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Anonymous wrote:OP here - ok so if I stick to $20 max on gift card, could we give chocolates too?
I think I did $25 or $30 last year without an issue but I don’t want to risk it. Seems embarrassing if it was turned down or if teacher got in trouble. I’ll just gift again later.
Do the chocolates have a cash value of more than $0? If so, then that would violate the gift policy.
She could have the gift card be Christmas and the chocolates be for winter solstice. You can give it five times a year.
I guess if you give them at different times that works. Kind of defeats the purpose of ethics rules and tarnishes the reputation of teachers, but you do you.
Given that the amount hasn't increased since 2012, if I were one to try to technically follow the ethics rules, I'd give $50 over 3 days. But I always just print out a $50 gift card and have my kid bring it in, so there is no record over email that the teacher got more than $20 in a single card.
Given that “gifts” aren’t supposed to be part of a teacher’s compensation, the concept of a COLA doesn’t apply.
I don’t know what’s worse: you refusing to treat your kids’ teachers as professionals, or your kids’ teachers flagrantly ignoring their ethics rules.
Oh yeah, how terrible to give A teacher who is spending hundreds of her own dollars in a supplies a $50 gift card to Amazon to thank her. Just terrible.
Then raise money to buy school/classroom supplies. That has its own ethical dilemmas (e.g., think of poor vs. rich schools), but
it doesn’t create an ethical problem for the teacher themselves.
That doesn’t make sense if we believe that teachers are handing out unearned good grades to kids from generous families. If a family gives $200 in supplies to the classroom, wouldn’t you also suspect their child gets favoritism? After all, that’s $200 less out of the teachers’ own pocket. And we here on DCUM believe that teachers are too dumb to know how to grade without showing favoritism to kids who gave any type of holiday gift.
Just like political contributions don't influence politicians. Let's get rid of what few campaign finance laws are still around.
Classroom gifts don’t directly benefit the teacher.
They do if the teacher would otherwise buy them out of pocket, which most would.
It depends on the teacher. There is a limit to what most teachers are willing to spend for basic supplies, which I agree they should not have to do! In one newsletter we were told what parents could donate if they wish. One item was tissues. I asked my 6yo if there were boxes of tissues in his classroom and he said no, they'd go to the bathrooms to get paper towels. So I sent a few boxes in.
It's ridiculous that MCPS got all the covid money and can't even supply their teachers with tissues, but I digress....
As to the gift rules, I adhere to them because I am also a public sector employee who is subject to similar policies. I don't want to put any teacher in a tough spot. We also contribute to the broader staff fund, and there isn't any limit to what we contribute to that IIRC.
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