The ORIGINAL 1000+ Posts Club

[Meryl]

CONGRATS ON ARRIVING AT 4,000 RICH!

[Penthesilea]

Congrats Rich
on 4000 posts!

[MaineWriter]

Morning all,

Congratulations, Rich! 4000, woo-wee!

65 degrees this morning and a nice comfortable start to the day...

L

[Penthesilea]

Can I whine a bit here today?
I just spent 286€, that's 456$, for school books for my two girls .
And normally, it would have even been more; three out of alltogether 21 books I already had from my older daughter. The regular costs for school books this year would have been 341€ = 542$ !!!
And next year, my little Oliver will also be a school kid .

I know I'm spoiled because I grew up and lived for the greatest part of my life in a federal country where all school books are loaned to the kids for free. Now I live only a few kilometers across the border in another federal state, and here the parents have to pay for the books.

Oh, and additionally to the books there are the utensils: in true, typical German small-mindedness, every teacher decides what utensils they want their pupils to use. You can't just buy some notebooks and pens and be done with it. Nooooo, no effin way! Every teacher tells you what size the notebooks have to have and what kind of kind of ruling, and if they want to have a blank border at one side or smaller blank borders at both sides, or no blank border at all, and so on. Even the color of the wrapper for the notebooks is decided by every teacher to their liking.
Arrrrrgh! That's so frustrating (and expensive). I have a list of 32 utensil items only for my younger daughter (for the older one, her teachers will tell us after the summer break, and then you have to get the stuff from one day to the next).

I hate it every year!

Coming back to the (I think) horrendous costs for school books: how is the situation at public schools in the US? Do you have to pay for the books and if so, how much (rule of thumb) do you spend per year per child only on school books?

[Penthesilea]

Oh, and while I'm at it, I can as well vent about the costs for the school bus! The ticket for the school bus is 378€ = 600$ a year for each child from 5th grade on.
(We have an elementary school in walking distance in our village, so no bus tickets for the first four years).

And what gets me the most is the inequitiy about the school bus costs: as many of you know, we have three different types of schools after elementary school, with three different levels of complexity and three different kinds of graduation degrees. When your child goes to the school with the lowest complexitiy level and the lowest possible graduation degree, you don't pay for the school bus at all!

How many children go to the school with the lowest level, only because their parents can't afford the 600 bucks every year? It's just not fair!

[MaineWriter]

Chrissi,

I am chuckling at "utensils." I think we would say "school supplies." Utensils are the things in the kitchen--knives, forks, and spatulas.

In my experience, both as a student and a parent--in the public schools, we don't have to buy textbooks. They are handed out at the beginning of the school year and need to be returned at the end. If a book is lost, I believe you have to pay a fine or replacement fee. Fortunately, we've never lost a book in our household.

Occasionally, a student will need to buy a book--a reading book, for example. But we don't have to pay hundreds of dollars.

College is another story, however. There, students do have to buy their books and they cost a fortune. My son's first semester as a freshman, his books cost $800. For the spring, it was $450. It doesn't matter if you are going to a public or private university--in college, you buy your books. There are ways to try to save money--used books, buying online--but even with savings, it is still a lot.

School supplies: students must have those and similar to you, teachers have very specific requirements. What type of notebook, what type of paper, certain colored pens (blue or black), rulers, crayons, scissors, etc. When they get to geometry, they need a protractor and compass. They big expense for both my children, in 9th grade, was a graphing calculator that cost ~$100.

In college, they don't dictate quite as much about the supplies but some courses do have requirements: ie, a science course with a lab might require a certain type of lab manual for recording results.

L

[MaineWriter]

And the bus...

Again, in my experience, I have never had to pay for school bus transportation. This is part of the package for public schools--at least where I have always lived. One thing to keep in mind is that school districts have individual jurisdiction and what they do out in Wyoming might not be the same as what I know from New York and Maine. I think I did hear once that if a student lives a huge long distance away from the school they might be required to pay some sort of fee, but that is only a guess on my part.

We live in Westbook and my daughter is going to school "out of district" in Portland. As a result, we don't have the school bus available and I have to provide transportation--ie, drive her to school. We understood that when she decided to go to the expeditionary high school in Portland.

One thing more and more public schools are relying on are fundraisers (primarily organized and run by parents) to raise funds for special activities, learning opportunities, and so on. For example, here in Westbrook, the school had a terrific marching band. One year they were invited to march in the Rose Bowl Parade. The "Band Boosters" raised a ton of money to cover all the costs for the band and chaperones to be able to go to California and march in the parade. So, for things like this--the money is not in the budget, but students and parents aren't expected to come up with the money on their own.

L

[Jeff Wrangler]

One thing more and more public schools are relying on are fundraisers (primarily organized and run by parents) to raise funds for special activities, learning opportunities, and so on. For example, here in Westbrook, the school had a terrific marching band. One year they were invited to march in the Rose Bowl Parade. The "Band Boosters" raised a ton of money to cover all the costs for the band and chaperones to be able to go to California and march in the parade. So, for things like this--the money is not in the budget, but students and parents aren't expected to come up with the money on their own.

