Dear Public School,
Could you kindly stop. Please. Enough with the envelopes being sent home asking for money. ‘Cause seriously. It’s enough.
When, in the first week of school, you sent home the letter asking for a voluntarily donation of $20 per student to cover extra materials (like flour and sugar – I still have the list – it says that). I gave.
Then, I ran out to the store to equip my child with the 10 sharpened pencils, glue sticks, child’s scissors and other stuff that was on the class list. These were necessary to my child’s education – I get that. I bought.
The twice a month pizza day – well – that’s easy right. Supply the kids with pizza and juice and fund raise a bit. Kids enjoy. Fine. They ate.
But when the monthly “theme day” – when a donation allowed the privilege of wearing pjs or clothes backwards or all red boomeranged each month…that started bugging me.
Wait – there was the buy a t-shirt for $16 each (had to have), the rubber bracelets for $3 each (lost one the day it was received), the Halloween dance-a-thon, the jump rope morning, the teacher appreciation bake-off (hello, no one is making cupcakes for me!), the school community breakfast…
Today, we have a scholastic order form, a pizza day order form, a field trip form, and auction donation form for the school bar b q (at which we will be asked to bid on the very things we donate).
Please public school. Stop. If I wanted my wallet to be empty because of education – I would put my kids in private school.
Yours truly,
Me
It adds up doesn't it? And it's not like you can take a pass and keep your kid home from the field trip to the farm or have him sit out while his classmates participate in the "Ballroom in the Classroom" program. Damn. They have us by the wallets!
Seriously – yikes! Now I know what I have to look forward to in the fall when my oldest starts school! With all that, private school just might have been the better option!