I just thought of something.

[conuly]

EVERY year the schools send out lists of school supplies, from the basic (notebooks, pencils, crayons) to classroom supplies (paper towels, hand sanitizer, paper for printouts).

Wouldn't it make more sense for them to price it all out and send out a request for just the cash? Then they could buy everything in bulk and save money, plus parents wouldn't have to run around getting everything together. They could divide it into two parts and say "You HAVE to purchase your notebooks/folders/pencils for this much money, and we'd also like up to THAT much money for other miscellaneous supplies" and be done with it.

I'd imagine most people would be thrilled to have all this back to school stuff dealt with with a single check or small amount of cash.

Comments

[dragonwolf]

But...but that would make sense!

[conuly]

As pointed out over on LJ, it'd make more sense for this to be funded al-fucking-ready, but, you know, that'll be the day.

[dragonwolf]

The federal government can't even fund the mandates for all the hoops schools have to jump through in order for students to graduate, and local people keep turning down so many funding levies in some places, it's a wonder the schools still function at all.

And then there's my lovely home state of Ohio, with our new Governor, John "we don't need no stinkin' fed'ral money" Kasich.

[siderea]

I was wondering if what's really going on is some sort of head game.

I once ran a collective camp for Pennsic. There were things I could have done by charging the participants a higher camp fee and handling it centrally, but I made a decision to take a subset of those things and ask camp members to do them in advance of Pennsic; so each camp member had to pay a fee, and do one prep chore for the camp. I was open about this: my point in doing so was to make the members take ownership of the camp and set the tone of things. Without that, there's a tendency to treat the camp as a commodity, "I paid my fee, where's my dinner?" I wanted a camp of owners, not a camp of renters.

So when I see someone requiring members to do some preparatory task, my first thought is that maybe they're pulling the same mindhack.

[crystalpyramid]

The private school I went to did this, because they had a school store. I guess there has to be something in it for the school.

[chaos-by-design.livejournal.com]

I could just see the Sarah Palin types screaming then about how the schools are taking away the parents' "freedom" to buy whatever supplies they wanted as opposed to the ones the schools chose. *snort*

[conuly]

I'd still rather they did it for the classroom supplies rather than sending a list. Let the school get the paper towels and the napkins and the this and the that, I'd just as happy give them the money and be done with it!

[chaos-by-design.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying it isn't a good idea, I think it is. I'm just imagining what silly things teabagger[1] types would say.

I'm wondering if the real reason they don't do it is because it might start to look too much like requiring parents to pay a fee for public school, which is supposed to be free?

[1] Yes, I know what a 'teabagger' actually is. Hee.

[conuly]

Making parents truck in their own toilet paper isn't actually any better. And the endless endless endless fundraising efforts are enough to drive anybody batty.

[steorra (from livejournal.com)]

My linguist "that's an interesting sentence!" sense just got triggered. Is this something you'd actually say, or a typo:

"I'd just as happy give them the money and be done with it!"

[conuly]

Typo, I'm sorry to say.

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

Is that assuming people can afford to send in one payment of that amount? It's expensive getting school supplies for two, and I've got two high-schoolers so I'm not having to get crayons/watercolors/markers/various kinds of glue, and I still try to spread it out because it gets pricy.

Some of the school districts I've lived in have offered school packs through the PTA.

I suppose a monthly bill for a part of that total amount might be doable.

[conuly]

Is that assuming people can afford to send in one payment of that amount?

True, a monthly donation would be better.

I'd just be happy if schools outright asked for what they need rather than going through bake sales and whatnot.

I've read that teachers spend, on average, about $40 a month of their own money on classroom supplies. Well, in a class of 20 students, that's $2 a month. Why not ask from the start for that much to cover routine costs so that people who want to contribute but don't want to bother with all the hassle of fundraising can just give the money and be done with it?

[xianghua.livejournal.com]

The school district here offers it as an option. I *hated* it the one year I did it- a lot of the stuff was off-brand, for one thing, and there are plenty of things I don't mind off brand stuff in but pens and markers I *do*.

[conuly]

Well, buying shoddy merchandise would be a problem. I was assuming they'd get decent quality stuff and just save via buying in bulk.

[lady-angelina.livejournal.com]

Ha! They can't even get one-ply toilet paper that doesn't tear off in single sheets. If they actually got quality supplies, I would be amazed.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I think it'd be nice as an option, but part of the fun was getting to pick school supplies. I'd get to choose the ones with the pictures I wanted for things that had pictures on them. And sometimes there were choices like I could either use marble notebooks or use three ring binders, and then you could use whichever you found tended to work better for you, and that does vary from person to person.

