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New York Parents Fuming Over Expensive School Supply Lists
Parents fume over school supply lists that include name-brand household goods
At Public School 107 in Brooklyn, parents of kindergartners are asked to buy specific brands of paper towels like Bounty, as well as Pampers or Tushies baby wipes. Some schools even require parents to provide paper for the photocopier.
BY Ben Chapman , Stephen Rex Brown
James Leather, 11, poses outside Public School 116 in East Midtown with recently purchased school supplies.
The first day of school costs a pretty penny.
Parents around the city are fuming that their school supply inventory includes a lengthy list of notebooks and writing utensils — as well as household goods like Kleenex, baby wipes and even paper for the photocopier.
“There’s a problem when we have to buy disinfecting wipes and paper towels!” said Mona Davids, president of the New York City Parents Union advocacy group. “My list even asks for two reams of copy paper!”
At Public School 107 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, parents of kindergartners are asked to buy specific brands of paper towels like Bounty, as well as Pampers or Tushies baby wipes and unscented hand soap.
The total expense comes to $42.50.
A similar list sent to parents at Middle School 51 in Brooklyn asks that kids show up to school with a whopping 27 different supplies, including two highlighters, four folders, a stapler, hole-punch and 24 ballpoint pens.
Ted Leather (r.) said his 11-year-old son’s school, Public School 116, asked for 10 marble composition notebooks and a 12-pack of Sharpies, among many other items.
The laundry list of items make it clear that school budgets are woefully inadequate, said Davids, whose son, Eric, attends Public School 106 in the Parkchester section of the Bronx.
It makes for a hilarious sight on the first day of class, with many parents lugging back-breaking bags full of school supplies alongside their kids, joked parent Ted Leather, 52.
He said this year his 11-year-old son’s school, Public School 116 in East Midtown, asked for 10 marble composition notebooks and a 12-pack of Sharpies, among many other items.
“Last year, I must have spent $100 just on wipes,” he said. “The reality is if the parents don’t buy the wipes, the cafeteria doesn’t get cleaned.”
But Leather added that he didn’t mind spending money on the supplies, which he assumes also go to students who show up for class empty-handed.
Some city kids are expected to come to school with a whopping 27 different supplies, including two highlighters, four folders, a stapler, hole-punch and 24 ballpoint pens.
“It’s part of your civic duty,” he said. “In a private school, you don’t have to do that. But we don’t live in an ideal world.”
Education Department spokesman Harry Hartfield said each school determines what students need.
“Principals and teachers know what supplies will help their students excel in school from Day 1,” Hartfield said, “and that’s why the Department empowers educators to make these suggestions.”
With Lisa L. Colangelo
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