Wal-Mart off the school-supply list

Deborah Bach ^ | 3/11/05 | Deborah Bach

[jude24]

do schools (i.e. taxpayer money) constantly give kids coats and stuff.

They do for kids whose parents are woefully inadequate. I've seen parents who'd send their kids to school in tattered clothes and without any food or lunch money. If people didn't step in - quietly - the kid would be in sad shape indeed.

Clothing and feeding a kid who is suffering through no fault of his own is not something you should be criticizing teachers for doing.

[yldstrk]

I guess my question would be whether the stuff is from China.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

Two years ago my son was required to purchase a Texas Instruments Graphing Calculator. One could be purchased through the school for a "discount price" of $98.00, I went to Walmart and bought the same model for the same price plus tax. However, $98.00 for a calculator is absurd!! How can lower income families or large families afford it.

[elli1]

Isn't the fund people really other people's money?

Yes. I wondered where the funding for the fund came from so that's why I looked it up. My thinking was that if money was sourced solely on teacher contributions, that was one story. But given that some considerable amount of the source is outside contributions, that makes it entirely another story. I was hoping for the delicious irony of finding that Wal-Mart had contributed to the fund(and they may have because only three contributors are mentioned.)

[hardworking]

OK, so here's the caper: one parent forms a little "group purchase" business and buys ALL the kids stuff at a discount, probably from WalMart, and then turns in a receipt with HER/HIS business name on it and gets reimbursed. Case closed and the Teachers Union is too D*** dumb to even grasp the role of "Free Enterprise!" in the equation! Go for it parents!

[Vor Lady]

I'm really torn here. I grew up as one of those kids who rarely had lunch money, had awful clothes (to this day, I will NOT wear polyester anything) and no teachers bought me anything. If they had, it might have just given my parents more reasons to be irresponsible, ie. if the teachers will clothe and feed her, we can spend more on gambling. I started working at 13 (before some of the silly child labor laws got set in stone)and have been responsible for myself since. I am the only one of my family that turned out conservative Republican, so maybe the experiences don't prove anything....

[Phsstpok]

Well, that's the end of any contributions by rational people to this "fund."

If the local teachers union or school board tried a stunt like this I think they'd have a really negative reaction.

Wankers.

[steampower]

My experience lately is that I can find very little in manufactured consumer goods that ISN'T made in China. And I prefer to do my buying at Mom and Pop stores.

I'm willing to pay more for American made goods, but if I insist on American made, I'll often have to do without.

Many seem to see the situation we are now in as black and white, from one perspective or another, but it isn't at all that simple.

However. there is an anology from another current problem facing the world today which may be applicable in this case. I'm speaking about the practice of some beef growers who have been feeding cattle the unsaleable portions of their bovine brothers...with disastrous results.

If we feast on our brother's misfortune, we will surely come to an awful end.

[elli1]

WEA Children's Fund link in post #32. This is the info on that page:

Columbia Dental of Washington is supporting the WEA Children's Fund as a "Head of the Class" sponsor! On behalf of WEA members and Washington students, the Children's Fund says THANK YOU to Columbia Dental for its generous contribution of $10,000. To learn more about Columbia Dental of Washington, click on its logo above.

Thank you to the Saturn Corporation and Staples Corporation for their generous donation of $8,160. Saturn's program for our members was very successful and we are pleased that they were able to make such a generous donation in conjunction with the Staples Corp.. To learn more about Saturn or Staples, please click on their logos.

Through the generous donations of corporate and business sponsors like Columbia Dental, the WEA Children's Fund is able to continue to meet the modest needs of Washington students. We are currently making annual sponsorship opportunities available to select organizations that care about children. For more information about becoming a sponsor, click on Information for Potential Sponsors in the column to the right.

[shezza]

...venturing in from time to time to pick up supplies and emergency items for disadvantaged students, such as coats and shoes. She'd get reimbursed through the Washington Education Association's Children's Fund, a decade-old charity that provides up to $100 per student each year.

