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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The point is - ask your whole community - flyers at the grocery store, posts on NextDoor or DCUM, boxes places at gym entrances . Stop whining and just put the work in - it's not hard.

[Anonymous]

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

This thread is posted every year

[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.

Not underfunded. Misfunded.

[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.

You think that the teacher with 25 kids, asking for 8 boxes of tissues from each, is planning on using all of those 200 boxes for her own nose?

If you believe that people should supply their own tissue at work, then you would think you'd believe that children should to, since school is the closest thing they have.

[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).

I tried to suggest this for a PTA fundraiser. That we create school supply boxes, ordered in advance, so that we would get bulk pricing on many items.

But nope lets all spend 100s of hours on multiple "festivals".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The point is - ask your whole community - flyers at the grocery store, posts on NextDoor or DCUM, boxes places at gym entrances . Stop whining and just put the work in - it's not hard.

So if it isn't hard working in these schools, why doesn't anyone want to do it? The only help I've gotten is from my parents and cousins. My Nextdoor posts have mostly gone unanswered except for a few donations. I do use Donors Choose which has worked the most of all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The library is free. This isn’t a wealth problem. It’s a lack of interest in reading in households and not prioritizing education. A few books in the classroom isn’t going to solve that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The point is - ask your whole community - flyers at the grocery store, posts on NextDoor or DCUM, boxes places at gym entrances . Stop whining and just put the work in - it's not hard.

Parents are the worst. Can you imagine if your employer made you source all of your business supplies via crowdfunding? Paper, printers, staples, software? Employees would be up in arms. Or they would quit, which is what teachers are doing (for a multitude of reasons). The supply list is cheap considering we are not paying tuition out of pocket. I have no issues with it and most schools make it easy to bundle buy.

[Anonymous]

What's wild is Fairfax county just announced a $260 million budget surplus https://www.ffxnow.com/2024/08/08/fairfax-county-executive-unveils-proposal-for-260-million-budget-surplus/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The point is - ask your whole community - flyers at the grocery store, posts on NextDoor or DCUM, boxes places at gym entrances . Stop whining and just put the work in - it's not hard.

Parents are the worst. Can you imagine if your employer made you source all of your business supplies via crowdfunding? Paper, printers, staples, software? Employees would be up in arms. Or they would quit, which is what teachers are doing (for a multitude of reasons). The supply list is cheap considering we are not paying tuition out of pocket. I have no issues with it and most schools make it easy to bundle buy.

Lol what. You are paying for public schools, my tax bill was over $20k this year

[Anonymous]

We bought supplies for public school even in the 1980’s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The point is - ask your whole community - flyers at the grocery store, posts on NextDoor or DCUM, boxes places at gym entrances . Stop whining and just put the work in - it's not hard.

Parents are the worst. Can you imagine if your employer made you source all of your business supplies via crowdfunding? Paper, printers, staples, software? Employees would be up in arms. Or they would quit, which is what teachers are doing (for a multitude of reasons). The supply list is cheap considering we are not paying tuition out of pocket. I have no issues with it and most schools make it easy to bundle buy.

Lol what. You are paying for public schools, my tax bill was over $20k this year

Dang. Where do you live and what’s the assessed value of your home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Thanks for the replies. PP here and I’m in Fairfax Co.

Why are your water fountains closed? Leftover pandemic policy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Thanks for the replies. PP here and I’m in Fairfax Co.

Why are your water fountains closed? Leftover pandemic policy?

Lead pipes

[Anonymous]

OMG, just guy the school supplies. This is the cheapest time of year to buy them, OP. Wait until your kid is in high school and not only needs more supplies, but had to pay school fees every year. My kid owes $50 this year just in fees.