that's what I thought? aren't you already paying for textbooks in your property taxes? When our kids were in school we always bought one or two extra "kits" of school supplies for the class. My children are grown now, but where we live we also work for and support an organization that puts together school supplies, playground equipment and even boarding for high school students who live on remote ranchos and have to travel significant distances to schools. But if LA school systems are in this kind of bind-better just give it over to private interests and watch the turn-around. California is the poster child for help me! help me! on everything. how they have a silicon Valley is beyond me. oh! and they don't deserve those big trees (or as my daughter Kira refers to them "those damned trees!") either!

"I am willing to bet the District Superintendent makes 6 figures."
Yes. Administrators make big bucks. It's all upside-down.

Public education is a joke in America.

Someone should tell that teacher about donorschoose . Com or . Org one of those two. That example is ridiculous and that school must have maddoff as an accountant. The article does make a decent case to support vouchers and school choice.

Glad to hear that China is wasting money on 3 years of preschool. they will get trained drones, just like we get in the US.
Those 3 years should be spent at home with a loving parent (of either gender) teaching them how to live instead of spending them with strangers who can't even hug them for fear of being sued.
The US ejakashun system is a failure and preschool is not a solution.

Woe be to the real teacher who goes an extra mile and achieves exceptional results. Our education system is a jobs program. Get used to it.

But do not throw out the old maps. They are history. As for the common supplies, every semester we kids brought home lists of school supplies: crayons, pencils, paste, about 20 items. Especially in September at the start of the school year, it was a big deal to go shopping for school supplies. I mention it because the lack of these seems to be laid on the classroom, school, and board, when to me, they are the responsibility of the parents.

The photocopying budget is a different issue entirely. Given the opportunity, someone (or many ones) will abuse free copies. But auditable controls are easy: codes, cards, keys, ...

Overall, the larger problem is that any large system must have winners and losers, leaders and laggers. Goto the best school in America and you will find someone doing without something.

Perhaps a structural reform would be for a school to be operated by the parents as a co-operative. They could create a management team to rent space and hire teachers. Parents also could work in the school according to their skills and talents. Buy in and then buy out.