Mom Questions Other Parents Who Refuse To Spend Money On ‘Whatever’ The Teacher Asks For The Classroom — ‘Do Y’all Hate Your Children?’
Teachers are the last people you should be mad at about this issue.
Krakenimages.com | Shutterstock It's already back-to-school time, and that means many teachers are sending parents long lists of necessary supplies they need to buy for their kids' upcoming school year.
It also means that tons of parents are complaining about being asked to spend their hard-earned money on whatever their kids' teachers request for their classrooms. But one mom has had it with these complaints — as she should since they are directed entirely at the wrong people.
The mom called out parents who are angry about teachers asking for school supplies.
We all know teachers are underpaid, and education in the U.S. is almost universally underfunded. That means that the supplies provided by school districts are frequently entirely inadequate for teachers' and students' needs.
Those supplies — from pencils and paper to educational aids and cleaning supplies to simple stuff like tissues and paper towels — have to come from somewhere, of course.
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That often means teachers must cover these shortfalls themselves, sometimes out of their own wallets, sometimes via grants and fundraisers, sometimes by appealing to parents — and often a combination of all of the above.
A mom named Camila has had it with parents complaining about it.
Camila said that given how hard being a teacher is, parents should be happy to buy whatever they ask for without question.
"My children's teachers could ask me for a 40-ounce and a black and mild for Friday after school, and I would not question those ladies," Camila irreverently said in a video on the subject. "I just wouldn't."
For her, the issue is simple: managing children is a hard enough job, let alone effectively teaching them. "I can sometimes not put up with my two crazy children," she said.
Now multiply that two by at least 10 — or in some underfunded districts, 20 or more. It's not for the faint of heart. And for Camila that adds up to a sort of "quit complaining and pony up" ethos.
"You think that I'm going to send my 4 and 6-year-old out into the world for eight hours a day, five days a week, and not do whatever the person that's going to be responsible for their well-being asks me?" Adding, "Like, do y'all hate your children?
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She's certainly not wrong about how difficult the job is, but there is far more to the issue of teachers asking for school supplies than just convenience. Many parents are unaware of just how much teachers sacrifice out of their own pockets to educate their children.
The tax deduction teachers take for paying for supplies out of pocket is capped at a preposterous $250.
Yes, you read that right, and for all you cranky parents who think teachers are constantly bellyaching about everything for no reason, here are the details on the IRS' website.
The IRS' policy is that teachers can write off up to $250 of costs for "technology, supplies and training" that are "not reimbursed by their employer, a grant or other source." In many teachers' cases, lack of funding and the prohibitively time-consuming nature of grant writing frequently mean reimbursement is not an option.
Imagine how quickly that all adds up. Here's an example: When my best friend, a kindergarten teacher, worked in a staggeringly underfunded inner-city school district, the only supplies she was provided were textbooks, pencils, and paper — to teach kindergarteners who couldn't even read or write yet.
Everything else she needed — art supplies, worksheets, visual learning aids, cleaning products, storybooks, and on and on and on — she had to provide out of pocket. Thankfully, she has wealthy parents who footed the bill — which came in at four figures — because her punishingly low salary certainly didn't allow for such expenditures.
Of course, there are other means, from GoFundMe fundraisers to the aforementioned grants. But those often aren't feasible for myriad reasons, and even when they are, they aren't always enough.
But teachers asking for help footing the bill for other people's kids' education isn't an unreasonable request in the first place. Do you ask a house painter to pay for the paint? A plumber to pay for the pipes? No, they bill you for it on their invoice.
What IS unreasonable — and egregious — is that teachers working in a tax-funded system have to ask for help acquiring basic supplies in the first place, especially in an economy where many parents can't afford to help. But those are all failures of government. You should be yelling at the legislators paid to manage your tax dollars, not teachers.
And you should be voting for legislators who actually care about funding education instead of giving more tax cuts to the rich, banning books from school libraries, and legislating teachers' and students' private lives.
Teachers aren't the problem — they're just trying to manage a broken system as best they can for your kids. The only thing they should ever hear from you is "thank you."
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.