It's outrageous that society has left teachers to supply their classrooms out of their own pocket. How did that become normalized?
And I find it appalling that the OP, a former teacher, would describe another teacher asking for donations to supply her classroom as begging.
No wonder there aren't enough teachers, especially good teachers available. They get little to no support even from former teachers seemingly w the attitude that "I've endured the hardship of being a teacher, so that must be and remain the status quo." It displays a COMPLETE LACK of EMPATHY.
Oh, please, the drama!
There are two sides to all stories.
Have you SEEN the RIDICULOUS decorating "needs" of SOME teachers in classrooms these days?
The highest taxes in MOST states are the school taxes! So society has not "left teachers to supply their classrooms out of their OWN pocket"! States have also been splitting higher taxed districts money with lower taxed districts for years, for the poorer school districts where property is less valued, with lower tax revenues.
Some teachers just WANT certain or MORE things that are not justified. OR they don't want to go to the trouble of writing up budget justifications for extras via the funding system most administrators require they do.
If any teacher want sto decorate the living daylights out of their rooms, they can: with their own money! OR if they want to run bazzillions of copies when there is a limit on paper, then they can use their own creativity to get more outside the budgeted allowances all schools have.
There are even teachers online doing decorating competitions to see and show off who can make the "coolest" classroom "decorations". They are far too over the top! They buy comfy soft lounge chairs, couches even, lamps, rugs, throw pillows....it looks like a damn dorm room by the time they are done! They create their OWN home away from home is what they sometimes do.
My sister has been teaching for 35 years, recent, too. She rarely if ever spends a dime on her room, or for supplies she needs, and has been voted teacher of the year TWICE in Colorado during her career. She learned to write justifications, which are needed to get budget approval in her career as a teacher, if she needed any special things and had to justify the lesson for any extras she needed.
Some teachers just have more wants than the budget gives and some teachers can't learn to live on a budget.
If a teacher asks parents to donate for some reason or the other, she will likely find at least a few parents willing to help her out.
Teachers do not need to go begging.
