excessive value and that students and parents are not coerced into contributing large amounts of money to these gifts,” a spokesman for the Department of Education, Keith Kalb, said. “In reviewing the rule this year, we decided that specifying a specific dollar limit was unnecessary so we revised it to say that parents may only be asked to contribute small amounts for such gifts. We expect parents and teachers to use common sense to decide what gifts are acceptable.”


Parents interviewed said they felt unsure about the whole holiday gift giving process and said that at some schools it’s gotten out of control. Almost all parents asked not to be identified out of fear of upsetting other parents or teachers at their children’s school.


“On the one hand, this is their job, and this is what they do, and they shouldn’t have the expectation to get $100 or $200 at this time of year,” a parent at P.S. 166 said. “At the same time, they put in a tremendous amount of work every day.”


At P.S. 163 on the Upper West Side, parents initially asked for donations of about $20 a student to buy the first grade teacher a gift. After some protest, the parents settled on $5 a student, citing the chancellor’s rule, to buy a piece of pottery to be decorated by the students.


The remaining cash will likely be used to purchase an American Express gift card. Parents said they had not heard that the $5 a student rule had changed.


Cash gifts are discouraged, but not officially banned under the chancellor’s regulations.


The New York Sun

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