Last year I donated to my local PBS/liberal radio station to provide a backpack full of school supplies to a child who needed one. It's just about the most worthy cause I can think of, an investment for the future, but it's sad that it's come to this. Wishing you all the best!

But what tragic circumstances.

Someone, I think Bill Ayers, said that a principal indicator of the state of health of a society is it's investment in education. Not the graduation rate in particular or scores, but investment.

Where teachers are required to pay for supplies (and usually cannot even write them off as business expenses) that were formerly provided by the schools we have a chronic problem, a society that doesn't care and systems that don't work.

How very sad.

What's more important than an investment in our future??

the money. Send home permission slips saying the supplies all students need. If you don't get 100% response, cancel it. As for supplies, she had none except the things she needed. IF the parents are school complained, she said that she wasn't going to sacrifice her children's meals or home for supplies that should be provided. If they didn't like it, write their assemblyman are state senator.

Leave the room walls bare. IF the principal complains, ask the principal to pay for what he wants himself/herself and get it for you.

My mother taught for 35 years in NY and AZ. I taught for 12.

The fact that teachers need to do a gofundme for school supplies sickens me.

If I tried to shame or wait out these kids' parents it would have no effect. These kids' families are dirt poor and often in crisis.

It is a shame that schools are so underfunded. But I have no qualms with making it work by being creative. Using sources like gofundme or donors choose is no skin of my back and takes nothing away from my personal family. I can simultaneously lobby to improve education and funding.

..

Good luck! Will donate this week.

Sorry - I have no money to help thank you for all you do.

if schools were madly funded by politicians and the military had to use "gofundme" or bake sales?

Science.

It's worse for me. My state standards prescribe a variety of equipment that kids should be expected to be familiar with and another set of equipment that kids "shall" be familiar with. The old standardized test actually referred to that equipment and assumed that kids were familiar with it--here's an experimental set up and the numbers from it, you get to say what the numbers are and how to interpret them.

Photogates. The cheapest one on our vendor list is $50, and you need two to be useful. I'd need at least 20 for my classroom, assuming none broke or vanished. It also assumes that I have the modules for reading the sensors and recording them and other equipment for mounting them appropriately for actual experiments, instead of saying, "Ooh, look at your photogates." (I don't). I'm looking at $2000 at least just for that one piece of equipment for my classroom, as part of a state requirement. Strictly speaking, I'm in violation of the state teaching standards and have been for years. Since my subject is no longer state tested, nobody really cares because it will affect no reportable test metric or school evaluation metric.

There are perhaps a dozen such bits of tech that I need. I could blow through $25k for just my classroom and still not be properly outfitted to comply with the minimum state standards. Then there are the "should know" pieces of lab equipment.

There are 3 other teachers. Even if we shared equipment, it would be hard to do without at least two sets of everything.

Our equipment budget is under $1000 for the year that's ending. "Equipment" includes, as it turns out, a photocopy paper surcharge.

If I understand right, there are 3 other science teachers in your school building. What about talking to the other science teachers in your district, or even beyond if your school is a standalone district, to see if you can set up an equipment rental/exchange sort of program? I'm guessing a lot of the pricey stuff doesn't need to be used daily - what if you had it for a couple weeks, then sent it back to its home again?

Maybe there is an equipment swap already set up, but if not, how awesome would it be if you could organize one? It could benefit so many more students than just the ones you teach directly.