Why do parents have to buy school supplies in public schools?

[Anonymous]

School budgets buy the Chromebooks and smart boards. And all those developers get a break and dont have to contribute to the school coffers when they build high rises because the calculations are off and its assumed no kids live in apartment buildings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the alternative is my kids not having hand soap at school, I’m happy to supply it. We can afford it, and my kids attend a Title 1 school too, so I know many of their classmates parents likely can’t. Should our tax dollars cover this stuff? Absolutely. But I think it builds school community to be willing to help provide for others.

Which district doesn't provide soap? In my 31 years teaching in an ES we always have had soap. Since we've always had soap I've never asked for hand sanitizer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the alternative is my kids not having hand soap at school, I’m happy to supply it. We can afford it, and my kids attend a Title 1 school too, so I know many of their classmates parents likely can’t. Should our tax dollars cover this stuff? Absolutely. But I think it builds school community to be willing to help provide for others.

Which district doesn't provide soap? In my 31 years teaching in an ES we always have had soap. Since we've always had soap I've never asked for hand sanitizer.

MCPS is regularly out of soap, TP and paper towels. Same with paper.

[Anonymous]

I’m surprised people are surprised that there aren’t tissues for teachers. Do most people get free tissue boxes at work? I do not. We all bring boxes in and if we forget, I guess there’s bathroom tp. Teachers shouldn’t have to provide these for students though.

People talk about the cost of school supplies, but school supplies cost like $15. It’s the 8 packs of tissues, 4 boxes of Lysol wipes, sandwich, quart and gallon baggies (what do they do with those?!?) and hand sanitizer that cost $$$.

What I don’t like is how over decorated all the classrooms are. They’re chaotic to sit in and I think they overwhelm adhd students. It’s insanity and I think teachers watch Instagram reels and think they need to do all that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel ok if they charge us parents school supply fee instead of send in school supply or order school supply box ( except for low income area and families), it’s much easier and cheaper that way if fcps or school order large quantity from manufacturers directly ( one school supplies box cost nearly $95 for my 4th grader to be).

Those boxes are the absolute worst. Off brand everything. The headphones are dollar tree quality and will break a month into school. The erasers don’t even work and the scissors barely cut. Don’t get those boxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child just entered public school and there is a list of items that we are supposed to send in, such as tissues and hand sanitizers. It is my understanding that these supplies are pooled in the classroom, so it is not the case that these supplies are for individual use.

I cannot imagine it is cost-effective for the schools to beg from the parents in this way. Moreover, --wouldn't it be more economical for the schools to buy these items in bulk? It's quite expensive and if families are poor, it is not cheap to buy lysol wipes or boxes of tissues.

Why do our school taxes not cover school supply expenses? Surely this is something that could be budgeted for.

Sorry, but do you expect everyone else to pay for your kid all the time? Cough up something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is ridiculous. Look I clearly don't think teachers should be paying for this stuff OOP and I always bring in everything that's asked for. But we pay very high taxes in MoCo and it's crazy this basic stuff isn't provided for.

I went to very average public schools growing up and we did not have to bring in any of this stuff. Nor did I hear of teachers having to make these bull purchases. It feels like schools were run in a more common sense way back then.

I lived in several "good" school districts. We used old-fashioned stuff.

I remember getting free lined, unbleached brown paper notepads, #2 pencils, fat Crayola crayon sets, and plops of white paste on a piece of paper towel. The school had communal watercolor paint sets and tempera paint in big jars.

Kleenex was not stocked in classrooms, I remember going to the office and paying 10 cents to get a tissue in 10th grade.

No glue sticks

Very little colored marker use and occasional colored pencil use. No dry erase or whiteboards. Only chalkboards.

Occasional composition notebooks. I feel like we were given these when needed.

Mostly used looseleaf lined paper until high school

No mandatory color coded folders by subject

It's almost as if times have changed. 🤯 I'm in my 50's, my parents bought school supplies.

My youngest is 24. We always had to send school supplies.

PP. I get it. I'm your age. My point was mainly...we didn't get much, but it was mostly provided. And, as things changed, and schools got more underfunded, there also emerged new categories of expensive "must haves". E.g., glue sticks, dry erase markers, disinfecting wipes.

I think there is a bit of a cultural expectation that people like to do back to school shopping and get doorbuster sales. And like to donate product. But a lot don't anymore. Post-pandemic, people have stopped doing a lot of social nicety busywork. Attitudes are definitely different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised people are surprised that there aren’t tissues for teachers. Do most people get free tissue boxes at work? I do not. We all bring boxes in and if we forget, I guess there’s bathroom tp. Teachers shouldn’t have to provide these for students though.

People talk about the cost of school supplies, but school supplies cost like $15. It’s the 8 packs of tissues, 4 boxes of Lysol wipes, sandwich, quart and gallon baggies (what do they do with those?!?) and hand sanitizer that cost $$$.

What I don’t like is how over decorated all the classrooms are. They’re chaotic to sit in and I think they overwhelm adhd students. It’s insanity and I think teachers watch Instagram reels and think they need to do all that.

The bags are often used to create individual kits for student in-class projects.
So, for example, for literacy and art in my oldest son's kindergarten, they made a spiral bound book with a construction paper project for each letter. I helped prep the page kits. Each gallon ziploc bag had the sheet that would be the page and other supplies needed to make the letter design. They did reuse bags. But that was 25 or so bags each day they did a letter project.

