TEACHERS OFFERED PERSONAL LOANS TO BUY SCHOOL SUPPLIES

[Sherman A1]

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2014/01/08/nevada-offers-teachers-personal-loans-to-buy-school-supplies/

If you’re looking for just one image that says a thousand words about what’s wrong with America, here’s a contender.

The link will show a photo offering a 1 year $1000.00 loan for teachers to buy school supplies.

[Blecht]

1. But there are bad teacherz!!!

And they can't be fired!!

/sarcasm off

Dumping on teachers, private insurance companies involved in health care delivery, guns -- my short list of what's wrong with America.

[on edit: added the word "private"]

[Autumn]

2. My god. What has this come to.

[redqueen]

3. But but but ... the military!

It's starving!

And the rich really need those Bush-era tax cuts, like, really bad!

[LiberalArkie]

16. In most states, the property taxes pay for the schools. So many people wanted the large homes

but not higher property taxes. Oh well at least with lower property taxes, they can send their kids to private schools.

[redqueen]

19. I know, and IMO it is fundamentally unfair.

Schools in lower income neighborhoods are hindered by design.

IMO the federal govt should stop spending so much on the military, and contribute more than a measly 10% of school budgets.

[yeoman6987]

29. What the heck does the military have to do with teachers?

Goodness stay on topic. The teachers are paid by districts.....

[redqueen]

34. Jesus Fucking Christ

"It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber”

Sound familiar?

Thank Goddess not everyone is hopelessly stuck with the idea that the way we do things now is the only way they can ever be done.

[yeoman6987]

37. So now you want to federalize the schools?

Good grief.

[redqueen]

38. Yes that is exactly what I said well done great job. nt

[yeoman6987]

39. Well I believe realistic suggestions would be more advantageous for this discussion

You can dream of this happening, but raising local taxes will probably happen sooner than federalizing the schools. However, you can suggest all night long.

[progressoid]

44. Public schools also get federal funds.

The federal govt spent over 600 billion on the Military Industrial Complex last year and about 1/6 of that amount on education.

How about a few less F-35s and a little more funding to educate our kids.

[mopinko]

4. sheesh.

even i am appalled.

[Brigid]

5. I can guarantee . . .

That in no other civilized country does this go on.

[senseandsensibility]

6. This has been going on for years (decades)

I've taught for many, many years. I teach in a very disadvantaged area, but where the cost of housing is insanely high nevertheless. I look back at my teaching career in which I struggled financially and lived in tiny, overpriced studio apartments. I did this for a long, long time. But the part that really amazes even me is that I was spending two to three hundred dollars a month on school supplies. I couldn't afford even a simple vacation, to go out to eat, to save for a house of my own, but I did that. I didn't expect any gratitude (and didn't get any, so that's a good thing), and all the teachers I knew were doing the same. This shows where the heart of teachers are. Many some will think about it a little thanks to your thread.

[stranger81]

14. You just described my former neighbor perfectly -- taught at a middle school in a disadvantaged

section of the SF Peninsula, lived in a studio apartment for two decades, was regularly subjected to violence at school (got stabbed one year breaking up a fight outside the school) ------- and shelled out more than a thousand dollars of her own very limited money every single year to keep her students supplied with paper, pencils, toilet paper, art supplies, you name it.

It's absolutely disgraceful that this is allowed to go on in America, particularly while teachers are being scapegoated, vilified and attacked for political ends by shameless GOP politicians.

[daleanime]

28. +1

[nilram]

42. butbutbut, you get a tax deduction for that, don't you?

What more do you want? Adequate funding to do your job? pfft!

My jaw dropped when, in a tax class, I heard about the tax deduction available for teachers who spend on school supplies out of their own pocket. Really? They can vote for a tax deduction, but they can't vote to make that deduction unnecessary? Pathetic. (I never saw whether a real teacher, in a real situation, could actually take advantage of the deduction since I didn't go on to do people's taxes.)

[think_in_code]

7. Shameful

A picture really does say a thousand words. I don't see how any public official could look at that and not be ashamed.

[Hortensis]

32. Yes. This is incredibly, despicably shameful of us.

[alp227]

8. MURKA...WE'RE NUMBER ONE!!!!1!!!!! lol nt

[emsimon33]

9. OMG!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

10. Sometimes I just want to say fuck it. nt

[CBGLuthier]

11. They also are targeting parents for back to school loans

Got two postcards over the last two weeks. Our kids are done with school so they are not doing a good job of marketing.
Each time I was sorely tempted to call them up and tell them they are on the list of what is wrong with America but why berate a fellow wage slave even one that makes a dishonest living.

[gtar100]

12. Where some people see a problem, a capitalist sees opportunity.

Hey, students are being milked, why not teachers, eh!

---
(do I really need it...)

[hughee99]

13. The loan isn't the issue,

it's the fact that teachers are putting up their own money for school supplies.

