Figures.
Teachers have always spent their own money on classroom materials. Some are cheap but many will spend 2 to 3K or more in a single year. How much they spend is not affected in the least by tax rules, in my experience.
HELPFUL HINT TO MARTINE: For $3,000 one can buy more mica, quartz and sulfur as well as gecko and snake food than it is possible to consume in a year. Shop elsewhere. Better yet, stop spending your own money and start teaching your students. I can guarantee that when public education did a better job of educating, teachers spent little if anything on such things.
That'll buy a heck of a lot of #2 pencils.
Cry me a river. My oh my, who to lay off, middle management, counselors, psychologists, gay and lesbian advisors, clinic staff...
What programs to cut, sex education, re-education, indoctrination, liberal studies...
The money is there, it's all a matter of priorities folks. Do we want to run a feel-good programs center, or provide education to the kids?
So far education is coming in a distant second.
Have a damned bake sale, put out fliers asking for help, I'm sure people will help out these kids so that they have some paper and glue!!!
Talk about wasted ink and paper on a non-issue. In LA for god sake, I'm sure there is some rich celeb that would be willing to pitch in and help.
Besides, it sounds like these people were getting reimbursed with our money anyway. Instead of reaching out to Uncle Sam, why don't they reach out to papa and mama source in their own neighborhood so the rest of us can help our neighbors
The teachers will have plenty of money for supplies when the unions refund their dues that are being illegally used for RAT political benefit.
If there are shortages, why the heck aren't parents asked to fill in instead of teachers? How all-encompassing does FREE need to be? The education isn't enough, now ALL supplies must be free too? And lunches and breakfasts? Shoot, why don't we just take the kids and hand them back at 18. Wait, that's what liberals are working towards. /s
A few years ago it was found out that the higher ups in the CA board of education were paying a limosuine service co just to shuttle members from home to work.
Do you remember those weeks before school started for your first grader? There you were, you and your proud new student walking the aisles of the local Costco with your list of school supplies in hand. You checked off the pencils, a ruler, a compass, paste, construction paper, a pencil holder, notebooks and erasers. At home, your first grader takes the supplies into his room and spreads everything out on the bed. Arranges them this way – then that way. Pencils next to the erasers, glue and construction paper lined up over here, compass and ruler lined up over there. These are his supplies. His! Do you hear? And tomorrow he is going to take them to school. He couldn't be more proud.
Finally, the first day of school arrives. The night before all of the school supplies are packed, repacked, unpacked and repacked again. Then, that morning, just one more unpacking and repacking to make sure everything's still there and undamaged. OK! It's off we go to school! Apprehension mixed with pride. Your young man or woman is taking another grand step toward adulthood! What could go wrong?
Plenty. Remember, it's a government operation.
The students are seated, the bell rings. As fast as you can say the Pledge of Allegiance without the "under God" part, the indoctrination begins. The government teacher steps in front of her virtual hostages and promptly delivers the first raw lesson in the power of government. The students are instructed to bring all of their precious school supplies – their property – to the front of the classroom and put them into a huge box. They are told that the supplies belong to all of the class now, and the teacher will assume the responsibility of distributing the supplies as they are needed.
"Whoaa! Hold on a minute here! These are my supplies. My daddy bought them for me. You can't have them! They're mine!"
Nope. Sorry! They were yours. Now all those supplies belong to – guess who? The government!
There's a method to this madness. Your child is being taught that there are some severe limits to the concept of private property. It is perfectly OK, for instance, if the government just steps up and seizes your property if there are other people who might need some of your stuff. After all, it's just not right for you to have something that other people don't have or can't share in, is it?
This whole "dump your supplies into this box" is not an innocent exercise. Your child's teacher might not even be aware of it, but this lesson in government power is a time-honored method of introducing your child to the concept that there is something basically wrong with owning private property – but everything will be OK if you just let your superiors even things out a bit by taking some stuff from you and giving it to someone else. How did Marx present this concept? I think it was something like "From each according to his ability; to each according to his need."
Day number one, lesson number one: Your rights to your property exist only so long as government will allow, and it's just not fair to have more stuff than someone else.
And this is just the first week! More surprises in store! Wait until you get that call from your child's teacher with vague, dark hints of a better world for your child if only he was on Ritalin.
waaaa mmwaaaaaa mmwaaaa
What tax break does a mechanic get for the tools he must buy to do his job. Teachers should get the same tax break as the mechanic or anyone else that needs to bring tools to work as part of their job.
Does anyone have details on mechanics tax break vs the tax break teachers were getting? Did the teachers get it automatically or did they have to document the expenses?
