La Cucaracha by Lalo Alcaraz for August 10, 2009

My school-teacher GF spends many hundreds of dollars on classroom supplies each year, far more than the $400 maximum teachers are allowed to deduct on their tax returns.

And it’s not because her school doesn’t have the money, because she works for a rather wealthy district. I don’t understand the (il)logic of it or why teachers put up with it.

our glorified leaders want americans to be ignorant

So what’re the supplies of supplies?

your everyday teacher’s don’t get paid that much, but the administrators at every level make quite a haul. My cousin taught at a huge magnet school and they had 6 assistants to the principal. They had a little windfall a few years back, the question buy more copiers or golf carts for administrators to traverse the campus. Golf cars won. The biggest problem is where the money goes. And the Unions.There was a great series of articles in the NY Times about teachers who couldn’t teach but who couldn’[t be fired. They had been pulled out of classrooms for inappropriate behaviour but had “tenure” of sorts. In Ca. we can’t even afford textbooks n, it”s that bad now. So supplies come from the 99 cents store more than not.

My mother-in-law taught for a reasonably comfortable area of central CA for years. She had to buy her own supplies because they were too busy paying the middle management to get her pencils and paper. She retired a few years ago when that plus the push to teach to the test AND inculcate manners and creative thinking skills made her realize the joy was gone. My father-in-law made better money as a teacher in the CA prison system, but he was still fighting supply battles while the construction crews continue to rake it in building yet more prisons.

My best friend is a librarian(laid off,unfortunately) she considered a job as a prison Librarian, said the pay was tempting, but relocation was not an option. Pathetic that we pay the ones who do poorly and the ones that don’t like little kings. Read the LA Times last week about the ridiculous retirement packages the City of LA Department Heads and City Council members get an weep, They make more money retired than when they worked and many double dip.