[pne.livejournal.com]

I was assuming they'd get decent quality stuff

Don't schools fall under the government thing where they are *obliged* to go with the lowest bidder?

I mean, I suppose in theory they could word the bill such that only decent quality stuff will qualify, but how do you quantify that with something like pens and markers? "Must be able to draw a line at least 523 miles long on standard paper before the ink runs out"? "Must not smear or smudge more than once in 18 hours of continuous use"?

I think they're just going to run with the cheapest thing money can buy, quality or not.

[conuly]

Don't schools fall under the government thing where they are *obliged* to go with the lowest bidder?

You know, I don't know! I don't think so, though - schools around here all use Crayola crayons they buy themselves.

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is the reason I don't like that option.

At a lot of stores around here they'll set up an offbrand-box of the school materials for a discount (Roseart crayons? Are you jokin' me?).

If, however, the school offered the option with nicer brands- not necessarily the best brand but not terrible offbrand ones- I'd get in on it in a heartbeat.

My English teacher actually did this for the books we read. About a month before he'd go 'hey man ordering the books for $PRICE' and we'd pay up and everyone would be happy because we'd all have the same edition. And the price was right, too.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

What would be REALLY nice is it the cost of school supplies was actually provided by the government who fund (or pretend to fund) the schools in the first place. barring that, though, yes, I'd rather send money than buy all the fiddly little things. Plus, if the teacher gets paid to spend a day doing her classroom shopping, then s/he buys what s/he knows will be used in the class. I am sure that some of the parents can only buy very cheap materials (or choose to) and they're basically worthless. For example, one year I bought dollar store colored pencils and it was impossible to sharpen them. The leads (except it isn't lead anymore) were fractured all the way to the end of the pencil. There was no way to use them at all. If the teacher knows that, she'll know not to buy that brand instead of ending up with 20 packs of worthless colored pencils that she has to spend her own money to replace anyway.

[lady-angelina.livejournal.com]

What would be REALLY nice is it the cost of school supplies was actually provided by the government who fund (or pretend to fund) the schools in the first place.

This would make the most sense, since many students in public schools can't really afford to pay for this stuff out of pocket, whether it's buying them on their own or presenting a check to the school. It just doesn't seem fair to me that the teachers request so many supplies and put it on the kids (or their parents) to buy them.

The problem, too, with paying the school upfront is that it doesn't allow the students the flexibility of using coupons or store sales to buy decent items (Walgreen's comes to mind as an excellent place to buy items dirt cheap on some weeks), and also reusing items that still have mileage from last year, etc. Of course, the payment could also serve as a donation for the classmates, but given how sore some of the parents are with a local school bond up for vote next week ("WHY SHOULD I SUBSIDIZE THE EDUCATION OF OTHER PEOPLE'S KIDS" -- yeah, I know, lack of foresight, because these "other people's kids" may be the ones running said parents' nursing homes some forty years down the road), this probably wouldn't go over too well. =P

[leora.livejournal.com]

Or even more immediately... those kids are going to turn into part of the voting pool (well, some of them) and they're going to turn into the society you have to live with. And then you'll be annoyed at how many uneducated people you have to interact with. It really makes life more pleasant if you educate as many people as education will stick to, but people don't think about such indirect benefits.

I mean, just little things even, like do you want to be the person in line behind the person who doesn't understand how much they owe and what the correct change is when you're running your errands?

[conuly]

What would be REALLY nice is it the cost of school supplies was actually provided by the government who fund (or pretend to fund) the schools in the first place.

That's just crazy talk.

one year I bought dollar store colored pencils and it was impossible to sharpen them. The leads (except it isn't lead anymore) were fractured all the way to the end of the pencil.

Apparently that's not the brand but whether or not they were jostled and/or dropped too much during shipping. Better brands may resist this longer, but even very good quality pencils can suck.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

It's an excellent idea, so it will probably not be implemented. But there's certainly nothing to stop groups of parents from forming their own little independent co-ops, even if the school can't be officially involved due to the State's obstructive rules.

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

The problem is, not everyone could afford it, no matter how inexpensive the school made it by buying in bulk.

Where I live, people & organizations buy school supplies to donate to poor families -- pencils, pens, paper, notebooks, etc. They fill up backpacks and each kid gets a new backpack full of school supplies, because these families literally could not afford a pen or pencil.

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

speaking from my own personal experience...
More often than not, the people who could afford it without a pause will work out some way to wriggle out of paying it, leaving the people who have ethics, but not money to pay.