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"we all do it because it is best for the kids,"
This topinc is one of my pet peeves.
MY PARENTS paid for my pencils, paper, notebooks, pens, crayons, art paper, typing papers and some of my books, depending on the classes as I got older. They also paid for my socks, shoes, blouses, skirts, mufflers, mittens/gloves,coats, etc. They even fed me before sending me to school (after taking care of cows, calves, horses, pigs, chickens, dogs)One room school thru 7th grade even had 2 outhouses and 1 merry-go-round for outside entertainment at recess. We had 2 days a year when we cleaned the school yard.
It IS the responsibility of the school to provide teachers, desks, chairs, buildings, heat and light, bathrooms. Lockers were optional. Chalk, some art supplies, typewriters & ribbons, calculator paper rolls, and books in the lower grades were supplied by the school district, AKA the taxpayers.
IT IS NOT the responsibility of the taxpayers or the teachers to provide paper, pencils, pens, erasers, compasses, protractors, rulers, sewing items for home ec, etc. It IS the job of the parents.
I didn't produce these kids- not one, not 5, not 8, not 15 or whatever. I didn't damage the school grounds or buildings. Never even THOUGHT about pulling a sink or toilet out of it's mountings. Stopping up a toilet for mischief was unheard of. Spray painting vile and damaging remarks on private or public property was unthinkable. I don't think calling it "their culture" today helps this one little bit.
Bill Cosby is right--this starts at the home. A white home, a black home, an Asian home, a Chicano home...no difference. Respect for others property and the items which are connected to the FREE education you are being provided in this country need more reverance. The "maintenance" man in my high school cleaned and polished the floors, kept the basketball court in shape, marked the lines on the football field, and repaired the occasional leak or broken window when a bird hit a sqeaky clean window. He changed locker combinations AFTER you graduated, so that the incoming freshmen could use your same senior locker.
Local TV stations are pleading with viewers to "Pack the Patrol Car" or Fill the baskets at the local chain office supply store to make sure kids have pencils, etc for the school year because the cutbacks of Calif state spending are jeopardizing these kids' education.
Bull!! BULL!! We are training another generation to think that welfare doesn't just come with the monthly check. Now the best education they are getting is that the taxpayer is responsible for their everyday school supplies. There seems to be no means test for the recipients of these items. Church drives to get items for the very poor, distributed by the church doesn't bother me that much. I know there are truly deserving kids out there who need a little help. But I fail to understand how all this TV coverage and brainwashing of the parents and the kids leads to more self-reliance and personal responsibility. More and more kids, regardless of the family income are being taught that whatever supplies they want will come from "somewhere". These same kids spend a small fortune on clothes "they just have to have" and carry CD players.
Bemoaning the weight of your kids backpack? Spread it all out, remove all the crap---CD's-CD player-4 #s of makeup that cheapens your 12 Y/O to looking like Anna Nicole Smith, and get down to the basics of the books they need to get an education. THAT IS WHAT THEY ARE IN SCHOOL FOR!!!! Still have a heavy load? DO SOME HOMEWORK AT SCHOOL IN THE LIBRARY INSTEAD OF "HANGING OUT AT BURGER KING"!!! Then you don't have to drag the books home. Leave them in your locker.
What a quaint idea, you say? Rush is right--we are working overtime to dumb down America. The products of the 13 year long pipeline called education in USA is a fraud. After 13 years -K thru 12th- the employable value of these creatures- the end product if you will, is basically zinch-ZERO-nada. They are carring prox 7 pounds of piercings and "jewelry" and make a wonderful impression on the retail customer. Just swell for the mom & pop store that has been working for 45 years to keep their store open. Employ them out of sight and behind the scene you say? They don't want to get up in the AM and report on time. They drive and park disrespectfully on owners property. ( I turned in stupid driver at local Taco Bell. He turned out to be employee. He called me a liar. I had a witness. Told him I had better things to do at my age than to walk all over parking lot to get license plate of offender and turn it in to store owner. I didn't know he was an employee.) They steal you blind, and they think they are entitled to vacations and benefits comparable to a 20 year veteran of the job.
We all know what I am talking about. Free school supplies only tells these little darlings they need not provide their own. Where does it end?
PS- Our cafeteria provided the following: A couple of refrigerated vending coolers which doled out a half-pint of white milk for a nickle. That was a subsidized price at the time, I believe. It should have been a dime.
For those who think I am really old- I am not on Medicare yet......
FWIW-
Screw it. Teachers shouldn't spend a dime. Let the little ankle biters learn on what filters through the school district budget.