On the subject of public schooling

[elfs]

Between the two girls, Omaha and I have spent over $200 on school supplies in the past four days, and that doesn't include the shoes they needed: Yamaraashi-chan's new PE sneakers, and Kouryou-chan's "indoor shoes" for the school hallways at her Montessori school.

What annoys me more than anything is the "general pool" school supplies Yamaraashi-chan is expected to supply. A ream of copy paper, a ream of lined paper, 36 pencils, 100 4x6 index cards, three packs of Post-It notes (yowch, those are pricey), a bottle of glue, three boxes of tissue paper.

There is something to the attitude that "my kid can't get a good education unless your kid does too," which is part of what inspires parents to make these sacrifices. Yamaraashi-chan will never want for the supplies she needs; much of what I bought today will be used more by the less-fortunate students than her. Still, it annoys me that basic supplies, like copy paper, must now be bought by the parents. What's next? If we don't supply it, the kids will go without toilet paper? A pro-rata assessment of the school's electricity and water use?

Comments

[nbarnes.livejournal.com]

"Expected" to buy? Sounds to me as if the school district is levying an additional tax on the parents without following state law on same.

Don't be naive. Of course it's an additional tax levy on parents. That is, in fact, precisely what this is. We don't have a solid social consensus that schools should be fully funded, so they aren't. Parents, teachers, and basically everybody associated with the programs end up having to pick up the slack.

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, my keen wit and sarcasm went awry yet again.

What I meant to say was, "why the hell are you putting up with it?" If I had kids, and was given a list of other things to bring in to a public school, I'd raise holy hell with the district, my legislators, and the press.

[velvet-wood.livejournal.com]

And everyone in the school would know it. Do you _really_ think they'd then treat your child just like anyone else?

That's the problem with raising a fuss... you've always got to decide whether or not the outcome is worth the possible repercussions.

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Oh, certainly, I agree, and it's actually driving me nuts. Until the past 4 years, I'd never had children in *public* schools that actually had multi-million dollar fundraising drives, but it's very common here. That is, public school districts and individual schools look for corporate funds, set goals for fund raising from private sources, and basically act like they're PBS during pledge week. I made the mistake of saying, "Well, if the school needs $750,000 extra each year from parents and alumni to operate, maybe we need to reduce the level of extras? Do we *need* new iBooks every two years?"

People pretty much thought I was crazy. During the "core fundraising period", parent volunteers from my daughter's school called and asked me to donate just $500.00 to make sure the school was fully funded. My reponse was pretty much, "Hey, why don't you all with the $1.5 million dollar homes pay a more realistic property tax instead?" but it's California, and it's not okay to say that. Instead, I said, "I'm sorry, my family can't afford that, and I don't believe in large scale fundraising for public schools." Mostly what I was told is that This Is How It's Done, that *everyone* knows that parents have to donate sums of money to keep the schools funded. At one point I met with that school's principal and said, "Look, evidently I can't afford public school in California."

(The last straw for me in this case was that the parents who administered the school lunch program -- they don't have cafeterias and the like here -- decided to "round up" the price for school lunches from the already insane $3.25 to $4.00 a day, as a fundraiser. They said, "Oh, everyone can afford an extra 75 cents a day, and we can use the money for new play equipment, so we're setting the price above cost.")

I've had children in public school for coming upon 13 years now. When *teachers* asked for a modest set of additional communal resources, I've been willing to throw in about $10.00 worth, when I had the money. When I haven't -- which has been frequently -- I've said no. When schools have asked for walkin' around money, so to speak, I've said no. I guess that makes me a hypocrite, but hey, I'm already evil, so it's okay.

[nbarnes.livejournal.com]

I don't think it makes you a hypocrite. I think it makes you a victim of the lack of social consensus I mentioned. CA is a good example; you're not wrong about the 'realistic property tax', and you're not wrong that you're not allowed to mention that in CA.