[Sherman A1]

23. Precisely

I see it as both being the issue, but You are absolutely right!

[tblue37]

43. And that they are in tight enough financial circumstances that

even though so many are willing to spend their own money for school supplies, although obviously it is obscene that they have to, they cannot really even afford the expense and must go into debt to do so.

[bluestateguy]

15. My teacher friend now refuses to spend her own money on school supplies

She says very openly that it is because she is underpaid and can't do it. Instead, she relies upon donations of money and supplies from parents.

She gets a lot of condescending tripe from the administrators about it, but they can't do anything about it.

[Sherman A1]

22. I believe

that to be a very wise decision on her part. It should be the responsibility of the parent and/or the school system to provide for those supplies necessary. It should not cost teachers (or anyone) to provide the tools to get the job done.

[Dr. Strange]

26. Like hell the administrators can't do anything about it.

They can STFU and pay for the supplies out of THEIR OWN pockets.

[ancianita]

31. My former colleagues use GoFundMe for supplies. It works. It's at least worth a try.

edit: I forgot that I have used a wish list sign up for parents to look over on the first parent-teacher conference night. Got tons of stuff for my classroom which helped the kids whose parents couldn't cover everything.

[ReRe]

17. If the states pass the buck...

... for the school supplies to the teachers, then the state can turn around and give the 1% a nice little tax break! And that's NOT sarcasm.

[Teamster Jeff]

18. Don't worry. These guys will "fix" education in this country

By "fix" I mean they will feed public education to their corporate scumbag vulture pals

[dr.strangelove]

20. Its more and more common to go out of pocket for jobs

Sadly its become very common in the public and provate sector to be expected to pay out of pocket for necessary employment items. You can deduct them when you do your taxes, but it is very common. From Police Officers having to pay for their own body armor, firefighters having to buy their own boots, hell even lawyers and accountants having to buy their own legal pads and pens are not uncommon anymore (the lawyers and accountants where I work have to buy their own pads because the office is only paperless now). I understand why making teachers do this especially annoys us all, but its become common in many jobs. The CEO's cut costs and their employees have to make up the shortfall.

My office mates and I chip in to buy tissues and hand sanatizer for everyone to share in teh winter to try to stop us from sharing germs.

[LWolf]

25. I've been buying school supplies out of my own pocket

for 20 years now. So far, this summer's tab, getting ready for school to start next month, is about $300. And the year hasn't started yet.

This is nothing new for teachers.

[Hortensis]

33. Just part of that giant vacuuming of national wealth upward, rain of national expenses downward.

[Ilsa]

40. A friend in the software industry had her remote

(Out of state) office shut down by the company. The dozen or so employees work from home, having to buy their own office supplies, furniture, telephones, etc. The biggest expense put on them is their air conditioning and home electric bills now for the 10 hours a day they are at home vs being in an office. And that ain't cheap in Texas. A nasty big "EF U" from the home office.

[Igel]

21. My first year it went on plastic.

Close to broke by the time the first paycheck came in. It got added to the credit card debt.

Problem is parents, students, and state law.

Parents don't have or don't make available the money for kids. Fine, the single mother with 4 kids making $12k may not have it, but the household making $200k/year with one kid does but since one kid gets free stuff *their* kid needs to get free stuff. Otherwise it's not fair. ("Fair" is a word that everybody relativizes to their own state or that of those they side with.)

Students who don't much like school or see a need for education sometimes act like they're doing you a favor by showing up to class. And they do so unprepared and if you call them out on it, well, gee, if you have to be like that! (Hair flip, eye roll. Mental response: You forgot your royal sceptre and imperial diapers, queen of the drama.)

And in TX at least, if a student doesn't have pencil and paper the teacher has to provide it. There's no corresponding state law saying that the school must provide it or, failing that, the kid can go without.

I'll leave aside teachers who have idiosyncratic needs. I got tired of trying to share lab equipment with my team. So gradually I'm buying my own set of props and tools. I share with those teachers I like and trust.

[Marrah_G]

24. WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

[LibDemAlways]

27. Years ago when i was teaching at a private school,

the principal gave each teacher $20.00 for supplies for the year. After that, we were on our own. In the district where I currently sub, teachers write classroom supply wish lists which are distributed to parents with the expectation that they will ante up. Some do. Most don't.

As far as taking out a loan, I'd tell them to stuff it.

[ClarkeVII]

30. They also offer....

Two types of new teacher loans.

"Two $1,000 non-qualifying personal loans are available to newly-contracted teachers entering their first contract year with the Clark County School District. A new teacher has an opportunity to take advantage of one, or both, of these loans within 30 days of their new orientation date."

all at a LOW rate of 12%

[Starry Messenger]

35. Good thing we're breaking the teacher's unions--those kid haters.

[Initech]

36. This is so wrong on so many levels.

Meanwhile the upper 1% have more money than the entire GDP of Africa and they still want more! Fuck 'em all!

[Liberal_in_LA]

41. wow