Who is responsible for school supplies?
8:43 am July 30, 2009, by Laura Diamond
Today begins the annual sales tax holiday. Families will hit the stores to purchase back-to-school clothing, computers and supplies.
Many schools and teachers mail letters or put on their Web sites the items they expect students to have. The lists include everything from specific types of notebooks and binders to requests for tissues, hand sanitizer, copy paper and other items.
Some families buy all the items. Some don’t. Often teachers use their own money to plug in the holes.
But I wonder what the school supply turnout will be like this year.
With the recession and many families facing tight budgets, I wonder how many parents will refuse to buy items they think the school should supply - like tissues or copy paper.
(Although the hand sanitizer would be pretty useful with all the worries about swine flu.)
At the same time I wonder how many teachers will stop using their own money to pay for these items. Between the furloughs, no raises and increased health care costs, money is tight for educators.
What supplies are you planning to buy? Is the economy forcing you to reconsider what you’re willing to contribute?
[the comments are interesting: http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2009/07/30/who-is-responsible-for-school-supplies/?cxntfid=blogs_get_schooled_blog]
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How about you? By this point, I have usually spent over $100 of my own money on paper and stuff. I have been rethinking how I will teach, but I will not be providing paper and pencils for my students this year. By this point - and they have been in high school at least two years - they know this and know the consequences.
