In keeping with the "back to school" spirit

Another really fun "back to school" article today. This one is about how parents are being asked to supply even more school stuff than normal. I remember when schools gave out one pencil and one tablet for every nine week period. I remember when I had to start buying paper and pencils because the school could no longer afford to give them out. I even remember when the kindergarten teacher at the local elementary started asking parents to send in tissues. What parents are now being asked to supply is almost a joke.

*Paper towels
*Paper plates
*Hand sanitizer
*Baby wipes
*Liquid soap
*Ziploc bags

All of that sounds almost reasonable, right? I mean, these could all theoretically be used by your child, for his own hygiene. It gets so much better.

*Garbage bags
*Clorox wipes
*Wet swiffer refills

So now parents are being asked to pay for cleaning supplies for the schools?

And the coup de grace:

*Toilet paper

No shit. Although I suppose if there was no shit, toilet paper in schools wouldn't be in such short supply. Kids have to bring their own toilet paper. And parents are okay with this. They get the must buy list every year, and every year they simply go and get what's on the list, whether it makes sense to them or not?

There are some parent quotes in the article. One mother said she would rather buy the goods than expect the teacher to do so. And I will quote - "We don't expect Walmart cashiers to buy the plastic bags for our groceries, or the mailman to pay for the gas to deliver our mail." Of course we don't. We expect the money we pay for the groceries to cover the cost of the plastic bags, and we expect the money we pay to send packages to pay for the gas. Why shouldn't we expect the taxes we pay for the schools to cover the cost of basic maintenance supplies? Teachers shouldn't be paying for this stuff out of pocket either.

We don't expect prisoners to buy the supplies to keep the prison clean, do we? Yet we expect school kids to supply the stuff to keep the schools clean? What's next? I can envision a major change in the way schools work. New classes like "Custodial Arts" where kids spend a class period scrubbing toilets (with the clorox wipes they brought to school), and "Lunch Logistics", having each child serve lunch one day a month. Why not? Imagine the savings if the school didn't have to supply the janitor or the lunch ladies either? The only people who are really needed in the school are the well protected school teachers. Seriously, if schools got rid of all superfluous personnel, they could afford Viagra coverage and kids could get some truly real world experience.

While we're at it, shouldn't parents be supplying the food too?

Why do parents put up with this? When it became apparent that I was doing more to educate my children than the people I was paying to do it, I brought them home. I figured why have my child be one in hundreds when he could get very individualized attention at home. Oh, and the toilet paper is provided for them. By their teachers.