The Waldorf School of Santa Barbara is strapped for cash and recently sent out letters to parents asking for as much as $4,000 in donations. The preschool and primary school has been open for 30 years and recently weathered especially tight budgets, said administrative chair Liz Mocabee. Mocabee stressed that Waldorf offers tuition assistance to 70 percent of its students and that families were asked to contribute in any way possible — by volunteer work or any dollar amount. “We’ve had situations in the past where we have had struggles. We are simply in that situation again,” Mocabee said, adding private schools often go through periods of struggle based on economic trends.