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Well, there's have a chance if I say it here, some Libertarian may jump down my neck. :-) I went from schools in a state that were overflowing with education money during the 90's and could afford to fully fund whatever they came up with -- free pre-K! free college tution for B students! computers in every classroom in the state! -- to a state where the property tax choices in the 70's and budgetary polices now are crippling the schools. It was and sometimes still is a shock to me, what people put up with.

my sympathies

[hydrolagus.livejournal.com]

Dunno how it is now, but I remember California schools having some deep budget fuckedness. Was it Bakersfield that went bankrupt?

Re: my sympathies

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my partner ewhac grew up here and can speak to it much more knowledgeably. I think I could even understand it more if the school district were in deep financial crap, but it's not. I live in a district that is so affluent that they don't get "extra" state money because they get so much property tax, comparatively speaking. The teachers at the schools my children have attended here aren't unionized and do not have tenure -- as charter schools, all employment is at will and by yearly contract. But even with that, parents *still* want to raise millions each year for *more* stuff -- more art classes, more drama classes, newer computers. They actually whine about it in a competitive way: "The school district just south of us raised $3 million last year in corporate donations! We only raised 900K! We have to do better next time!" WTF. *gah*

[velvet-wood.livejournal.com]

Thing is...

My kids current school district _IS_ well-funded. It's one five wealthiest in the state, in fact. I believe it's one of a small handful which actually sends money _back_ to the gov't, because the taxes bring in too much.

So why the hell can't they buy their own dry-erase markers? If they were really strapped, no problem, I'd be happy to help out. However... not only did I very nearly become a teacher (the beginning of student teaching in New Orleans scared me out of it _fast_, but this is _so_ not New Orleans!) I have many friends who are teachers, and have heard from several of them that they ask the parents for things because it's "too much trouble" to get it out of the school funds, despite there actually being adequate money for classroom supplies. You can either fill out the forms and wait and get ignored and harassed and _maybe_ get what you need about six months after you actually needed it, or you can pay for it yourself and hope they'll actually someday reimburse you (and they probably will, but don't hold your breath waiting for it to be soon), or... you can hit the parents up for it.

But...

See, I'm really sorry the process sucks. I am. Truly. I would fully support teachers in an effort to streamline the process and ensure adequate teaching materials that do not come out of their pocketbook. However, several thousand dollars a year already go to the school out of _MINE_, so I'd really rather they that, rather than hitting me up for more. It's not the money. It's the principle of the thing. Stand up for your rights. Strike. Campaign amongst colleagues and parents and in the papers and online and in the news. Use the union as a tool for this, rather than using all your built up 'credit' to push through a 1% pension increase when most of the country doesn't even remember what a pension _IS_ and less than half the employed population has any kind of retirement plan at all. Don't pass the buck to me, because I'm tired of it. Particularly when, after hearing forever that what teachers really, really want is for parents to be involved with their children's education, I spent most of last year being ignored, given the run around, hassled, impeded, and outright lied to when attempting to get my son's teachers to even speak to me (or type to me -- email would have been acceptable). I'd love to be involved in and responsible for my son's education. All I asked for was for them to let me know when he didn't turn in his work, preferably sometime _before_ he was four weeks behind and failing, and for access to a copy of their lesson plan (online or paper) so I could know what he was supposed to be doing. That's it. Given the level of his disability, the legal requirements regarding such, and how easily I could have been a real pain in the ass, I don't think I was asking for much. Heck, I would have been happy with a "No, we won't do," truthfully... I would have hired a pro advocate and maybe a lawyer, but I would have been happy enough to just receive _any_ communication from them at all in response to the ridiculous amounts I sent their way trying to get a response.

So I've unfortunately received the impression that what's wanted is _not_ for parents to be involved with their child's education, but for parents to simply write a check and not ask questions anytime the school asks for money. We're also expected to agree with anything the teachers have to say, even if what they're saying is that our child is simply lazy and irresponsible... never mind that said child is doing five hours of homework every freaking day, most of it repetitive make-work that hasn't actually _taught_ him anything in months but until everybody has 'mastered' the skills needed for the TAKS test, everybody does drill. So... I'm a bit less sympathetic than I used to be, yeah.