Mom to Mom

[blackhole99]

I live in an area where they don't want you to live there unless you earn over 50 thousand dollars a year, serious. It's a private college town, the college and community hospital drive everything. I would say 90% of the working adults are professional people. Their schools have no problem paying the teachers what they are worth and the kids have what they need because the tax payers don't mind paying their fair share of taxes. You can't pay teachers or give the kids the kind of education they deserve if you have no tax base.

[ROMARY]

My gosh........What type of human parents send their children out without winter coats and warm hats?  Surely they can budget/scrape up enough money for a winter coat for their child.  Or, I'm guessing agencies/churches/societies could/would help, if the parents would only ask for help.  Imo, it just doesn't seem legal.  There must be some sort of law re: keeping children warm when they are out in the cold snow. 

[CalminHeart]

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@KarenQVC wrote:

Since the public schools are educating many of our future citizens, they should have food and supplies in the general budget.

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If you've been watching legislation at the state and federal level, you'd know that education budgets are being slashed every year. Supplies are not in the budget and won't be in it anytime soon.  The budgets don't even allow for buying enough and/or better textbooks and equipment.  It's up to teachers and parents to cover what state and city education systems used to cover.  

I feel more for teachers than for parents.  If you work for an employer, how many supplies do they provide?  Do you buy your own pens, file cabinets, books, computers, paper?

[wvumountiefan]

Nothing is free!! Especially education!! I had one child because that's all I could afford and want. I always bought his stuff and never for one second thought it was someone else's responsibility! 

[CalminHeart]

In my state, the guv and legislature slashed education funding to bare bones...with all the bones missing.  

This country can not compete and will not succeed if we fail to adequately educate all people, not just those at the top who can afford the best.  

Our country's education system has been dumbed down so much and it will continue to be that way given current federal and state politics.  

Get ready, follks.  Dumb is quickly becoming our new reputation.

[CalminHeart]

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@Ms X wrote:

I really don't know where to begin to sort out the absurdities and outrages inherent to your post. Teachers are very important.  However, their benefits and OBSCENELY early retirement are bankrupting the citizenry.  Further, it is ridiculous to order parents to buy expensive supplies beyond their children's needs so that they can be given to other students.  I can only conclude that the schools are run by people who lack intelligence, a sense of proportion, and a conscience.  In the years to come, the current situation will become unsustainable and will collapse.  Perhaps then a more sensible system will emerge from the rubble.

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I don't know what education district you're from but this is so off the mark that it is almost comical.  

Teachers do NOT freceive OBSCENELY generous early retirement packages, let alone obscenely generous retirement packages at normal retirement ages.  They put their own money into retirement plans, just like everyone else.  In years past, all employers used to provide retirement benefits, not just education.  Those have pretty much disappeared.

EVERY business, including school systems, used to offer defined benefit plans that employers paid for.  Now, all employers (not just education) are killing these kinds of plans because they prefer profits over employees.  401(k) type plans are great and we all need to put as much as possible in them (and get the max matches) but that's a far cry from a defined benefit plan.  

If parents don't want to have to pay for supplies, they need to get off their duffs and vote for politicians who will adequately fund education.  

I started kindergarten in 1959 and we had school supply lists then too.  So what!  Be a parent and do what's right for your kids.

My dad taught for 55 years.  He went in early and stayed late.  He spent evenings grading papers and preparing for the next day.  He spent summers furthering his education to become a better teacher for YOUR kids and preparing for the coming year.

Teachers spend more hours on the job than a regular 40 hour a week worker.  My dad averaged 11 hours a day 9 months of the year plus a solid 8 hours a day during the summers.  

It's time to stop bashing teachers!

[CalminHeart]

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@ROMARY wrote:

My gosh........What type of human parents send their children out without winter coats and warm hats?  Surely they can budget/scrape up enough money for a winter coat for their child.  Or, I'm guessing agencies/churches/societies could/would help, if the parents would only ask for help.  Imo, it just doesn't seem legal.  There must be some sort of law re: keeping children warm when they are out in the cold snow. 

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It's so easy to judge when you haven't been in their shoes.

In my midwestern state, 1 out of 3 children go to school hungry because parents can't afford food.  80% of these kids don't have money for lunch so they don't eat all day unless something is provided such as free lunch or teachers who bring in breakfasts and lunches every day for them.  Yes, teachers do that all over the country.

People who can't afford enough food also can't afford coats and rent or boots and shoes or food and medicine.   These parents have asked for help and have gone to St Vincent de Paul and other charities, etc.  Do you know how much food stamps they receive?  They might receive enough for 1 person but not a whole family.  Charities try so very hard to help but can't always take care of everyone who needs help.

It costs each taxpayer only $53.00 per year to fund welfare for the poor and yet people whine and complain like it was going to increase the national debt.  

It costs each taxpayer over $6,500.00 per year to fund corporate handouts which a lot more in that bucket of debt.  