Bags are also used to contain messes. Suzie's scrunchie fell in the sink. It's Dr. Seuss Week, so they made Oobleck. Etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is ridiculous. Look I clearly don't think teachers should be paying for this stuff OOP and I always bring in everything that's asked for. But we pay very high taxes in MoCo and it's crazy this basic stuff isn't provided for.

I went to very average public schools growing up and we did not have to bring in any of this stuff. Nor did I hear of teachers having to make these bull purchases. It feels like schools were run in a more common sense way back then.

I lived in several "good" school districts. We used old-fashioned stuff.

I remember getting free lined, unbleached brown paper notepads, #2 pencils, fat Crayola crayon sets, and plops of white paste on a piece of paper towel. The school had communal watercolor paint sets and tempera paint in big jars.

Kleenex was not stocked in classrooms, I remember going to the office and paying 10 cents to get a tissue in 10th grade.

No glue sticks

Very little colored marker use and occasional colored pencil use. No dry erase or whiteboards. Only chalkboards.

Occasional composition notebooks. I feel like we were given these when needed.

Mostly used looseleaf lined paper until high school

No mandatory color coded folders by subject

It's almost as if times have changed. 🤯 I'm in my 50's, my parents bought school supplies.

My youngest is 24. We always had to send school supplies.

PP. I get it. I'm your age. My point was mainly...we didn't get much, but it was mostly provided. And, as things changed, and schools got more underfunded, there also emerged new categories of expensive "must haves". E.g., glue sticks, dry erase markers, disinfecting wipes.

I think there is a bit of a cultural expectation that people like to do back to school shopping and get doorbuster sales. And like to donate product. But a lot don't anymore. Post-pandemic, people have stopped doing a lot of social nicety busywork. Attitudes are definitely different.

Glue sticks are cleaner. We had chalkboard and school boards bought chalk. I don't recall doing a whole lot of cleaning. Only if someone wrote on their desk lol.

[Anonymous]

We have always had to purchase school supplies every year of my life. I’m not sure why people are objecting now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If parents don’t purchase the supplies, the teachers often have to do it.

I worked in a public school that provided no supplies for teachers. I had to purchase copy paper, tissue paper, class sets of composition books, books for my classroom library, etc. I also needed basic decorations for walls and all of my own supplies (whiteboard markers, pens, etc.). I spent close to $800 a year at that school, and was still told by an administrator that I didn’t decorate my classroom enough.

I don’t work for that district anymore.

BOOKS FOR YOUR CLASSROOM LIBRARY -You truly are not very smart. All you school has to do is post or send an email out requesting books from the public/parents. Our school did this and literally hundreds of current/old/favorite great condition books were donated. We had to use the HS kids (as volunteer hours) to help us organize. There was a bin at the local HS for this too. We are in Loudoun County btw. I would have made a supplies stipend a condition of my employment.

[Anonymous]

I dont have any issue with school supplies.

The school should have a budget for issues, Chlorox, soap, exc. The fact that it doesn't just shows how much public schools are bloated with the wrong expenses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised people are surprised that there aren’t tissues for teachers. Do most people get free tissue boxes at work? I do not. We all bring boxes in and if we forget, I guess there’s bathroom tp. Teachers shouldn’t have to provide these for students though.

People talk about the cost of school supplies, but school supplies cost like $15. It’s the 8 packs of tissues, 4 boxes of Lysol wipes, sandwich, quart and gallon baggies (what do they do with those?!?) and hand sanitizer that cost $$$.

What I don’t like is how over decorated all the classrooms are. They’re chaotic to sit in and I think they overwhelm adhd students. It’s insanity and I think teachers watch Instagram reels and think they need to do all that.

One box of walmart brand tissues, one container of walmart disinfectant wipes, and one of hand sanitizer. That's it for us. About 5 bucks. No way I'm bringing in costco sized bundles. LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the alternative is my kids not having hand soap at school, I’m happy to supply it. We can afford it, and my kids attend a Title 1 school too, so I know many of their classmates parents likely can’t. Should our tax dollars cover this stuff? Absolutely. But I think it builds school community to be willing to help provide for others.

Which district doesn't provide soap? In my 31 years teaching in an ES we always have had soap. Since we've always had soap I've never asked for hand sanitizer.

I work in Baltimore City. Prior to the pandemic, we'd run out of soap, paper towels, and sometimes toilet paper. We still run out of bottled water which we have to use because the water fountains are closed. The extra pandemic money has really helped but that's on its way out. I used to bring these things from home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If parents don’t purchase the supplies, the teachers often have to do it.

I worked in a public school that provided no supplies for teachers. I had to purchase copy paper, tissue paper, class sets of composition books, books for my classroom library, etc. I also needed basic decorations for walls and all of my own supplies (whiteboard markers, pens, etc.). I spent close to $800 a year at that school, and was still told by an administrator that I didn’t decorate my classroom enough.

I don’t work for that district anymore.

BOOKS FOR YOUR CLASSROOM LIBRARY -You truly are not very smart. All you school has to do is post or send an email out requesting books from the public/parents. Our school did this and literally hundreds of current/old/favorite great condition books were donated. We had to use the HS kids (as volunteer hours) to help us organize. There was a bin at the local HS for this too. We are in Loudoun County btw. I would have made a supplies stipend a condition of my employment.

Not everyone works in wealthy schools. Virtually none of my students have books at home. The vast majority had never been to a library.