These days schools do just ask directly for a donation via check if the parents afford it. Most schools don't have time to run a sales operation for useless stuff in addition to their primary job of educating children. And most schools' funding gap is far greater than can be raised by children selling tchotchkes.
People have come to the sober realization that the only way public schools get sufficient funding in the US (and to a lesser extent in the UK) is from private donations. The system has now baked this in as an assumption, even building local real estate markets around the shared consensus to privately financially support neighborhood schools.
People have come to the sober realization that the only way public schools get sufficient funding in the US (and to a lesser extent in the UK) is from private donations. The system has now baked this in as an assumption, even building local real estate markets around the shared consensus to privately financially support neighborhood schools.