It's the same thing with education.  State and federal governments expect teachers to be babysitters, therapists, charities, disciplinarians, mom and dad....and, oh, fit in a little teaching time.  Countless teachers spend their own money helping poor kids and families while too many citizens whine because people are poor.

The poor, refugee, sick disabled, elderly, hungry, homeless, jobless, will always be with us and it will always be the obligation of all people to help them.

[Imadickens]

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@ROMARY wrote:

My gosh........What type of human parents send their children out without winter coats and warm hats?  Surely they can budget/scrape up enough money for a winter coat for their child.  Or, I'm guessing agencies/churches/societies could/would help, if the parents would only ask for help.  Imo, it just doesn't seem legal.  There must be some sort of law re: keeping children warm when they are out in the cold snow. 

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Very likely, there are laws. It could be seen as neglect. Sadly, families do buy/get items for their kids only to have the items lost, stolen, or ruined. Many parents can't keep replacing the items. When my daughter was in K the parents all chipped in and sent items for a particularly poor child. Every day he'd return w/o the socks or mittens, etc that the child had been given. Come to find out, the mother had to walk to work (5miles) and had frost bite. She used his things so she could keep her job! How could we fault that? The other way, she'd be looked poorly upon for going on welfare! My husband worked briefly for social services. He was shocked at the pitiful amount of money a single working parent got as assistance! I learned then that not all neglect is due to lazy or selfish parents. Often, they just have no where to go for help, or, if they do ask for help, it can take weeks before they find out whether they get help or not.

[noodleann]

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@Imadickens wrote:

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. . . On top of this students were to bring supplies for the teacher! 4 boxes of tissues (usually one is asked for!) , 1or 2- 6 packs of dry erase markers, and 2 reams of copy paper! I know full well that the district does not give teachers as many supplies as it used to, but...our district is over 75% free lunch kids! Our new teachers beginning salary is over $56,000 plus benefits and there  is extra pay for mater's credits and more. . . .

Hang on here. If you do the math, this would give the teacher 90 dry erase markers, 15,000 sheets of copy paper, and 60 boxes of tissues.

Here's some more math. There are 36 weeks in the standard school year. This means that the teacher and class are going through 83 sheets of paper per school day, every school day. The teacher is using or managing to lose an average of 2.5 dry erase markers per week, and using over 1.5 boxes of tissues a week.

Does that sound right? Or does it sound like the school is transferring its administrative supply costs to the community, and padding the shopping list? Remember, the school system is not just saving the cost of the goods, but also the cost of procurement and delivery.

This stinks. I would demand an accounting, because these numbers just don't wash, or there's a huge amount of institutionalized waste in the system. Or, more likely, a lot of the families don't comply, so the school is trying to force the parents who are obliging to shoulder the burden of others.

[chrystaltree]

Much of the money and items you and your daughter gave was a choice.  You chose to do those things, you certainly were not required to do them.  As with any gift, you give from the heart and don't expect to be rewarded or repaid...or don't give.  As for school supplies, which I agree parents spend a small fortune on.  That's just the way it is and it has been that way since my girls were in school and they in their 30's.  School system whether charter or parochial or public or even some smaller privates schools are all strapped for cash.  School systems don't fund schools they way they did in my day and tuition can only be stretched so far in private schools.  Something had to give and it was school supplies.  I won't say I loved getting those long lists in August and again December right before Christmas break.  Yes, it's true chalk, notebooks, paper, folders yada yada yada.  It seemed like the list got longer and longer every school year and the teachers were so particular about what the kids had to have that I often had to go to several stores to get the right things.  But...that's the way it was.   I always bought extras, many parents did because we knew that there were always a couple of kids in the class whose parents couldn't afford to buy supplies.  Both my son in laws are teachers, many other family members are also.  So, I'm very familiar with the jackets, sneakers, lunches they give to needy kids.  They do it because they love their kids and a $20 winter jacket from Walmart and a hat doesn't break the bank for any of them.  Speaking of supplies, you might not know it but most people who work in office environments buy office supplies etc.  It's not unique to teachers.  Budgets everywhere are tight and you need something, you need it, you buy.  I like browsing around Staples and I bought all types of things to put in the supply cabinet because ordering via Purchasing was such a hassle and it took forever for the items to arrive and around mid summer, I'd be told that "will have to wait until next fiscal year"....which was October 1.  How the heck could I wait three months for pens and markers and paper clips?  Hubby bought a laptop to use at work, he only uses it for work and it wasn't inexpensive.  He has an old desk computer on his desk, it's slow and breaks down a lot and when it does, It takes ISD a few days to fix it and then he has scrounge around looking for an empty desk where someone is out.  It was easier to just buy his own laptop.  His hopsital won't replace that old desk top until it coughs and dies.  You can't fix all the ills in the world, you just do what you gotta do and be thankful that you can.  You also have to set limits on yourself.  You have to know when you've done enough.