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Can Public School Districts Require Parents to Buy Necessary School Supplies?
Michigan Capitol Confidential ^ | 8/24/2011 | Patrick Wright

Posted on 08/24/2011 11:48:18 AM PDT by MichCapCon

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To: tbw2
Parents who cannot feed, clothe and otherwise raise their children despite school lunches and food stamps and welfare funds should not be allowed to have children.

I don't want to live under a government that 'allows' citizens to have children or not.

(I agree with your sentiment, however)

41 posted on 09/03/2011 6:23:47 AM PDT by whd23 (Every time a link is de-blogged an angel gets its wings.)
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To: momtothree

Sounds pretty typical.

When I listened to Boortz regularly (years ago; I found after becoming a regular on FR that I didn’t get much new information there), he would always get callers backing him up on this story, as you have here. It’s everywhere. I bet they teach doing this in Elementary Education classes in the Colleges of Education across the country.


42 posted on 09/03/2011 6:58:38 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: FreedomPoster

Here is something that will just make you shake your head. In our County, there is a “school exhibit”... nice term for one day prior to the start of school where every low income kid in the county receives a brand new backpack filled with what they would need. Crayons, colored pencils, pencils, folders etc... Our County has a HUGE population of illegals. First day of school... the supplies are taken from the children. Guess which kids didn’t bring their supplies in to be “re-distributed?” You guess it. I assume they just keep them at home. They showed up with their free backpack and not so much as ONE pencil in it. So, we are duped twice in a way. Our taxes go to providing the freebies. Then OUR supplies (that we pay for out of our budget and salary) are again handed out to them.

I’m not anywhere done with this issue. I have simply decided when an appropriate setting/time would be to address it. That being said, it will be a cold day in Hades before I send in another bunch of pencils, crayons, colored pencils, or glue sticks. Makes me mad enough that I want to just spit.


43 posted on 09/03/2011 7:47:00 AM PDT by momtothree
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To: momtothree

Good; you should be; recruit your friends to be mad with you and organize.


44 posted on 09/03/2011 7:50:33 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: momtothree
On my daughter’s first day of Kindergarten, all of her supplies were confiscated ... we plan on bringing it up on the first parent teacher conference.
When someone takes something that belongs to you, it's not "confiscation," it's theft.
Don't wait - call the principal, tell him/her you want all of your daughter's stuff returned - now.
If you don't get it within 24 hours call the cops and press charges.
45 posted on 09/03/2011 7:55:02 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: netmilsmom
If someone is in the public school and they don’t have a pencil, let the teacher (who gets a tax break for the school supplies and special discount days to buy them with the money I give her out of my property taxes) provided it out of the cash each one is given for “supplies”.

I wonder how much of the "redistribution" crap is really so the teacher can pocket the allowance they get for classroom supplies?

46 posted on 09/03/2011 8:08:36 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (When you've only heard lies your entire life, the truth sounds insane.)
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To: oh8eleven

Not to sound like I am weak but we are in a bit of a tricky position right now. Our five year old is having somewhat a difficult time adjusting to all day kindergarten. (I will say by Friday she was A-okay but it was a heck of a week). I know the teacher somewhat personally... that is, she was a fantastic teacher for our older two kids when they had her. I think it has become a County wide policy and the teacher/principal can’t disobey a county rule. My plan on questioning this practice can be done with cooler heads (uh, mine) and in a setting where it is just the teacher and us (husband and me). Now, if this is a count wide policy, my “school supply days” are over. I will hide an extra pencil for my child in her backpack. If it is a school policy (one that can be enforced or not) then my letter to the principal will follow. Since I know the teacher for many years, I know she isn’t the type of woman to just come up with this on her own.

I have the strong feeling that since so many other states have a similar policy, it must be the liberal education view/policy instead of a school to school one.


