Posted on 09/05/2012 7:13:48 AM PDT by MichCapCon
It’s that time of year again: Back-to-school deal hunting season.
Hoping to give their kids every possible advantage, millions of Michigan parents will flock to nearby retailers for new school supplies. But before loading up on notebooks, pencils and crayons, parents should remember that their local public school is required by law to supply these necessities to every student free of charge.
The details are laid out in a 2011 Michigan Department of Education memo listing specifically what supplies schools must provide, including pencils, paper, crayons, scissors and glue sticks. In addition, school districts may not charge for registration or any course fees, even for elective courses.
Yet many parents remain unaware that the tax dollars tendered by themselves and their neighbors have already paid for these school supplies. Some school districts improperly suggest that parents are responsible for these supplies. According to the 2012 Huntington Backpack Index, parents will spend between $548 and $1,117 on school supplies and fees for each student on average.
The rationale for requiring school districts to provide these basic supplies is language in the state Constitution requiring the Legislature to “maintain and support a system of free public elementary and secondary schools as defined by law.” The Michigan Supreme Court has ruled that basic school supplies fall under this definition.
So before parents hit the stores, they should beware of paying a second time for supplies they have already funded.
> Schools Are Responsible For Providing School Supplies — Not Parents
This is absurd.
The parents pay for the schools and everything in them one way or another.
Now for my standard public school rant ...
The “public school”, including the “charter school”, is BY FAR, the largest, most expensive, most subversive, and most destructive entitlement program in the country.
The “public school” is better understood as the “government school collective”.
It is silly to imagine that you can fix the public schools, because the very concept itself is collectivist.
Any child that comes out of the government school collective with their moral compass and common sense intact does so in spite of the government school indoctrination, not because of it.
If you want to win the culture war, have lots of children (see my tagline) and homeschool them or form your own school cooperative with your church or synagogue and like-minded friends and relatives.
Nobody loves your children more than you do.
Nobody can teach your children better than you can.
Nobody knows your children better than you do.
Your children would love nothing better than to be taught by you, if you start doing so before they are corrupted by the government school collective.
It is hypocritical for you to submit your children to an authority with whom you fundamentally disagree. And your children will know it.
If you have children, make whatever sacrifices you must to get them out of the public schools.
DO NOT FEED THE BEAST!
Especially not with your own children.
And DO NOT TAKE GOVERNMENT “EDUCATION” MONEY!
He that pays the piper calls the tune, and that’s especially true for any government entitlement program.
Glad my kids are out of school, but not glad we still have to pay taxes to the school district through property taxes.
I pay over $8000 a year in property taxes for schools, for what?
Heck, city kids get free backpacks, groceries, meals, babysitting, healthcare, meals, legal representation, computers, iPods, etc., and most of all they get an entitlement mentality..
Pens and pencils are the least of our worries.
Well we the citizens of my rural county in SE VA are presently paying for iPads for the kids in our schools...
And facing a county tax hike to “erase” a deficit in the budget...
And test scores in our schools are dismal.
Amazing.
I don’t know what the law is here in SC and I have grown grandchildren, no great grands yet. However, I did buy school supplies for a young boy from our church whose parents could not afford them. Just to get him started was $85
I would have to look this one up, but I have a feeling that requirement is for elementary schools only.
I had to provide my own supplies once I started in 6th grade, and that was back in 1980. The middle school or high school never provided us paper for taking notes, crayons then was not even used. The high school almost never provided a pencil or pen for anything. I think the only time they provided pencils for anything was for the state assessment tests.
Now the schools require students to have a calculator that is worth anywhere from $85 to $120. I am giving a little for inflation since I dealt with the graphic calculators when I worked in retail.
I grew up in California, Florida and Iowa. My mother never bought a school supply in her life. She’d still be complaining about it if she had, and I’m 52 and my sister is 48. OTOH, I’ve bought tons of them. What gives? We’re still paying property taxes (whether directly as a homeowner or indirectly as a renter) aren’t we?!!
Oh brother....more freebies. My parents not only paid property taxes, but paid for Catholic School Tuition AND had to pay for uniforms and school supplies. Parents today don’t have any idea how good they have it.
You could cut out 90% of the School District Administration budge and not miss a beat.
budge, should be budget.
I pay over $8000 a year in property taxes for schools, for what?
To continue to make little liberals. Obama thinks that 8,000 is not enough for you to pay. You must pay more you 1%er. Of course I pay 6K a year and he probably thinks I am a 1%er too. Anybody who has an semblence of a job is a 1%er now adays.
I decent teacher could teach effectively in a barn with shared books and hand held slates.
My guess is that number is inflated by back-to-school wardrobe shopping. Even with new backpacks, lunchbags, etc., to replace the worn-out ones, I can’t imagine we topped $100 for three kids for actual school supplies. But new clothes and shoes (that they would need regardless of school) would drive that number much higher.
a 2 cent pencil bought by mom or dad
OR
a $20 pencil bought by the government, paid to a corrupt supplier, from taxes collect by a mental moron on the government payroll paying part of their taxpayer funded sallary to lobby for a $200 dollar government pencil.
I pay over $8000 a year in property taxes for schools, for what?
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Tell me about it! We spent over $200 this year for the ‘required’ supplies......for such things as tissue boxes, hand sanitizer, expo markers, paper towels, etc. Absolutely ridiculous.
I’m up at the school volunteering quite a bit. I can tell ya’.....those storage closets are chocked FULL. Most of it is wasted and NOT inventoried.
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