Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week. My school’s administration and the parents gave the teachers two breakfasts and a lunch. The food, like the sentiment, was amazing. (I did go back for seconds.)

Coincidently that same week had two fundraisers: one you may know, the other likely not.  Monday last week was the MET Gala, which raised $26 million for the MET’s Costume Institute. My alma mater held its annual spring fundraiser two days later. While this year’s results aren’t in yet, we likely raised about $10,000.  My school would have to hold that annual fundraiser every day for seven years to equal the fundraising power of one night at the MET.

To put it mildly, fundraising is uneven across the school district.  Some schools do a better job for a variety of reasons, such as having wealthier families enrolled and/or having been established longer. Too many schools have no real means to fundraise.

The inequity of extra funds often is the basis of the perennial fight over school assignments. The process itself is self-fulfilling. Is it any wonder that our oldest school, which has enrolled highly achieving students for nearly 400 years, has a mid-eight-figure endowment? Meanwhile other schools barely scrape by on bake sales.

What if things didn’t have to be this way? What if there were enough funds for all our schools to have field trips, arts supplies, scholarships et cetera?

I propose an annual HUB Gala. Hopefully Oliver Wendel Holmes would approve of the appellation. I’d like to see the Boston Public Schools host a massive, one-time a year fundraiser for the benefit of all the schools. (Credit belongs to my wife who has long espoused this idea.)

We could hold the event at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square, or the Strand Theater, or both. Maybe hold a grand reception at the library and perhaps, as part of a weekend or week-long agenda of activities, at a local theater we could have BPS actors and musicians put on public performances of plays and concerts they’ve worked on for the year. The idea behind the massive, MET-like gala would be to raise funds for what too often are mistakenly called “extras.”

The so-called extracurriculars often are the reason students come to and/or enjoy school. Do most of us remember fondly our mathematics formulae and grammar rules, or do we vividly recall the after school clubs, activities, festivals and field trips? Open up any yearbook and see how many pages are dedicated to such clubs and activities. After all, learning about the world only from books is like experiencing food only from a menu.

For a target audience of our HUB Gala, I suggest the 150 “most influential Bostonians” as ranked by Boston Magazine. Is there any better way to be considered a “most influential Bostonian” than by helping our Boston Public School children?

Don’t all students, regardless of family income or ZIP code, deserve a rich and robust educational experience? My children were fortunate to attend an elementary school which took them on at least one field trip each year – and 13 in the 3rd grade! On the other hand, my high school students occasionally tell me that they haven’t gone on a field trip in many years. Boston has so much to offer, our students should be the first to explore our robust history and culture.

Should the HUB Gala a) become a reality, and b) achieve MET-like status, then I would like to see a field trip coordinator in every school and also at the deputy-superintendent level. There is a lot of paperwork and planning for field trips since safety and coordination are a must when taking students out of the building. Too often the paperwork – not to mention the time and money – is a barrier to teachers like me who want to plan field trips. This year I did manage a field trip to City Hall for my juniors to meet BLA alumna Councilor Gabriela Coletta. Since we were translating Cicero at the time, the goal was to see how Boston’s city council functions like the Roman Senate.

Honestly, why should such an important part of a student’s learning be reliant upon a teacher’s willingness to sacrifice her own time and money in order to make it happen?  The sad reality is that the current system stifles both the teachers and students. We can, and should, do better.

So let’s have our HUB Gala. Let’s make public education the destination for all students and families. Let’s pretend HUB stands for Having Universal Benefit, then we all would both participate and prosper.

Michael J. Maguire teaches Latin and Ancient Greek at Boston Latin Academy, is a parent of two BPS students, and serves on the Executive Board of the Boston Teachers Union. The views expressed here are his own.

The author helped to raise $20 ,000 by agreeing to be Julius Caesar “assassinated” by pies in the BLA cafeteria in December of 2022. (Photo by Siobhan Reardon)