47 posted on 09/03/2011 8:16:51 AM PDT by momtothree
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To: MichCapCon

First, thank you for posting the entire article. I’ve consciously avoided your articles in the past because they were excerpted.

After reading the whole article, I come away with one thought: yep, the government schools are entirely broken. Michigan residents pay high property taxes (the sales tax deal was a joke). For those high taxes, they get theft, indoctrination, and a so-so babysitting service that provides a perfect example to Michigan children why the government favors people who are entirely dependent on it.

(BTW, back in the 70’s when I attended Michigan schools, there were supply lists. Some supplies we kept; others went into a common bin.)


48 posted on 09/03/2011 8:18:34 AM PDT by FourPeas ("Maladjusted and wigging out is no way to go through life, son." -hg)
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To: metmom
The problem is, however, if the school has already been allocated funds to purchase those things for the kids, they have no business asking the parents to buy them as well.

Now there's the million dollar point. Here in NE Ohio all the local school districts have deals with Walmart etc - there are posted supply lists for each school right in the back-to-school section for one-stop shopping. In contrast, we know someone who teaches at one of the inner city Cleveland schools who has to buy toilet paper for her own classroom, and often spends her own money to make sure her students have what they need.

Meanwhile here in our district, which receives benefit of my tax dollars while I homeschool, they are claiming financial crisis despite 3.5 million in cuts over the last 3 years and passage of a "much-needed" levy last year. This levy was on the ballot in 2009 and the school district claimed they would have to eliminate high school busing if it didn't pass. It failed, they took away high school busing in 2010, and the levy passed that November, but of course busing didn't return in 2011. Now they're talking of needing another 3 levies totaling 8.5 million over the next five years to get out of the red, which means about 500 bucks more a year in property taxes for me.

For pete's sake, where does all the money go? Oh wait, there's still a teacher's union.

49 posted on 09/03/2011 9:14:23 AM PDT by agrace
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To: momtothree
I think it has become a County wide policy and the teacher/principal can’t disobey a county rule.
A policy that allows them to STEAL your daughter's things is illegal.
Waiting to meet w/ cooler heads etc., may help you - but it won't change the policy.
I would call the police and file a complaint, contact the county district attorney and don't forget to contact your local newspaper and TV too.
50 posted on 09/03/2011 10:00:35 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: MichCapCon
"Can Public School Districts Require Parents to Buy Necessary School Supplies?"

My question would be, "Should public school districts require taxpayers to buy necessary school supplies for other people's children?"

Fact is, if you can't afford kids, don't have them.

51 posted on 09/03/2011 10:20:15 AM PDT by meyer (We will not sit down and shut up.)
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To: Little Ray
I’ll forgive ‘em a pencil sharpener or two for that.

Back in the day, every room had a pencil sharpener mounted on the wall. It did not move, and it was always there, every year. Why would they need to replace it with another? Are they made that poorly now that they need frequent replacement?

52 posted on 09/03/2011 10:24:39 AM PDT by meyer (We will not sit down and shut up.)
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To: whd23

Last I checked, our government does require a license of those who desire to procreate. We call it a “marriage license.” To procreate children outside holy matrimony constitutes grave sin (not to mention a serious offense against the state). Married couples can (and should) procreate children (plural).

I know of few parents who possess the financial resources necessary to rear a child before conceiving that child (with an adequate reserve for all possible contingencies), and parents can undergo much unforeseen hardship during their child-rearing decades. For example, the parents may develop physical (or psychological) maladies, lose employment, suffer natural disasters, die, or endure any of various other hardships that leave them temporarily (or permanently) without the means to generate the income necessary to provide for their children.

The socioeconomic problems of this country, however, stem primarily from these horrible statistics from 2008:
22.2% of all babies intentionally killed before birth
33.2% of all babies born to “unmarried women” (40.6% of all live births)


55.4% of all babies not born into a married-couple family

In fairness to the “unmarried women” who give birth, many of them were married when they conceived the child, but the husband (or very rarely, the wife) died after conception but before childbirth, ending the marriage. The proportion of all babies born under such circumstances, based on personal observation, however, is probably less than 3%. If it’s 10% or more, then that statistic alone demonstrates how sick American males are.

