It’s October. I can no longer see the sun at 8pm. My alarm rings at 5am, and I have to face 130 children everyday. It’s the 6th week of school and the Canon copier has been broken six times. If I’m going to be able to teach a Reading class without books, I need copies of stories. I find a nice little all-in-one printer at Comp USA for $120. Score! I put the receipt in my little receipt box full of all the numerous purchases I’ve made for my classroom for my accountant. And then I hear the bad news…
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has approved the suspension of a $1500 tax credit for teachers for classroom supplies. This perk was originally offered to teachers as an incentive to stay in the field, as most new teachers leave the profession within the first five years. So now, on top of the school budget cuts, teachers will have to make due with whatever peanuts are given to them as an allowance for educational supplies? My school offers $150. Let me put how far this actually goes into perspective for you. Ink-jet transparency paper for overhead projectors is $50 a box of 50 sheets. I still need to buy 10 boxes of crayons, paper, pencils, pens, markers, construction paper, incentive treats (candy, stickers, etc.), file folders, labels, classroom decorating stuff, and plenty of other stuff that gets consumed in a year. Not only is it a bare minimum allowance, it takes two weeks to receive the needed supplies! For someone “for education”, the Governor is ignorant as to how much it costs or what it takes to create a learning environment.
My school offers a solution: give parents a wish list! How ironic that the free public school system has to ask parents for supplies-where the hell is that property tax going?