L

It was like that down here even when I was in school. We had a hoagie sale to raise money for a class trip to Washington, D.C. That was Fifth Grade, spring of 1969. 

[Penthesilea]

Chrissi,

I am chuckling at "utensils." I think we would say "school supplies." Utensils are the things in the kitchen--knives, forks, and spatulas.

My online dictionary says "writing utensils" for the German word "Schreibzeug". 
Thank you anyway, I think school supplies sounds better

In my experience, both as a student and a parent--in the public schools, we don't have to buy textbooks. They are handed out at the beginning of the school year and need to be returned at the end. If a book is lost, I believe you have to pay a fine or replacement fee. Fortunately, we've never lost a book in our household.

*sigh* just how I am used to, like it is in my home federal country.

Occasionally, a student will need to buy a book--a reading book, for example.

Yep, those we have additionally.

 

College is another story, however. There, students do have to buy their books and they cost a fortune. My son's first semester as a freshman, his books cost $800. For the spring, it was $450. It doesn't matter if you are going to a public or private university--in college, you buy your books. There are ways to try to save money--used books, buying online--but even with savings, it is still a lot.

Same here. I tried to buy used books from amazon, but didn't find a seller who sold more than one of the required books (because each school decides what books they want to use and they decide each year anew). I would have had to buy from 18 different sellers and pay shipment costs 18 times. Given that I wouldn't want my kids to use the cheapest possible books in bad conditions, the money I could have saved would not have been worth the hassle and so I bought everything new.

School supplies: students must have those and similar to you, teachers have very specific requirements. What type of notebook, what type of paper, certain colored pens (blue or black), rulers, crayons, scissors, etc. When they get to geometry, they need a protractor and compass. They big expense for both my children, in 9th grade, was a graphing calculator that cost ~$100.

In college, they don't dictate quite as much about the supplies but some courses do have requirements: ie, a science course with a lab might require a certain type of lab manual for recording results.

L

What a relief to hear that teachers on the other side of the pond are just as small-minded regarding the school supplies. I can understand it in parts for the smaller children: it's easier if every child has their reading book in green, and the math book in red with the respective notebooks in the matching color, and so on.
But once the children have been to school for two years, they are old enough to be able to find their math book without the teacher telling them for which color they have to look, imo.
And I really don't understand the need to dictate such bagatelles to teenagers (with exeptions, I do understand that they might need a specific kind of calculator for specific things).

[BelAir]

Can I whine a bit here today?
I just spent 286€, that's 456$, for school books for my two girls .
And normally, it would have even been more; three out of alltogether 21 books I already had from my older daughter. The regular costs for school books this year would have been 341€ = 542$ !!!
And next year, my little Oliver will also be a school kid .

I know I'm spoiled because I grew up and lived for the greatest part of my life in a federal country where all school books are loaned to the kids for free. Now I live only a few kilometers across the border in another federal state, and here the parents have to pay for the books.

Oh, and additionally to the books there are the utensils: in true, typical German small-mindedness, every teacher decides what utensils they want their pupils to use. You can't just buy some notebooks and pens and be done with it. Nooooo, no effin way! Every teacher tells you what size the notebooks have to have and what kind of kind of ruling, and if they want to have a blank border at one side or smaller blank borders at both sides, or no blank border at all, and so on. Even the color of the wrapper for the notebooks is decided by every teacher to their liking.
Arrrrrgh! That's so frustrating (and expensive). I have a list of 32 utensil items only for my younger daughter (for the older one, her teachers will tell us after the summer break, and then you have to get the stuff from one day to the next).

I hate it every year!

Coming back to the (I think) horrendous costs for school books: how is the situation at public schools in the US? Do you have to pay for the books and if so, how much (rule of thumb) do you spend per year per child only on school books?

omg Chrissi!!!

How very frustrating... and even, discriminatory on some levels, huh?

I grew up in the southeast US (you live in Germany?) and went to public school.  I took the public school bus most of my life until I could drive.  It was free.  (Must be covered by taxes I guess.)  And like Leslie said, school books were 'loaned' and returned at the end of the year.  The teachers did suggest what sort of notebooks - ruled or not, spiral bound or not, but not the color of the front or anything like that...  I think the teachers were sort of less specific as you advanced along - i.e. I don't remember many specifications from high school. 

As an adult, I have noticed they have 'tax free week' or something in the summer when there is no sales tax on anything that is a 'school supply' item.

Also, like Leslie said, you have to buy your own texts in college/university.  Most big universities have book stores that will buy your books back from you at the end of the semester (albeit for less than you paid), and most also offer used texts.  I read an article recently about how a lot of professors where opting not to require textbooks given how much info is on the web, cost, etc.  I knew a lot of my friends [in college] didn't always buy the texts, figuring/hoping class notes would be enough to get by.  Most of the times there was also a reserve copy at the library...