When Emily Cooper headed off to first grade in Moody, Ala., last week, she was prepared with all the stuff on her elementary school’s must-bring list: two double rolls of paper towels, three packages of Clorox wipes, three boxes of baby wipes, two boxes of garbage bags, liquid soap, Kleenex and Ziplocs.Like most of you, when I was going to elementary school I showed up on the first day with a smile, some new clothes, and that was about it. The school provided everything else. Paper, pencils, paint, glue, crayons...all of it.
“The first time I saw it, my mouth hit the floor,” Emily’s mother, Kristin Cooper, said of the list, which also included perennials like glue sticks, scissors and crayons.
Schools across the country are beginning the new school year with shrinking budgets and outsize demands for basic supplies. And while many parents are wincing at picking up the bill, retailers are rushing to cash in by expanding the back-to-school category like never before.
Now some back-to-school aisles are almost becoming janitorial-supply destinations as multipacks of paper towels, cleaning spray and hand sanitizer are crammed alongside pens, notepads and backpacks.
OfficeMax is featuring items like Clorox wipes in its school displays and is running two-for-one specials on cleaners like gum remover and disinfectant spray. Office Depot has added paper towels and hand sanitizer to its back-to-school aisles. Staples’ school fliers show reams of copy paper on sale, while Walgreens’ fliers are running back-to-school discounts on Kleenex.
State and local school financing, which make up almost all of public schools’ money, is falling because of budget-balancing efforts and lower property- and sales-tax revenue.
“Some of the things that have been historically provided by schools, we’re not able to provide at this point,” said Barbara A. Chester, president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals.
Today we spend far more per student than we ever did back then and the kids have to raid a warehouse store before the first day or else the classroom can't function. I remember when my son was a senior in high school one of his classes gave the kids extra credit if they brought in a roll of paper towels.
I guess in many ways it's good to have the parents provide the expendable stuff, but that can be a hardship for families with lots of kids or limited income. Perhaps if they just trimmed a few administrators they wouldn't have to do all this stuff.
Posts
3 comments:
This... crap is why we've been homeschooling since the mid eighties. It ain't gonna get better: get your kids OUT!
What's with all the cleaning supplies?? I could understand if there was a accident with an art project, but what are they doing? Cleaning down the classroom?
And those stupid hand sanitizers!! Ever heard of soap and water? It's still the gold standard for clean hands. Is that still in the bathrooms? Next the kids will have to provide their own toilet paper.
I was a high school teacher in fall 2009. I was constantly buying paper and pencils for my students. These kids were claiming that they were poor and they had better cell phones than I had. As a kid my parents bought the paper and pencils.
I also bought Kleenix and hand sanitizer (flu scare), but I quit doing that with the attitudes I encountered.
Post a Comment