Even though many parents at Ronald Reagan Elementary school in Palm Desert have lost jobs and fallen on hard times, families have joined together to raise enough money to bring back art and music programs this year.

“Our school has a lot of heart,” Parent Teach Organization president Pamela Wise said. “We just dig in and we always deliver.”

As schools across the state and the nation struggle with crippling budget cuts, parent-teacher organizations and their fundraising power are increasingly called on to help pay for everything from staff to books to technology.

“I don't know of a school district that hasn't been impacted and hasn't turned to their parents and community to assist,” said California State Parent Teacher Association President Jo Loss.

This year, Cahuilla Elementary School's PTO decided to shift its focus from field trips and other regular classroom expenses to technology, said PJ Davis-Lewallen, PTO president for the Palm Springs school.

The group still wants to provide those educational trips, but decided with input from teachers and the principal, “let's focus on more things that are more important for education,” she said.

Some schools and all three local districts have established nonprofit educational foundations to help cover costs.

But when involved parents see their children's classrooms doing without, they jump in to help.

The Palm Desert Charter Middle School PTO provided more than $7,000 for textbooks last year and expects to ramp up fundraising this year to meet the same goal, president Dinah Sparks said.

A fall 2008 survey by the California State PTA showed that more than 62 percent of the responding local PTAs were asked to increase fundraising to make up for school budget shortfalls.

More than half said they furnished supplies such as copy paper and pencils, library books and technology.

“That's just a shame in that the money that they're raising could be used to enhance and enrich the students' lives and instead it's just being used to provide paper for the copy machine and lots of mundane day-to-day things,” Loss said.

While school officials are grateful for any help, one concern about parent fundraising is that it creates a disparity.

Some parents have the time and means to buy computers, while others put all they have into keeping their own family afloat.

The parents club at Herbert Hoover Elementary in Indio always starts strong, but the numbers dwindle as season picks up and parents' hours at restaurants, hotels and casinos increase, principal Maria Fernandez said.

“When parents are holding two jobs, you just can't blame them,” she said.

The group is raising money to give students benches in the shade.

Many schools have seen an increase in parent involvement, either because of the economy or in spite of it.

The bad news about budget cuts has brought 50 percent more parents to meetings at Jackson School to learn how the school is handling it, Principal Michael Wilhite said.

They end up staying active and working to minimize the cuts.

“We're definitely not a wealthy school, but we have hard-working parents,” he said. “If they know it's for the kids, they do everything they can.”

Parent support doesn't have to to be financial to make a difference.

Ronald Reagan Elementary in Palm Desert saw an increase in parent volunteers as unemployment rates rose, which PTO president Wise said contributed to a 64-point gain in state testing.

The group also was able to raise $21,000, which allowed them to bring art and music back to the classrooms.

The PTO's money was able to buy supplies and pay for substitute teachers to cover the time two Reagan educators taught art and music.

“They banded together and said, this is what we need to make a well-rounded child,” Principal Kim McLaughlin said.

“The philosophy of the parent club is, ‘We will make it happen.'”