That'll be two boxes of kleenex, please.
The Big Giant Head, the name I assign to whoever it is who sets our department budget, has spread the word that we have fifty bucks apiece to spend on school supplies for the year. We can only spend it on materials ordered through This Special Catalogue.
This Special Catalogue has prices about 150-200% the prices at Office Max.
Who is getting the kickbacks in this situation? That's what I want to know. We are not allow to turn in receipts from an outside store for the school supplies we purchase-- much more cheaply-- ourselves.
Oh, and back when I worked in my first teaching job in a school formerly staffed by nuns, some thirty years ago, guess how much I was allowed to spend on school supplies?
Yep. Fifty bucks.
But those bucks went further, back then. After all, they were in doubloons, because paper money had not been invented yet.
Labels: school budgets, the teaching life
posted by "Ms. Cornelius" @ 6:16 PM
6 Comments:
Wow. Well, that's 50 bucks more than NYC teachers get. We had a program called "Teachers' Choice" for about 20 years, that started at 150 bucks, went up to 260, then came down year by year, until this year, it was cut to nothing. Last year Mayor Bloomberg denied teachers the raise all other city employees got. This year, he and the city council cut our discretionary funds 100%. Though I suppose nothing is about as good as 50 bucks in a ripoff catalog.
The whole country is nuts. Cut education, but don't tax millionaires.
Yes, the US is clearly insane. I thank my stars every day that I teach in Canada. I might have a piddly budget, but at least it's enough to buy kleenex. Huge sympathy to all you strong soldiers out there who just "make do" with nothing and teach on!
ps; Great article in Harper's this month about the "Re-education of an American Teacher". Check it out!
I went to the constant dollar calculator, and found out that $50 in 1981 would be the equivalent of $124.27 in 2011.
So there's some ammunition for this fight. Even $125 seems a puny amount.
We get absolutely nothing, here in Rick Perry's Texas Miracle land.
But you have LEFT. NO. CHILD. BEHIND, Mike.
A mom, Now I am really depressed.
Ditto, Mike. Kickin' it up in H-Town with zip.
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