“It’s newfound business that the retailers didn’t have a year or two ago”

[happy_liberal]

For the retailers, back-to-school season is second only to the holidays, and parents’ longer school-supply lists are a bonus — especially at a time when shoppers are reluctant to spend. While the impact is not enormous, retailers are looking for anything to lift sales.

“It’s newfound business that the retailers didn’t have a year or two ago,” said Steve Mahurin, executive vice president of merchandising for Office Depot

The shift is notable even at stores that sell much more than office supplies.

“When I walk through the back rooms of our stores where the layaway orders are stored, not only are you seeing things you expect to see — computers, apparel,” said Mark Snyder, chief marketing officer of Kmart, “you’re seeing these sort of household supplies that teachers are asking, school systems are asking, kids to now bring.”

For several years, the lists have been getting lengthier, but in many parts of the country, educators and retailers say, the economic downturn has also pushed them into uncharted territory. “It’s definitely spiked this year,” said Bob Thacker, senior vice president of marketing and advertising at OfficeMax

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http://www.cnbc.com/id/38711521


What is really going on at our schools?

Has funding really been cut back, or Are Microsoft and Neil Bush(and other corporate entities) talking too large a percentage of our educational funding? Parents are forced into buying kleenex,soap and ziploc bags but look around and all the administrators have brand new blackberries paid for by the school.

The people who allocate educational funding, what goes to teacher's and janitorial supples and what goes to Microsoft software...are the same people who brought you - The unending illegal WARS, the Bailout, the health care bill, the bankruptcy bill....they work for the Corporations...always.

People need to stop paying for this crap, stop taking this crap! and start asking what is being done with the tax dollars that are supposed to go to schools to be used for teaching and the needs of children. The money is there. It is not getting to the people who need and deserve it.

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. 80% of a school district's budget will be...

...for salaries and benefits, and 80% of that will be for teachers. And those amounts are contractural, not easy to change on the fly. Utilities make up much of the remaining 20%, and those are often contracted out years in advance in an attempt to get budget predictability in volatile markets (bus fuel, and heating oil up here in ME.)

Supplies and such get cut because there's not much else that's flexible.

[happy_liberal]

2. so what has changed?

The utilities went up so now parents foot the bill for basic supplies?

That 80% also includes the salaries of many administrators who sit on ass for a living.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

3. You got that.

Both of my folks used to work for the school system. My mom would complain that her dad has Volunteered to be on the school board when she was young, but when she worked as a cook she saw how much the school administrators made and how little the teachers make.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Transportation

Salaries are #1. Transportation is #2.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. No the money is not there

People need to insist that schools are funded appropriately.