School Supplies - Is It Getting Out of Hand?

Hi! I have to say upfront I know nothing about school stuff as my kids have never gone to school BUT highlighters, Sharpies, and dry erase markers? Really? A box of washable markers is as far as I am willing to go with little ones. I'd love if someone could explain the rest to me. I feel like there is a whole world of strange things I missed by homeschooling, fortunately (for me and my kids). I'd love to know where the $18,000 a year goes...

My son will be a Junior in High School this year. I thought that when he entered HS the days of convoluted supply lists would be over. Folks, it never ends. And each teacher has their own list for their class. Some want certain colored pens, pencils, individual note books, specific folders - two pocket, pronged, not pronged, blue, green, red. Backpacks can only be clear or mesh - clear ones fall apart in about two weeks, good mesh ones cost more than I spend on a handbag for myself.

Since they do not even have lockers in the school building, students have to haul all their stuff around all day - Well not the textbooks, the district doesn't have enough money to buy a textbook for each student, so those stay in the classroom. Ever try to study for an exam without a text book? The past two years, I had to get special permission from the teachers so my child could take a textbook home each day. Woulda' thunk they were Faberge eggs.

Oh, and let's not forget Band fees - those eat me alive each year. The initial fee will be due in August, then there are competition fees, event fees, yadada.

And we still are asked to contribute paper towels, plates, cups, tissue, etc. to the classroom. At least they don't ask us for toilet paper. LOL

HS is making college seem cheap.

I want to start off by saying, Please, please get involved in your childs schools. This is where you are going to learn about why things are the way they are.

I promise you at the schools our daughter attended nothing was wasted. Yes the supply list is extensive and detailed by company and styles for a reason.

These are not just willy nilly lists of items the teachers pulled out of their hats, they are based on what will be needed by your child for their basic work as well as for enhancement of their education..

They use a tremendous amount of glue in kinder because of all of the cutting and pasting they do each week.

The colors of used down to the nubs..
The dry erase boards are now used instead of chalk boards because the chalk was filthy and flew through the air.. Being breathed in by all of the children.. Remember teachers write on these boards every day almost all day long.. They go through a lot of them ..

And YES, funding has been cut and not only that.. Gov. George W.. is the one that wanted all of this testing and so that is were a lot of the education budget goes towards the training (subs) the companies that make up the tests and the accounting of the scores. .

Our legislature is also famous about coming up with great ideas for our schools, but NOT FUNDING any of it.. Instead we are forced to implement these new rules etc.. and so we the taxpayers and parents end up funding it.

Example. the recycle program in Texas. Every school is required to recycle. Awesome except.. each school district has to pay to hire the recycling to be pick up, rent the dumpsters.. etc.. Not one dime comes form state money.. It comes directly from our school budgets. Then add in our Current Gov. Perry (yep, Gov Good Hair) who wants to cut more funding from education and REFUSES to accept Govt. Money because President Obama is in office and he wants to be able to say, we do not need that money. !!!!

So we parent s and our PTA's have to spend out own time and money filling in the losses.

There is only so much money to go around.. Budgets are tight. Join a budget committee, join your schools PTA's, meet with the Principal and get educated about it, instead of just feeling so frustrated about it. You will then understand what and why they send out these lists.

Psh, wait til middle school and hs, involving $100 calculators and $50 flash drives!!

:)

Well I agree it is different but times have changed! Chalk was cheap remember, but no one uses chalkboards any more so dry erase markers have taken over! Plus a lot of classrooms use dry erase markers for personal little dry erase boards as practice or recreation in the classroom. The cost of supplies has gone way up and the funding hasn't. Plus, we have figured out how to use ziplock bags in so many different ways! :0) They can be used for science experiments as well as cleaning and organizing of the classroom and desks!

I used to teach 3rd grade, and I will add that I was in a very impoverished part of town so my experience may be unique, but we did have a say in our grade level's list...in face we wrote it as a grade level. So we did try and cut out some of the things that we didn't use and we tried to keep in mind the cost to the parents, but I'll admit, we did include a "wish list" of sorts on the regular list. We put it all on there and hoped that we would get it. Sometimes we did and sometimes we didn't. And we were very thankful because as many of you know teachers spend LOTS of their own money on their classrooms and students. It is sad if the classroom teachers don't get a say, they are the ones guiding instruction!

Also, as a parent, the idea of community supplies is not that great, but as a teacher, it's a life saver! There are so many kids that don't even have the basics so if you can use everything and share, it makes the day so much easier. THere is no fighting over "he took my pencil" and I can't do that assignment because I don't have crayons, or I lost my blue marker and can't possibly color a picture of the ocean...etc, etc.

As a parent now, I am able to see both sides of the coin and try to do the best I can, even though my kids are only in preschool. It sounds like you are doing the same and that's all they can really ask. If you stick with the basics of the list and then do at least some of the others I'm sure the teachers/school will be grateful for what they receive!

