My oldest is starting 7th grade next week. Since she was in kindergarten we have had to buy kleenex, paper towels & ziploc bags for her classrooms along with post-it notes, dry erase markers & index cards for the teachers. These items have always been a part of the school supply lists. When they run out during the school year notes are sent home requesting more. There is also a teacher appreciation week in May each year when a wish list for the classroom is sent home for each teacher and the expectation is that each child/family will make a purchase. I guess it doesn't really bother me because it is all we've ever known. I know they have made budget cuts in our district so teachers have even less money to work with for their classrooms and are expected to buy these items out of their own pocket if they don't receive donations.

We also have on our school lists lots of items that our teachers will need during the year. But, in our school district, each classroom is adopted by a local business that donates $$ to the classroom. This helps to buy things that come up during the year. The business gets a recognition sign at the door of each classroom. Also, parents volunteer to adopt a teacher or staff member each year and give small tokens of thanks, given anonymously, whenever the parent has a chance. These gifts are always giving without the teacher or staff knowing who sent them and they might include a small box of chocolates, sticky notes with the teacher's initial, a fresh flower from their garden, etc. It really helps the staff and teachers know that they are appreciated for taking care of the next generation that could one day run our nation. As a parent and a buisness owner this makes me feel good about being able to help our school staff in this economic downturn. My kids also enjoy seeing their gifts being used or on display and keeping the secret. I just can't say enough how much I appreciate all the effort our school staff puts in to keep our children on the right track to becoming educated and sucessful adults.

Property taxes are collected to help partially pay for education, among other things, and there are those who fuss about that when they don't have any kids in school even though they will benefit later in life when a portion of these kids are being productive, tax paying, good citizens. For all of those people without such foresight, take comfort in knowing that parents are contributing extra every year by paying for just about all of the school supplies, sanitary paper products, kleenex, hand soap, light playground equipment and the list goes on. And what the parents don't cover, teachers pick up out of their own pockets. As a parent, I don't mind sending to school what my kid would normally use if home all day or if I were home schooling. But, overcrowding my kids classroom? That's not acceptable.

The question that comes to my mind is...our government can print money to bail out banks, auto manufacturers, investment firms, etc...but can't bail out education? hmmmmmm

Teachers have to send home notes in order to get basic (and cheap!) supplies like dry-erase markers and index cards while Superintendants of Schools, Principals and other members of education "management" and "overhead" positions like the Board of Education earn six-figure salaries.

If local school districts would fire the layers of redundant management (often in those positions due to cronyism or nepotism rather than their ability to add any value) perhaps teachers would have budget for necessary items that can be bought cheaply at Walmart or the local Dollar Store.

I am not willing nor will I ever be to purchase items such as these. My taxes are supposed to be paying to run the schools and this is part of the cost of running a school. I have no problem what so ever purchasing the items like the notebooks, pens, crayons, etc. that my individual child needs but I am not bailing out anyone for failure to provide these basic items. As others have stated the government can bail out those on wall street, and we pay outrageous salaries to those higher up in the educational field ( not neccessary or deserved ), so schools CAN provide these items without having to solicit parents to pay for them. But you know if you are going to solicit any one for these items the districts should be soliciting the manufacturers of these items, after all these children will one day be their employees so they should consider it a tax deductable investment in their future. I would rather home school or place my child in a private school. What are they going to do, start punishing children because their parents refused to buy toilet paper?

Lynda - Thanks for sharing the "adoption" ideas from your school. My children attend a public charter school in Colorado;however, due to the educational policy in our state, charter schools do not receive funds to pay for the actual school building or land, as other public schools in Colorado do. As a result, about 22% of our school budget goes to pay for our building. We have phenomenal teachers and staff who give their all for our kids, all on a reduced dollars-per-student budget compared to other schools in our district. (Our students still manage to place in the top three schools in our large district, based on graduation rates and test scores.)

We have active parent groups that support the school and teachers in many ways, but our teachers work hard for our students and we are always looking for additional ways to show them how much we appreciate them and their efforts on behalf of our children. Your school district has come up with some creative ideas to include the business community in the schools (at a reasonable cost , it seems), as well as an inexpensive way to show teachers your appreciation throughout the year. Hope you won't mind if I pass these along...thanks for sharing them!

My cousin has a 6-year-old daughter starting school soon and she received a list with a lot of these odd requests. It's way too much. She's been using a product called The Glow System so she's stocked up on a lot of the cleaning supplies already. Actually I was just reading some good back-to-school tips by them that mentioned having all the school supplies ready (http://bit.ly/c4GGjQ), but this just seems unfair to parents.My cousin has a 6-year-old daughter starting school soon and she received a list with a lot of these odd requests. It's way too much. She's been using a product called The Glow System so she's stocked up on a lot of the cleaning supplies already. Actually I was just reading some good back-to-school tips by them that mentioned having all the school supplies ready (http://bit.ly/c4GGjQ), but this just seems unfair to parents.

My cousin has a 6-year-old daughter starting school soon and she received a list with a lot of these odd requests. It's way too much. She's been using a product called The Glow System so she's stocked up on a lot of the cleaning supplies already. Actually I was just reading some good back-to-school tips by them that mentioned having all the school supplies ready (http://bit.ly/c4GGjQ), but this just seems unfair to parents.