Thursday, July 06, 2006

School supply lists

Members of the Nashville BOE were sent an e-mail this afternoon with this suggestion from a parent:

I am aware of the fact that the State of Tennessee is to have a sales tax holiday aimed at helping parents purchase school supplies for their children. This is to happen the first weekend in August.

http://tennessee.gov/revenue/faqs/salesandusefaq.htm#su1

It would be helpful if each school could make supply lists available prior to that time. The lists could be posted on each school's website. Granted, this information might not be readily available to each family but it would be available to the majority of them.

That's a great idea!

And I'll remind folks of my own plea from two years ago:

To Miss Young and her collegues.

This isn’t a story about us…it’s a recounting of the struggle of two other families and my hope that by my telling it, something better can be done.

"This afternoon two of my daughters and I were in Wal-mart at Rivergate looking for a pencil sharpener. Last week their shelves had been crammed with supplies and the aisles filled with parents jostling with lists in their hands and their faces displaying the earnestness of Christmas Eve shoppers. Everything you could have wanted or needed was there. But by today…read the rest






2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I completely boycott that weekend. It is such an obvious back-to-public-school tax event. Art supplies, paper, books, any athletic equipment, computer supplies, clothing materials are all exempted from the "holiday". Doesn't it make you wonder why art, athletics, home economics and computer science aren't considered part of "school"?

Books and paper are out? I must really be "old-school". I didn't realize they weren't used any longer.

Or could it be that the private schools and home schools could be on an equal footing with the tax-exempt public system when it comes to supplies? We couldn't have that.

I especially enjoy their pointers on textbooks. I think I will print that out and give it a try next time I am buying "instructional materials". I am sure I won't have to pay tax on them...

Anonymous said...

Just as an FYI- we were able to find supply lists for every grade posted on the website of our elementary school (Una). My plan is to purchase all of the items before the tax-free weekend, as I would rather pay the tax than brave the crowds.

The story you posted was great. I've been in that situation as well, and as frustrating as it is for me, I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for them!