One of the most short-sighted decisions California voters ever made was passing Proposition 13 in 1978, setting a cap of 1% on assessed property tax values. It was good news for property owners but bad news for the public schools, which are largely funded by these taxes. Related Articles Schools in affluent neighborhoods have been able to make up the funding gap because they have well-heeled parent-teacher-associations.
Those in less affluent neighborhoods don’t have that option, though, because the parents don’t have as much cash. Most of them are also working one or more jobs and don’t have the time to spare. So teachers are left on their own, paying for basic items like pencils and paper from their own pockets.
In desperation, many of them have been going online to ask the rest of us to pitch in. One of them is Kelly McBride, a fourth-grade reading teacher at Greenleaf School on Seminary Avenue in East Oakland. (It used to be called Whitter, for you old-timers.
) With Oakland Unified School District classes back in session as of this week, she’s created a webpage on Amazon where people can help her buy basics like sharpies, organizational folders, water bottles and snacks for her students who often don’t get a chance to eat breakfast, and it’s awfully hard to learn when you’re hungry. Among other things, she’d also like magic markers; a strand of cheap colored lights she can put up around the classroom to make it feel calmer and more welcoming; copy paper for a copier she bought with her own money because the school’s copier keeps breaking down; a book that teaches the kids how to cope with bullying; sturdy computer earphones because the ones the school provides inevitably break after a week or two; and boxes of Kleenex because the cheap tissues the school provides are so rough they make the kids’ noses bleed. I’m not knocking the school.
It’s doing the best it can, but the money just isn’t there. If you’d like to donate to her Amazon Teacher List, please visit . This isn’t charity; it’s an investment in the future.
“Every day I am amazed by their thirst for knowledge and their critical thinking skills,” says McBride, who has been teaching for 21 years with no sign of quitting. “They give me hope for our country and our planet.” She’s not alone, and Amazon isn’t the only place where teachers are looking for help.
At Redwood Heights Elementary School (also in Oakland), fourth- and fifth-grade teacher Ms. Matte is using the Donors Choose website to ask for sketchbooks, markers and pens for the 350 students who use the school’s art studio. “Imagination knows no bounds,” she says, “but unfortunately, our supplies do.
” At Oakland’s Bella Vista Elementary School, Ms. Kirkeby wants to give her kindergarteners back-of-chair pockets so they can have convenient storage for their classroom essentials, wall-mounted liquid floor tiles to help them locate their bodies in space and noise-cancelling earmuffs give them control over potentially overstimulating environments like the cafeteria or the auditorium. At Martin Luther King Jr.
Elementary School, Ms.Kai is seeking bandages, ballpoint pens, disinfecting wipes, glue sticks, highlighters, crackers (cheddar) and fruit snacks. At Elmhurst United Middle School, Molly Roa wants to provide each student with his or her own set of ear buds and a bag to keep them in so they can be responsible for their own materials and keep the ear buds safe all year.
Jaqueline Nguyen, a teacher at Roosevelt Middle School, wants to buy cultural flags and hang them around campus. “We currently have college flags, but we are a middle school, so we figured replacing those flags with students’ ethnicities and nationalities would be the best route to take.” Ashleigh Mellard, a teacher at Garfield Elementary School, needs ink cartridges, disinfecting wipes, ballpoint pens, sharpies, bandages, facial tissues, pencils, erasers, freezer bags and multicolor pens (preferably dinosaur, cat paw, rabbit or flamingo shaped).
Michael Roe, a teacher at Skyline High, needs 30 copies of Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” for his advanced placement literature class. “As a Title I school, our resources are limited” he says. “Many of our students come from underprivileged backgrounds, and purchasing books is often a luxury they cannot afford.
This is where your generosity can make a transformative difference. By funding our project, you will provide 30 copies of ‘Anna Karenina’ for our eager learners.” What can you do to help? Visit online, pick a school and contact them to ask what they need.
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