I've recently read that early childhood educators in Florida have a bone to pick with Jeb Bush's policies. Here is a paragraph from one (nonpartisan) article that accurately depicts the current state pre-K programs:

"This century’s Great Recession has disproportionately affected prekindergarten education. State funding for preschool programs was cut by almost $250 million in 2010, and that total could reach $338 million through 2011 (Epstein and Barnett, 2010). Preschool enrollment growth has slowed, and per-child spending has declined. Arizona has been the most draconian, halving its early childhood education funding in 2010. Among other states, Florida reduced its voluntary prekindergarten funding by $20 million in 2010, and in its 2012 budget, Pennsylvania included $30 million in cuts to early education."

Here's the link to the entire article from the American Journal of Education:
http://www.ajeforum.com/archives/30

Well-funded preschool/pre-K programs would not have such a comprehensive list. My guess is that the pre-K funding in your area (as in many) is strictly covering the teacher's salaries, which likely aren't anything to brag about either.

We had a pretty comprehensive list for my son; he starts K this year. I posted a question in the same vein as yours a bit ago:
http://www.mamapedia.com/questions/6875226046279647233

I, too, grew up with bringing just the basics-- but that was back in the 70s and 80s, when public ed had much more funding. (And now, let us bow our heads and pray that the next public education intervention doesn't send us further down the abyss...)

I teach high school in AZ and in my district I get $50 per semester to purchase supplies for my classroom. This includes dry erase markers, tissue, staples, etc. I do not ask for a whole lot from the students as many cannot provide their own supplies. I do need highlighters because I teach annotating of notes with color and post-its for a variety of learning activities. I spend at least $300 of my own money in my classroom each year. I am not complaining...I love my job, I just would like to throw out a teacher's perspective. We are being asked to do more and more creative lesson planning, group work, etc but do not necessarily have the supplies to do so.

Yes, I think there are significant changes.

The first is that schools use many more supplies than they used to. We didn't have magic markers, highlighters, colored pencils, dry-erase markers, or even glue, when I was a child. (We had chunks of disgusting paste.) Of course all these supplies work well with the changes in curriculum that involve children in hands-on learning. And we didn't have hand-sanitizer or wipes. Just soap and water.

The second change is that funding for school supplies in my area shrank over the past twenty years. I bought supplies weekly. Many parents gifted them. It was embarrassing to ask. Similarly, sports were free and part of a well-rounded education when I was a child. Now families pay high fees.

Schools are much more complicated, with programs for a variety of children's needs and lots of staff to compile the state mandated data and federal compliance. But somehow, I think it's not my idea of public education that parents should have to provide basic supplies or pay fees for busing or sports. Bless you all for doing what you can.

My kids are older now, 12 and 9. But I remember when they were in K they needed crazy amounts of stuff like 24 glue sticks. Ok, no problem. However, I was pissed when NO art projects even came home that year!!! I was like, WTH did you do with all the damn glue sticks! LOL!!!

Heres a tip for you and anyone listening. My husband and I are commission only biz owners. Sometimes we get really great checks, sometimes no check at all! (monthly) So one year, we were REALLY short of $ when school started. So during open house, I pulled their teachers aside, told them we were short $ and could we just get the basics for them to start school and then we would get the rest when we could. All the teachers say OF COURSE!!! So 3 weeks after school, when everything is marked 75% I loaded up on tons of stuff. And even had extras so I just let the teacher know to let me know when they ran out and I would check my own supplies. =) That REALLY helped us. But yes, I agree, the lists can get kind of crazy.

Yes it is different than when I was in school. We shared a basket o crayons and everyone is okay with that. Parents these days want junior to have everything of their own, at least that is where it started.

I have had kids in public and private, this lists are the same. It has nothing to do with supplying the poor kids.

Another thing that is driving this is parents don't know what their kids need so they give that to the teachers who are more than a little out of control. Oh, also the teacher don't always have say in this. My daughter is in her first year of teaching. Bless her heart she has done my school supply shopping for the past six years. I assure you she would have a lot to say about reducing the list size but no one asked. :(

I think what kills me is not the list or the amount I spend, it is the over asking. I get if they run out it is hard to get the supply to school quickly. It is just don't base the need off the most wasteful kid you have ever taught.

Not sure how old you are but my oldest is 24, it was like this at least six years before he started so if you are under 30 your parents did buy this much.

Ahh well since you are closer to my age then yeah, we got what we could convince our parents we need. My god how I had to fight for that trapper keeper I never actually used.

