My parents wouldn't let us sell things when we were in school. Something about no kids of theirs going door-to-door like beggars, bothering the neighbors. Whenever this came up, they just wrote the school a big fat check and called it a day.
What still bugs me is that the money my parents gave was outright gain for the school. And if you sorted out how many subscriptions/candy bars it was equal to, we'd have been top sellers. But it didn't count worth a hoot because we weren't "team players."
I am still against schools pimping out their kids like this. I hate that they make it a damn competition. How much money do they waste on "prizes"? And goodness knows what school needs is more ways to ostracize groups of people. And everyone knew the rich kids' parents just took the forms into work and the kids didn't "do" anything.
Now, I do consider student organizations to be a separate case. If student groups (band, choir, lacrosse team, underwater basket weavers) want to hold fundraisers for group specific items (send us to band camp, national underwater basket weaving convention, to the moon, Alice), I'm all for that.
I don't mind groups of people deciding they have a fundraising goal and pursuing it. I *do* mind public schools informing students that they are expected to sell a certain number of whatever or they get punished. I get detention because your levy failed? Wow. Yay public schools.
(and I'm going to quit now before this turns into a full-on "what's wrong with public schools" rant.)