For the babies intentionally killed before birth, no one can make any valid excuse, although the severe confusion rampant in modern society along with duress and other factors can reduce the guilt of the mothers. May God forgive them and have mercy on them.

So I conclude that a significant proportion of American males lack the respect for women that heretofore characterized Western civilization (or for that matter, any successful society). Even cave-dwelling hunter-gatherers married man with woman to provide for the rearing of their posterity. A society so sick that most babies never meet the father (married to the mother) cannot survive long in its present degraded state.


53 posted on 09/03/2011 10:51:47 AM PDT by dufekin (Name our lead enemy: Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Islamofascist terrorist dictator)
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To: momtothree

>>Our five year old is having somewhat a difficult time adjusting to all day kindergarten.<<

Pull her out and homeschool her.
There is no need to send her there.

Maryland’s homeschool laws are easy. It’s a state with moderate regulation: State requires parents to send notification, test scores, and/or professional evaluation of student progress. (from HSLDA)

My daughter had the same thing happen. I spend the big bucks for erasable colored pencils that ended up in the “share bin”. I walked in the next day to get them but they weren’t there. I told the teacher that I expected them back in my hand by that evening. Either she got them back from the kid that she “shared” to or on her lunch she could drive to Walmart and get another set. If neither could be done, I expected the 5.00 in my hand (they were a brand new product and pricey).
I had them in my hand at 3:30 and in a year and a half my daughter was homeschooled.

I’m not going to put up with theft.


54 posted on 09/03/2011 11:27:22 AM PDT by netmilsmom (Happiness is a choice)
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To: Ros42

It’s the economy stupid! :0)


55 posted on 09/03/2011 12:03:31 PM PDT by proudtobeanamerican1 (A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Abraham Lincoln)
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To: meyer

There are electronic ones....and everytime someone sharpens a pencil the noise stops the whole class.


56 posted on 09/03/2011 12:23:15 PM PDT by proudtobeanamerican1 (A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Abraham Lincoln)
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To: albie

That’s theft. I wouldn’t tolerate an adult stealing my kids stuff.


57 posted on 09/03/2011 12:27:35 PM PDT by Varda
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To: dufekin
So I conclude that a significant proportion of American males lack the respect for women that heretofore characterized Western civilization (or for that matter, any successful society). Even cave-dwelling hunter-gatherers married man with woman to provide for the rearing of their posterity. A society so sick that most babies never meet the father (married to the mother) cannot survive long in its present degraded state.

So basically, it's the male's fault, eh? Last I heard, it takes 2 to tango, and given that it's the woman that "risks" (for lack of a better word) pregnancy due to unmarried sex, shouldn't the woman share at least half the blame in these situations? I mean, she is the gatekeeper after all.

58 posted on 09/03/2011 1:00:12 PM PDT by meyer (We will not sit down and shut up.)
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To: netmilsmom

I am definitely going to look into this and research it. All day kindergarten is just too long. My two older kids went to 1/2 a day. It was long enough to get adjusted to a school environment and learn some things. By the time they started getting tired, it was time to go home. All day... little ones are expected to be great even when extremely tired. I think it is nuts.


59 posted on 09/03/2011 1:19:37 PM PDT by momtothree
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To: momtothree

>>I think it is nuts.<<

If it doesn’t feel right, it’s not right.
You’re the mom and you know your child better than anyone. They will tell you they know your child, but no one knows her like you do.

You have lots of support here. Just tons of FReepers are here to help you. She deserves her pencils and the security of home.

It was the best decision I ever made.


60 posted on 09/03/2011 3:46:17 PM PDT by netmilsmom (Happiness is a choice)
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