It is totally ridiculous. Last year our pre-k list included:

a towel to lay down on for nap time...like that is going to be big enough, and they laid down on the carpet time area...what about kids that have an accident during nap time. Isn't that what the mats are for?
2 boxes of Kleenex
1 box 8ct of Kids First Crayons
2 4oz glue
6 glue sticks
1 Crayola Washable Markers, 10 ct. and they must have the wide tip and contain pink and grey
1 set of watercolor paints
Boys-Box of Gallon size zip lock freezer bags
Girls-Box of Quart size zip lock freezer bags
1 book bag big enough for 8 1/2"X11" paper
2 boxes of 80 count wet wipes
4 folders....specific colors of course that are the same colors as every one else in the district has to have.
1 ream of copy paper
1 8oz bottle of hand sanitizer
1 pkg of 3oz cups, cannot be paper or Styrofoam...that means costly plastic
1 pkg of 9oz cups, cannot be paper or Styrofoam
1 package coffee filters for snacks
1 pair Fiskars Child Size Scissors, blunt tip
1 3 ring binder
1 notebook

It is even worse for him in kindergarten this year.

We can't afford this stuff. They can use paper towels for snacks, just like we did as kids. They can use paper cups too. Plastic is hard on the environment.

We still end up taking afternoon snacks about once a month too.

In the 3rd grade list there are only 24 items and the top 2 are pencils and paper. Then colored pencils and crayons.There is nothing on the list that is odd or out of the ordinary like the pre-k list.

I appreciate the parents who buy more when they can. We depend on an agency in our area to help with the school supplies, we live on SSDI and are raising a couple of our grand kids. So every extra penny is spent on food or little extras. I feel bad when the kids go to school and have such a minimal amount.

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For those who have read this and might have a tug on your heart strings to buy some school supplies to donate to you local schools:

I would ask that if you donate items to your local schools that you do get a list and buy only things on that list. We often get a lot of donations through this agency but over half of it is stuff we have to re-gift because it is nothing on our list. It's so hard to see the kids faces when they get their bags and they still don't have school supplies.

The school (public) that my son went to K in had the most ridiculous list Ive ever come across... It's making the email rounds now in VA, via my godsister (faitfax co teacher). Some highlights:

- 1 pound of coffee x brand (can't remember if it was Starbucks or Seattles Best), y type (Kenya, I think?)
- Ditto decaf
- Sizd and type of filters

5 packages of underwear (xsmall, small, medium, lg, xlg)
Diapers
Pullups

1 ream each of several very specif colored paper (we're talking like 4 or 5)

Toilet paper

Paper towels (20? Rolls... Some huge Costco container)

Ditto a huge number of Costco sized crackers

X number of boxes of 128? size crayons

Scissors (saftey)
Scissors (shears)
Scissors (of some other type... None of which, by the by, kindergartendrs would be using)

X number 'charecter' bandaids.

_______
Each grade had specific items to supply for the whole SCHOOL. One grade had to bring in digital thermometers, another scientific calculators.

The whole thing was freakin ridiculous.

And the 'bargain' price through the PTA was a couple hundred dollars. ILLEGALLY they required each child to thave their 2 page list checked off before being allowed to start school. They've since nixed that, but the list (we have friends in that district, still, is still laugh or cry ridiculous). The school supply list meant I ate ramen and oatmeal for a month in order to get MOST of it, and the batchy PTO woman checking off his list almost didn't let him start school that day because it was 'incomplete'.

I am also getting pretty close to 40 and I remember going supply shopping with my mom. But back then, it was personal supplies - what you bought, you used. Now it seems they are all community supplies, except for maybe notebooks and folders, but even my preschooler had to bring a binder two years ago and it wasn't the one we got back with his stuff. Guess it's all community property now. I won't get our Pre-K list for another week or so. Bummed b/c our back to school tax holiday was this weekend. Oh well!

Most of the supplies are given to the teacher and stored for the entire year....

It is amazing how many crayons, colored pencils, markers, and glue sticks kids can go through in a year, though....

I remember seeing someone's list last year, (here on Mamapedia) and it included coffee, if I remember correctly......

Now THAT is going a bit too far.......

ETA: Thanks, Riley... your list was the one I was referring to!

I had expected some extra things to be on the list, but some things weren't on the list. My son is entering Kindergarten and I expected to have to buy a nap mat and was expecting a couple of packs of copy paper and hand sanitizer to be on the list. Those weren't, but dry erase markers, two packs of wipes, two boxes of Kleenex, and a box of gallon ziploc bags were. Not to mention 4 24 count boxes of crayons, 2 bottles of glue, and 6 large glue sticks. I'm assuming these are supposed to be extra, because I have no idea what they will be making that will require that much glue and that many crayons! I still put my son's name on everything though, especially the folders and notebooks he picked out. If they don't like it, tough.

It probably varies by school.

My kids go to a school where there are a lot of disadvantage kids. The school list is so minimal this year...no pencils, crayons, scissors, etc. They are more looking for the things to keep kids healthy, like tissues, wet ones, baby wipes, and germ-x to name a few.

