As part of my morning routine, I began reading a little news. I stumbled across this article from Detroit, "Detroit School Lacks Toilet Paper, Light Bulbs." It was related to education, so it was of interest to me. I found it unbelievable. Apparently, a school in Detroit sent out letters to parents requesting that families donate needed items to the school such as…toilet paper. As an educator myself, I found this shocking.
Now, I am not trying to sound self righteous. As a teacher, I am as willing as the next guy to take a handout if it is useful in the classroom and it comes to me freely. However, I would never send home a letter to ask for supplies that were to be purchased as a part of the everyday functions of the school. I teach at a public school. If this request were coming from a private school principal it would be an entirely different ballgame, but this letter was sent from a public school, funded through the city budget. Private schools are not publicly funded of course, so if they would like to ask for money or donations, more power to them. I think that they have every right to do so.
I cannot believe the audacity of the principal in this instance. I am aware of the “belt tightening” that is happening in education. I know first hand the difficulties that teachers and administrators face. However, for these school officials to have mismanaged their monies in such a way that they must beg the public, who have already paid for this item with their tax money, to send in additional necessary supplies, is appalling to me. I am hard pressed to believe that these folks cannot identify waste in some other area of their budget which could be eliminated so as to facilitate the purchase of toilet paper and other necessary items.
If nothing else, this article makes me very thankful for my job. Maybe that’s why I needed to read it…maybe I needed a reminder of how fortunate I am to teach at such a great school. It’s no wonder why so many people have lost faith in public education…
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3 comments:
My jaw has dropped.
I don't even know what to think about this or where to put my frustration.
Makes me want to have a toilet paper drive for that school.
Interesting. I will have to go back and read the article. I know that Detroit is very, very inner city and probably has a lot of issues with lack of funding, but really, TP?
Wow! I would be shocked if I received a letter asking for TP. We had to send in pencils, dry erase markers, crayons, hand santizer and Kleenex at the beginning of the year so I wouldn't be surprised if TP was next.
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