Are Amarillo Schools Taking Advantage Of Parents?

It's officially that time in Amarillo! The kids are all geared up and headed back to school.

You've gotten them back into their school sleep schedules, broke out the lunch boxes, and bought all the supplies.

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One thing about those supplies. You bought them for your kid...and the teachers, didn't you?

Ever wonder why things like Kleenex, dry erase markers, and other random things your kids will never use are on those lists? Yes, it's for the teachers.

Now, hear me out for a second before you pass judgment. I'm all for helping the teachers out, and would never expect them to come out of pocket for most things.

However, shouldn't we be finding ways for the schools to provide some of these items? I know they're on a tight budget as well, but when I look at my kids school supply lists, I think to myself, really?

Without divulging where my kiddos go to school, I wanted to bring up a few things I saw on their school supply lists that had me scratching my head immensely.

First off, one list had the following items:

60 #2 pencils
12 glue sticks
3 boxes of facial tissue
4 dry erase markers

Ok, let's start with the pencils. I know kids have a propensity to lose things, but do we really need THAT many all at once? Let's just say you have 20 kids in your class. I don't know that 1200 pencils need to be floating around the classroom.

12 glue sticks? How many art projects are they going to be doing in fifth grade that require that many glue sticks? I'm not sure a classroom needs 240 glue sticks. My wife teaches preschool and they don't need that many.

The facial tissue and dry erase markers. I can understand why they're needed, but shouldn't the school be providing these sorts of things?

To be fair, my eighth grader had a list that seemed way more in line with the school supply lists I used to get as a kid. It wasn't loaded up with an absorbent amount of items for the classroom or other students. That's the kind of list I come to expect.

Again, I'm all for making sure the teachers aren't coming out of pocket, they shouldn't have to. Anything I NEED for my job is provided, and if it's not, I can typically get it expensed. Teachers should be in the same boat, and the onus shouldn't be put on the parents to provide those types of things.

And now that the kids are back in school, you and your significant other can go grab breakfast somewhere together.