Back to school, out of supplies

[unhappycamper]

Back to school, out of supplies
By James Vaznis
Globe Staff / September 6, 2008

Along with stocking their children's backpacks, parents are increasingly helping teachers fill their cash-strapped classrooms with glue sticks, markers, hand sanitizers, toilet paper, and other basic materials once covered by school budgets.

Many teachers sent out the pleas last month before the first day of school as part of welcoming letters. Others handed out the lists last week on opening day. And a growing number, such as those at Chelmsford's Harrington Elementary this year, posted requests on school websites, saving money on postage and paper.

The lists are another telltale sign of how budget-cutting in recent years has affected the pocketbooks of parents, coming on top of the hundreds of dollars they spend annually on ever-increasing fees for school lunches, sports, after-school programs, and buses.

With household budgets this year stretched thin by rising grocery and fuel prices, parents are questioning how much longer they can keep giving.

"Parents are starting to feel like a piggy bank," said Holly Ewart-O'Neall, the mother of a second-grader and cochairman of the Worcester Arts Magnet School's parent-teacher group, which experienced a decline last year in fund-raising revenue that sometimes goes toward supplies.


Article at: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/09/06/back_to_school_out_of_supplies/



uhc comment: With military spending at almost a trillion dollars for 2009, we ask why this is happening?

[CrispyQ]

1. This is scandalous.

Currently there is a commercial being run on television, that shows a young man raising several flags up a pole. The US flag is at the bottom of a long line of other flags & the text reads something like "So goes education, so goes our country."

Our priorities are so fucked up. Corporations & war is what America is all about now. "We don't need no education," we just need guns so we can kill.

:cry:

[Obamanaut]

2. Donate supplies to teachers/schools

Classroom projects by state, lists projects/needs with description and includes dollar amount for the project

http://www.donorschoose.org/homepage/main.html?gclid=CPmkgNXYx5UCFQMLswodUlKnjA

http://www.iloveschools.com/index.html?gclid=CNKf-bHZx5UCFQZqswod-31sig

Both sites are search-able all the way to specific teachers with his/her requests. Most of the requests from teachers in my area are reasonable (read not extravagant)