The new school year is starting and parents are starting to get their kids ready. Starting to get them in bed earlier and up earlier in the morning, checking bus schedules, picking out clothes are all part getting ready. Another part of getting ready for the new school year is going through that school supply list and shopping for school items like pencils, note books and Kleenex. You may not realize that it’s not just parents and students that are scrambling to buy school supplies. Teachers and school support staff are also out buying school supplies – out of their own pockets.
You may have seen the news item recently where a teacher in Oklahoma stood on a highway with a sign panhandling for school supplies and thought it was an isolated incident. While the teachers here haven’t been seen out panhandling, they’re still struggling to buy supplies for classrooms. On average, teachers locally spend from $500 to $1,000 out of their own pockets on school supplies for their classrooms. Even support staff, like educational assistants, spend hundreds of dollars of their own money on stuff for students. How can you help? If you’re a parent, buy a few extra items off that school supply list if you can afford it. Even if you don’t have kids in school, you can still help by going out and purchasing school supplies and donating them to a local school.
Here’s a list of some things you could buy and donate to help out a school in your neighborhood: Rulers, No. 2 pencils, erasers, crayons, pencil boxes, watercolor markers, glue sticks, bottles of glue, scissors, pencil sharpeners, ink pens, colored pencils, pocket folders, spiral notebooks, Kleenex, paper towels, disinfectant wipes, liquid soap and sanitizer.