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by James Robertson.
Original Post: Sympathy? Maybe
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Derek writes about some budget cutbacks in the California schools, and casts a dim eye over the whole thing:
California used to have a tax-credit for teachers who paid for school supplies and such which the district could not or would not provide for them. It appears now that they've discontinued that tax-credit.
This quote from the article summed it up completely:
"What are we going to do, tell the kids, `Sorry, there's no paper today,' or tell them they can't print because there's no ink?" Seelig asked. "I know I couldn't do it."
Yes, Ms. Seelig, that's exactly what you need to do. As long as there are teachers like you -- who will happily foot the bill for the entire class instead of letting the taxpayers shoulder the burden like they're supposed to -- the school will continue to take advantage of you.
Derek says this as well:
When little Johnny goes home and says "I need paper, pens, crayons, a copy of this textbook, etc., etc., etc." and rattles off a long list of stuff, many of which should be provided by the school, that's when his parents will get involved, and that's what you want, because unlike little Johnny, they vote (or at least are capable of voting).
The reason I'm skeptical is because of the way they run things where I live - Howard County, Maryland. Every year we get a list of things that we are supposed to buy for our kids as they go to school. I don't begrudge them things like notebooks, pens, etc - I expect to buy that stuff. But tissue boxes and paper towels? They expect each parent to send in a bunch of those. I ponder my property tax bill at times like that, and consider whether it's cheaper for each parent to buy three boxes of tissues, or for the school to execute a bulk order. Sure, there's an issue with storage space in there - then again, the county has more than one obsolete school on its rolls.
I understand that teachers end up buying a lot of supplies out of their own pockets - I used to be a teacher 20 years ago. I've started to have my doubts as to why that is. It looks more and more like the result of an utterly indifferent bureaucracy - from the local school on up to the state level - and less and less like a raw lack of funds. They slough the extra purchases off onto parents here, and all that happens is light grousing.
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