What this pandemic quarantine means for our home-based learning is unknown. I (Dr. Jessica) am guessing at the best way to charge a fair fee, cover expenses, and be sure that all families who want to participate can enrol. At the Paper Bag Academy, no family will be excluded because of financial hardship.
To begin, I suggest we use an honour system, by donation with a suggested sliding scale for guidance. Traditionally, in ordinary times, a community class typically costs $10. At this rate, community teachers usually make a modest, sometimes sustainable wage.
May I suggest for the first couple of weeks we try this Paper Bag Academy experiment: you choose to pay between $10 – $100 per week per child (based on five classes (once a day) lasting 30 – 75 minutes depending on age group and subject matter). When we catch our stride, we can plan for scholarships, review our class expenses and wages for teachers, and then set regular class fee schedule. For the sake of transparency, I will ask for volunteers to oversee and count class donations and verify expenses and teachers honoraria allocation. The Paper Bag Academy finances will be published during this official quarantine period.
For the short run, class donations will be allocated in this order:
- expenses for online learning platforms.
- expenses for paper bag supplies.
- advertising and basic office supplies.
- any remainder to be offered as honoraria, split equitably among teachers, co-teachers and subject matters experts proportionate to time spent in and preparing for class. Details to be determined and negotiated further.