For all 3 kids (going into 4th, 2nd, and k) we spent $73 today at Wal-Mart. We have to get our 4th grader two more folders, but that's it and that won't cost even $4.

However, when my older two were going into 2nd and K, they went to another school for a few weeks. The school list there was through the roof and cost us over $100 just for the two kids.

I try to donate when possible as well...and find many other parents do the same thing. But yes, I do think some schools lists are getting out of hand.

Our list was about $80 for two kids (that included a back pack and lunch box, not on the list but needed for each child)...then when we got to the open house to meet the teacher and drop off supplies...they had a "giving tree" in each classroom with items on it they needed but didn't include on the supply list. Items like dry erase markers, highlighters, play dough, art supplies (googlie eyes, pom poms, feathers, etc), band aids, binder clips, sharpies, etc etc.

Each time I have gone shopping I have tried to pick up some of the items I jotted down that the teacher needs. A 24 count pack of playdough at Target is $15...squeezed it into that weeks budget...next week picked up a couple of boxes of band aids $5...dollar bin at target supplied 1000 pom poms and googlie eyes and feathers for $6...

I know it seems like a lot...but I used to teach art and my budget for the year was like a bad joke. I bought so many items out of pocket for the kids or we would not have been able to do the projects. My husband would get so super angry at me...but we didn't even have the option of a "giving tree". Most supplies were used up by Christmas...

I really feel for the teachers and try and help them out...as i have been on the other side of the fence.

I did give back all unused items at the end of the year...notebooks, scissors, rulers...etc...

yes but it is not the school or teacher's fault. in CA our teachers have been laid off and the existing ones have pay cuts. So now instead of buying for 20 kids (out of pocket) on say $45,000 annual salary they have to buy for 35+ on say $35,000. OUCH! Teachers need supplies too. The highlighters and white board markers are usually for the teachers although sometimes for the kids. Our local schools do not have chalk board but white board and markers are a whole heck of a lot more than chalk. Plus if those kindergarteners, 1st or even second graders use one and dont get that cap on boy oh boy bye bye markers. You could see how they will pretty much go through one a day per school year. You do not have to buy anything if you don't want to. I would just as easily give the teacher a gift card so she can fill in the blanks when she needed to with whatever she needed to. So many kids last year came in the first day with baby wipes (used to "wash" hands after recess because it takes 35 kids 90mins to line up and wash at the sink) and paper towels and kleenex that there was no where to put them.

Funding has decreased.I have 2 in school I did buy their supplies but will not send extras this year I will let their teachers know that i'm not donating extras nor do I like that they go into a community pile for ex.why am I going to buy my kids Crayloa crayons (they don't leave wax on papers)and thye use some generic crayons that we don't like to use for their school work that is unfair to them and the other children you buy for your own and that should be it.I did this last yr. sent him with what he needed explaind to his teacher that the extras will be sent when he needs them he will not go with out nor will he have to ask for soemthing from the community pile,I do look into his desk at conference time and he is honest with me what he is running out of before he does.They don't want parents to mark what boxes is theirs it's for everyone,no I don't think so and i'm not the only one.I will however do the kleenxes,hand soaps snacks hand sanitzer,ziplocks,

I'm with you for sure! I'm happy that I'm ABLE to help, but sheesh!!!! My 6th grader needs to bring in 120 pencils. Is this ONE child actually going to go through 120 pencils in 180 days of school???? I know they're not expensive. I bought them. It just makes me shake my head (as I head to yet another store to find headphones for my 3rd grader that don't cost $25.....)

Are you sure some of it isn't part of the teacher's "wish list"? We received one of those last year for Kinder. It wasn't required, but we had the money & I thought it would be nice to do. Luckily all the basic supplies were actually provided last year, but I'm not sure yet about 1st grade. Meet The Teacher Night is next week, so we'll see. I get requesting the basics - pencils, erasers, crayons, paper, etc., but beyond that, it's a little ridiculous.

When I was in school, my parents had to pay book rental every year and that covered some of the supplies needed in the class and the use of the books. But they still had to buy a few things like pens, pencils, paper and folders. Now days the list for my kids is crazy and I've noticed that they don't even use half of it either!! Like a composition notebook my daughter had from last year only got used by a little over a 1/4 :(

S.

I can completely relate. My oldest daughter inters 8th grade and my second daughter is going into 4th. My son will be in K next year. It's amazing how long these lists are! We were shopping for backpacks at Office Depot and some were as much 95 dollars!!!! Can you believe that?! I inspected it and other than perhaps the brand, I could tell no diff. between any of them. We also have these lists. My youngest daughter goes to a charter Montessori school and the list is always insane. My eldest has a list, as well, but not quite as long (but more expensive). I can't imagine what high school has in store for all of us!!

Hold a good deep breath with every register receipt you receive! Yikes.