School supply lists: state legislatures don't really care about kids

Taking two full trash bags of supplies to the school on orientation day. The bags represented just part of each child's list.

Every year our school supply list is 80% standard business supplies like copy paper, dry erase markers, paper towels, hand sanitizer, and one year, even toilet paper! There's no need to label most of the items we send because they won't belong to any individual child, but rather to the class or grade as a whole.

These are the kinds of general operating supplies most employers are expected to simply provide. I've worked in for-profit, non-profit, public, and private sectors and I've never been asked to bring in my own copy paper, dry erase markers, or other basic business supplies.

Maryland is the wealthiest state in the union (as measured by median household income, 3rd wealthiest by per capita income) so the only conclusion I can draw from these lists is that despite lofty rhetoric from politicians about children being the future, our state legislature is actually giving education the shaft, shunting more and more of its budget expenses onto parents and teachers.

This 'toll road' approach for parents doesn't make sense. Education is a public good which benefits everyone, whether or not they have school-aged children. I'm reminded of that Simpsons episode where the children point out to Mr. Burns all the ways that he, too, would suffer if the local public school were to close.

"Which one of these is the salt? Too bad I'm an idiot 'cause my school closed. Oh, well."

"I can't take Mr. Burns to the 'hopital' 'cause I'm too dumb to read a map. Oh, why did my school have to close?"

It also exacerbates geographic wealth disparities, forcing poor kids to go without supplies the state could easily provide.

But it makes even less sense for teachers, who bear the costs of whatever the parents don't (or can't) provide. At the two small, mission-driven nonprofits where I've worked we were expected to make a lot of sacrifices motivated by our passion for the work, but we weren't asked to bring in our own TP, dry erase markers, or copy paper just to do our jobs! What our elected officials casually demand of teachers says a lot about how much we as a society actually value our children.

You may recall that I solicited your school supply lists last year. I wanted to know: is wealthy Maryland an outlier in screwing public education, or is this a universal phenomenon? Based on my non-scientifically sound but geographically diverse sample: it's a universal phenomenon, at least in the US.

And now NBC is reporting that the cost of supplies shunted onto parents is the equivalent of an average mortgage payment.

Many of the tweets in response to this article questioned that number, but based on the school supply lists you all sent me last year, I'm inclined to believe it.

Others responded by tweeting that they just don't send everything on the list ("Lol I got so upset that I withheld one doz from each kid just to stick it to them. It's the passive aggressive in me!") or grumbling that they're asked to bring more to cover those who don't ("They make you buy all of this extra stuff to share with the ones who show up with nothing. Build the wall.")

We aren't wealthy (our household's single income comes from one of those small, mission-driven non-profits I mentioned) but as the one of the comparatively wealthiest families in a school where 95% of the students qualify for free/reduced lunch, I feel like we have a moral obligation to bring a little extra to cover students who can't afford to bring in much. If we don't, the teachers will have to pay for it themselves, or the children will go without.

But maybe that choice just makes the long-term problem worse by letting the state legislature off the hook, allowing them to pass estate tax cuts for Maryland's ultra-wealthy instead of making sure PG County schools can provide teachers with enough damn copy paper.