The thought of the program ending was devastating. The 52 indigenous students would miss out on 40 hours a week of tutoring in maths and literacy. No more home visits from indigenous project officer Guy Neaves, no safe place to go.

“I reckon that’s why I got to year 10,” says Meriki Cooper. “I would have left”.

Josh Basso was at school the day The Sunday Age visited because Mr Neaves had got him out of bed. “He gets my butt to school. He woke me up [and] said: ‘I’m going to be there in five’. He relates to us because he is Aboriginal, he’s known in the community, he knows my auntie and stuff”.

This year the Victorian government told the school it was “refocusing” indigenous funding on Koori children in kinder to year 3.

But Thornbury High principal Peter Egeberg was determined not to lose a program that “is seeing a lot more kids work their way through to VCE and complete year 12”.

So when an IT technician at the school suggested crowdfunding, a form of online fundraising that asks the public for donations towards a project, Mr Egeberg was willing to give it a go. “It’s not something I’d heard of before,” he says.

 

Thornbury High is not alone, with cash-strapped schools throughout Victoria turning to crowdfunding.

Glenroy Specialist School hopes to raise almost $3000 through crowdfunding to buy aquatic flotation devices for its students with severe disabilities.

“Imagine in everyday life, your body is heavy and you cannot move it. Then imagine being placed in a medium that allows you this freedom, the ability to move your body independently. How fantastic would that be?” the school says on the website projected.org.au

Those who pledge $25 are promised a letter of thanks from a student and a school pen.

Meanwhile Colac Secondary School is seeking $3699.26 for five iPads and iPad covers. They would be available for loan from the library and “allow all our students to be on an equal footing”.

Primary school teacher Ross Dullard developed projected.org.au two years ago.

The not-for-profit website crowdfunds education projects big and small; everything from $150 for clay to make a skateboard ramp to $30,000 to upgrade the infrastructure at a school on the remote Northern Territory island of Groote Eylandt.

"Crowdfunding is still seen as innovative - it's surprising how many people haven't heard about it," Mr Dullard says.

Education expert Adam Smith says crowdfunding presents a new opportunity for those who believe in addressing educational inequity to give directly to schools and causes they care about.

“Perhaps the greatest barrier for many public schools is they often don't have the skills or capacity to get out and tell their story,” he says. “Many schools are also fearful of engaging too much with social media. Not doing either of these things is a missed opportunity.”

President of the Victorian Association of State Schools, Frank Sal, predicts more schools will have to crowdfund following the abolition next year of the education maintenance allowance for needy families.

“Schools have gone off fetes over the last decade because they are so much work, often for little return,” he says.

“The reality is, schools shouldn’t have to be running fetes and doing crowdfunding to provide for the basics of supporting children in need.”

According to the Australian Education Union’s State of our Schools survey last year, an average 12.3 per cent of  state schools' budgets came from fundraising.

The money most commonly went to classroom equipment, information technology, playgrounds, programs, libraries and school maintenance although 22 per cent of the schools surveyed spent it on teaching staff.

“In our view it is inexcusable that schools are forced to spend time and effort raising funds for core business and materials that should be provided by the government,” says the union’s Victorian president Meredith Peace.

Thornbury High launched the Save our Koorie Program  on crowdfunding website chuffed.org on June 17. It has raised more than $6500 towards its goal of $30,000. A philanthropist has provided another $20,000. The school is hopeful it will be able to pay the salary of the project officer, Mr Neaves, until the end of the year and re-employ the Koori tutors.

“I just think it’s a bit sad that’s what we’ve had to resort to,” Mr Egeberg says.