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Incredible Shrinking Teacher Funds! Maybe you noticed the "giving tree" in the classroom of your child when you visited during back to school night. The idea is that parents will pluck off the fruit papered on the tree and donate the item indicated on the fruit to the classroom. Maybe you also noticed that the giving trees have been growing into a formidable orchard lately. At the start of each school year, teachers are allocated a certain amount of funds to purchase consumables for their classrooms that year. They typically order from a school approved catalog and purchase orders are issued to the catalog company for the items they request. Paper, pencils, unique teaching materials and lots of other things are put on a teacher's order. This year teachers report that the total amount of funds allocated to them for the year is $250.00. That's for materials for all the students in the classroom for the whole year. In year's past, the amount allocated to individual teachers was more than double that amount! Slowly, but surely, the money has been reduced. To make up for the shortfall, teachers dig into their own pockets and they put up giving trees. So, give generously to your child's teacher. If the administration will not support our teachers, we will. Your tax dollars, after all, are needed elsewhere to support our beloved testing vendors. |
