How many of you have had to go through the time-honored tradition of taking out a home equity loan to pay for school supplies? Ok, I know buying school supplies is part of the rhythm of back-to-school, but since when does it include buying wipes, soap, xerox paper, markers for art?????? What's next supplying your own toilet paper? And what about the families that can't afford $100 for each kid? Do they have to go without toilet paper?
I know that all school budgets have been slashed, but is this how to deal with it? Don't worry, I'm not going to get into taxes and politics here, but it's some food (oh yeah, we have to bring large bags of pretzels for extra classroom snacks) for thought.
Welcome to the Blogosphere, found you through Jenny's blog! I was just complaining about this very same thing with my husband. I don't have a problem buying supplies that are for my kids' use specifically, but HELLO! My 5th grader (in a public school) needed gallon zipper bags, disinfecting wipes, baby wipes, sandwich sized zipper bags, dry erase markers, dry eraser, a roll of paper towels and a box of kleenex. My preschooler (in the village rec center's preschool) needed quart zipper bags, baby wipes, paper towel, glue sticks, assorted stickers and disinfecting wipes. Of course it doesn't help that our fair state of Illinois owes the school districts millions of dollars. Apparently they need some help from all of the frugal moms (and dads, of course) out there who have to adjust their home budget every fall just to pay for the extra school supplies!
ReplyDeleteIt is heartbreaking to think of both sides of this -- families already strapped because of the economy having to buy all this extra stuff -- and schools that can't afford things either. Our high school age grandchildren go to an inner city school in a large city, and they don't have TEXTBOOKS of their own to take home for some of their classes. They have to do all their studying for those classes in the classroom. Yikes!
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