Valerie Strauss writes The Answer Sheet blog for The Washington Post. She is a public education supporter. She sent this out on Twitter earlier.
TEACHERS: if you are buying school supplies or getting them anywhere other than from your schools, please email me andd tell me what you are getting and why your school isn't providing them. thanks.
Valerie.Strauss@washpost.com
Do the teachers reading the ICEUFT blog spend money on supplies? Considering the interest we get whenever we write about Teacher's Choice, my guess is many go beyond the allotment.
My opinion is that it is normally unnecessary to spend so much on supplies. NYC has plenty of money. I learned my lesson for good in 2012 when Jamaica High School was phasing out. For years we were told there were shortages and little or no money in the school's bare bones budget for supplies. Many times we had to fight like crazy for teachers and students to get our fair share.
Then in 2012 my friend COSA (Coordinator of Student Activities) Steve Heiss and I (College Advisor) were moved to a basement office as phasing out Jamaica High School was relegated to the first floor and basement in the huge building. The room next door to our "new" office had a door administration did not know was connected to our office. This room was the excess supply room.
Steve explored the room and later called me in. We looked at each other like we discovered hidden treasure when we looked around. The room was fully stocked. There were enough supplies such as copy paper to open a Staples store. What a waste. We ended up being a bit angry because having to fight for supplies was so ridiculously avoidable.
The real shame was how there were unused ink cartridges from machines that were obsolete and so the cartridges were never used. Also, the Expo markers sat there for so long that they dried up almost instantly when we finally used them. Still, we had few shortages in our last two years before we closed in 2014.
Are there other schools out there struggling with supplies because they are being hoarded by the powers that be or was that unique to us?
Update: I got my answer Saturay evening by looking at yet another Sue Edelman piece in the NY Post. An excerpt:
One mom of a former PS 333 student said she stumbled across a storage room in the school basement that was jam-packed with parent-purchased supplies.
“When I walked in, I said ‘Whoa! What’s all this stuff?’” recalled Ingrid Flinn.
An ex-worker at the school described closets on the fourth and fifth floors, including one so stocked with donated paper towels, disinfectant wipes, and Ziploc bags, “It looked like a grocery store.”
Another closet was bursting with pencils, crayons, notebooks and other classroom staples, the former employee said.
“They had a ton of stuff — a lot more than they needed,” she said. “But they keep asking parents to buy the same things every year.”
With the Department of Education’s $24 billion annual budget, some parents wonder why schools ask them to buy pencils.
DOE tries to scam parents just like teachers.
6 comments:
You want to know who is especially screwed by not having enough teaching supplies? ELEMENTARY SPECIALTY TEACHERS. We get the same amount of Teachers Choice money as everybody else. However, when you are an art, PE, or music teacher, you have up to 400 kids and supplies are needed to do basic lessons on a daily basis for these kids. Personally, the only way that I have been able to get much needed supplies is by writing grants. However, it can take months for grants to get approved it at all.
No money? Schools funded around 90% of Fair Student Funding while central administrators get 35% raises and school administrators rake in loads of per session. What's the city surplus this year? How many billions? As teachers wait until 2020 to get paid back for work we did in 2009. Go spend for supplies. They don't call us teachers New York's dumbest for nothing.
I believe students should come prepared with their own paper and pencils, if they can't afford it then we deal with that, but paper towels, hand sanitizer, BUILDING type supplies etc? No they should be provided by the DOE. I work in such a shit hole I have to bring my own toilet paper to be sure I have a clean butt should I need to take a dump at work in the antiquated rusted out stinkhole they call the staff bathroom.
You wonder why kids don't give a shit about their education when they walk into these shitholes.
Hi James,
Everyone has been getting ripped off for years. First by the city - redundant fingerprint filing $$, filing for this and that$$, jumping through this hoop and that$$, getting a master's $$$$ and just the day to day expenses - parking tix, parking, food and daily exposure to toxic bureaucracies and people that may lead to mental illness, drug addiction or suicide. The NY Post never mentions the biggest ripoff artist of all time Mayor Bloomberg, in less than glowing terms. He hired every friend he ever had and turned them into instant millionaires. His lawyer Klein, as chancellor, and his computer company and software that was required. Kathy Black, magazine editor. His Queen Eva is still reigning as the head of a charter school system that Bloomy facilitated and that we share space with and the city pays rent for. Then there's Pearson. We had to replace all our textbooks with Pearson books. They were badly written, terribly boring and totally unusable. Mayor Mike sent out legions of Pearson reps to teach us everything from the facilitation of Danielson to using their inferior products. Simultaneously, Bloomy closed the Office of Curriculum Development so all teachers would be forced to reinvent the wheel or use Pearson's version of it. The Post is trying to stoke anger against deBlasio. DeBlasio is a putz and gives us a lot to be angry about, but it's like comparing a mosquito bite to getting hit by a speeding bus and barely surviving.
It's a whole lot worse than this...every school I worked in had empty classrooms and closets full of materials. The principal would parcel out supplies to the favorites while the rest of us spent our own money. As for the $$$ that that organization 'gives to the school' that just ends up in the principals pocket. Trust me.
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