Um, forgive my interjection of common sense, Mizzzz "High Horse" Strand, but wouldn't funds (reimbursable) for items for disadvantaged students such as coats and shoes stretch a LOT further if many were purchased used? There are some GREAT used jackets out there that kids outgrow so quickly that they look brand new. Why not have a "closet" warehouse someplace where kids/families can donate items to be used to give to these disadvantaged students in other parts of the state and use the money in the fund to buy as much as possible? E.g., look at these nice winter jackets on eBay:

Columbia brand. Warm, nice, look new. Boys size 10-12 (that's what my fourth-grader wears). Get both, plus an Old Navy fleece pullover for $9.99.

Ah, but it's easy for the teachers to be charitable and buy brand-spankin'-new when they're using other people's money. If I ran the Children's Fund, I'd make it my mission to see how far I could stretch that $100-per-child allotment.

[proudofthesouth]

If you have a store called Big Lots in your area, I suggest you check them out. Not only are they good for school supplies but gardening, toys, household goods as well.

[superiorslots]

Quote: "The company's average wage for hourly "sales associates" is $10.14 in Washington state, Fogleman said, compared with the national average of $9.68. "

Our local china mart pays minimum wage to start. I know 3 people who work there and they are between 6.50 and 7.00 pr hour full time.

Walmart fudges their average hourly wage because they include higher up floor type managers pay into the calculation which brings up the average pay number.

[HungarianGypsy]

LOL! Sounds like what I've been doing with our homeschool. I've been using a 130 year old math book and have been having the children write their problems on the board. Sure saves on paper. So long as they can do the problems...

[HungarianGypsy]

Actually, I have sometimes found better name brand items at the consignment stores.

[HungarianGypsy]

This is a serious question that I would like answered. If we no longer bought things from China who would suffer the most? Those higher up or the slave labor we are trying to protect in the first place? I would really appreciate insight on this, since I have asked it many times with no answer. Thanks!

[HungarianGypsy]

Actually, it takes some time but you can find non-Chinese made products in Wal-Mart. I remember reading one of these threads once, then while taking a drink from a cup I had bought at Wal-Mart I happened to notice on the bottom was written Made in the U.S.A. I had a good giggle out of that.

[steampower]

Please accept my apology. My reading of your initial reply led me to believe that you are unsympathetic to the problems facing workers today. What you subsequently wrote about your feelings and experience have shown me that I was mistaken.

You may find this interesting:

http://www.kingdomlife.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=32

Lest any here think that I'm just another liberal, be assured that I'm not. I'm a business owner and hands-on worker myself, and my ability to employ my fellow citizens at anything resembling a living wage has been crushed by illegal immigration and just plain greed. And yet...though I refuse to employ them...I have to admire the work ethic of those little guys from south o' the border. They need a break too. I voted for Bush because I trust him, not because I approve of all his policies. I pray that he has a better view of all the problems we face than I do, and will come up with the best solutions.

[hchutch]

The thing is, Wal-Mart and Microsoft do more to promote the general welfare of this country than the NEA, AFL-CIO, or Americna Federation of Government Employees.

The sad thing is that people see Wal-Mart and Microsoft as the villains and the unions as the heroes.

[redhead]

"What supplies are they talking about? When I was in school the kids had to bring their own crayons, pencils, tissues, etc. The teacher's supplies came from a teacher supply store or a big educational supply house. What supplies are they buying at Wal-Mart?"

Gads. I must be OLD. When I was in grade school, all I took to school was myself. We even got new pencils every 6 weeks, as well as crayons and notebooks. Scissors, rulers and erasers were school property. We used them, we put them back in the boxes on the teacher's desk at the end of the class.

[redhead]

"Maybe Granny should look for a better job, then. This is the part that just kills me about the anti-Wal-Mart/raise the minimum wage crowd. If you can't make ends meet on what you're being paid, then freakin' look for a higher-paying job and stop complaining. What's that, they're not qualified for a better job? Who's fault is it that they didn't do better in school or take advantage of various free job-training programs?"

BINGO